The following appeared in a letter to the editor of the Parkville Daily newspaper."Throughout the country last year, as more and more children below the age of nine participated in youth-league sports, over 40,000 of these young players suffered injuries.

The writer of the letter to the editor of the Parlville Daily newspaper avers that because disadvantages of participation to sport of children under nine outweigh advantages the town should discontinue organizing sportive competition for this age group. This statement is buttressed by evidence which is connected with the conclusion by several assumptions which should be carefully scrutinized in order to give a comprehensive estimation of the argument's soundness.

The first evidence which is given to us is that more than 40,000 of children under age nine who participate in youth-league sports have injured. Despite the fact that this number seems to be overwhelming, the author uses a nationwide survey which gives an average representation of the situation. The likeliness exists that Parlville’s sport league strictly adhere to norms of safety and protection and thus the number of injures in the town may be smaller than average in the country.

The second evidence which is used is that a recent study of soccer players in several major cities displays that parents and coaches press the children. However, writer tends to extrapolate these results on all population. Probably parents and coaches who live in rural areas or relatively small towns do not press on their children and students. Consequently, the generalization seems to be unwarranted.

The third evidence is that educators asserts that time which is spent on long practice sessions for sport activities could be used for academic activities. At the same time, the writer seems to equal probability with reality. In fact “could be” is not the same as “will be”. In real life there is no guarantee that these children will spend their additional free time on academic activities. The educators’ belief is not supported as it should be.

Finally, the argument claims that drawbacks of taking a part in sportive activities outweigh any merits of it. And thus Parkville's athletic competition should be ceased. Unfortunately, the evidence which the author tries to use to bolster the statement is unwarranted due to the fact that perhaps the results of the studies cannot be applied on Parkville’s situation and educators’ statement does not withhold any critique. Thus the argument and the conclusion is unwarranted.