During the past year, workers at Butler Manufacturing reported 30 percent more on-the-job accidents than workers at nearby Panoply Industries, where the work shifts are one hour shorter than ours. A recent government study reports that fatigue and sleep deprivation among workers are significant contributing factors in many on-the-job accidents. If we shorten each of our work shifts by one hour, we can improve Butler Manufacturing's safety record by ensuring that our employees are adequately rested."
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
The argument concludes that Butler Manufacturing Will improve safety by reducing work shifts by one hour. The conclusion is based on the premise that reduction in work time will ensure that workers are adequately rested and would suffer less fatigue; hence it will ensure less accidents and improved safety. The reasoning in the argument isn logically flawed, however, as it relies on a number of assumptions and lack of proper evidence.
First, the author provides data on number of accidents only for the last year. This statement is unsupported without past data of past few years on number of major and minor on job accidents and injuries. It might be that in the past there were very few accidents even with the current shift hours and there might be some another reason for the increase in the accidents for the last year. Also, comparison with nearby Panoply industries is irrelevant unless unless its working conditions and nature of job is specified. It might be that nature of the work at Panoply is less hazardous; therefore there will be less number of accidents at Panoply. In addition, there is no information on number of accidents in panoply. There has to be statistics of two companies to compare the safety performance. Consequently, without this convincing information there is no reason to accept the claim in the argument.
Second, there is clarity on the scope of the government study reports. It might be the case that the area where Butler operates was not included in the study. Besides, the author does not confirm the reliability of the study; what is the accuracy of this study ? . Also the agency which conducted this study is that reliable and effective. There is no significant evidence on above mentioned questions. Therefore, the claim offered by the study report is weak and stretched. Also, argument ignores other possible reasons for sleep deprivation among workers. There might be other personal factors for lack of sleep among workers like watching late night movies, doing household activities etc. In addition, the author provides no information on the role of company in ensuring sleep deprivation; a company can only encourage workers to have proper sleep, it cannot enforce and ensure whether that is happening or not. Also, there is no information or survey to suggest that by reducing 1 hour of work shift workers will have better and complete sleep. Thus, the reasoning offered by citing the example of study is weak and unsupported.
Finally, the argument ignores other possible reasons for decline in safety like lack of proper safety standards, improper implementation of safety standard operating procedures, ineffective safety training, number of people attending safety trainings, medical and health conditions of its workers etc. Without the above mentioned information, it's difficult to accept the claim that one hour of less work would have a huge impact. Also, 30 % increase in the accidents is not a small number and there has to be some other major factor contributing to that. Without such evidences, the reasoning stands weak.
In conclusion, the reasoning in the argument is weak and unsupported due to lack of evidence and data. If the author would have demonstrated the claim with sufficient data and information, the argument would have been strengthened. Without this additional support, however, there is no reason to accept the conclusion in the argumen
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Comments
Hello, You have pointed out
Hello,
You have pointed out only 1 error pertaining to the logic and structure that is related to answering of question. What are other major flaws that warrant this essay a nominal score of 3.
Please be specific if you can.
Thanks
We just give an example in
We just give an example in the argument 2, while you have the same issues in the argument 1:
This statement is unsupported without past data of past few years on number of major and minor on job accidents and injuries. It might be that in the past there were very few accidents even with the current shift hours and there might be some another reason for the increase in the accidents for the last year.
while from here it is correct:
Also, comparison with nearby Panoply industries is irrelevant unless unless its working conditions and nature of job is specified. It might be that nature of the work at Panoply is less hazardous; therefore there will be less number of accidents at Panoply...
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You gave some reasons in the argument 3, but the conclusion is not correct: 'it's difficult to accept the claim that one hour of less work would have a huge impact'. should be like:
Maybe 30 percent more on-the-job accidents are not because of fatigue and sleep deprivation, but something else. reasons here...
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Need to be logically clear when you develop arguments.
Sentence: Without this additional support, however, there is no reason to accept the conclusion in the argumen
Error: argumen Suggestion: No alternate word
flaws:
you should not ask the evidence from the survey or study, like: what is the accuracy of this study ? The correct way is: Yes, it is accurate, but with some conditions.
Let us analyze the structure of the statement and argue accordingly:
condition 1:
During the past year, workers at Butler Manufacturing reported 30 percent more on-the-job accidents than workers at nearby Panoply Industries, where the work shifts are one hour shorter than ours.
condition 1:
A recent government study reports that fatigue and sleep deprivation among workers are significant contributing factors in many on-the-job accidents.
conclusion:
If we shorten each of our work shifts by one hour, we can improve Butler Manufacturing's safety record by ensuring that our employees are adequately rested.
then here goes the argument:
argument 1:
It works in A, doesn't mean it will work in B. (generally speaking)
argument 2:
Maybe 30 percent more on-the-job accidents are not because of fatigue and sleep deprivation, but something else.
argument 3:
Not all workers will put that extra one hour to their sleeping schedule. The workers might spend the extra hour in relaxing or working a part-time job because of the decrease in salary.
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 1 2
No. of Sentences: 27 15
No. of Words: 558 350
No. of Characters: 2798 1500
No. of Different Words: 226 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.86 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.014 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.647 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 209 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 153 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 107 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 74 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.667 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.956 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.741 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.284 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.462 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.078 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5