The following is taken from an advertisement placed in a weekly business magazine by the Dickens Academy. "We distributed a survey to senior management at International Mega-Publishing, Inc. The result of the survey clearly indicates that many employees w

The author claims that the result of a survey elucidates the well prepared nature of the employees in business knowledge and computer skills, but lack social skills to interact with customers. The author asserts that the lack of such interpersonal skills has been holding the company back and supports this by mentioning how sending newly hired employees to a seminar to improve their interaction with clients has shown positive results to the company sales. Hence he concludes that companies should hire Dikens to improve their sales as it did for Mega-Publishing. The claim is built upon assumptions that are not supported with sound evidence, which makes for a weak and unconvincing argument.

Firstly the author assumes the survey carried out displays the actual competence of the employees, regarding their business knowledge, interpersonal and computer skills. The author fails to take into consideration the possibility of the employees having indicated false information in the survey and if this happens to be true then, the conclusion of the survey would be significantly erroneous and the reason assumed to be responsible for low sales would be unwarranted.

Secondly, the author assumes that it was due to the seminar attended, which aimed at improving the employee social capability that is responsible for the imputed sharp increase in sales. However, the author fails to preclude other possible occurrences that could have led the increase in sales. Perhaps their clients were delighted by the efficiency with which the company took on their tasks, or the cost efficacy or perhaps due to the reduced competition in the business. The increased sales could have nothing to do with the seminar offered by Dickens Academy.

Thirdly, the assumption made by the author indicates that there has been reduction in number of annoyed clientele, is vague. The author did not involve the opinions of the clients, to evince whether they were indeed annoyed with the behavior of the institutions employee. There is no evidence provided to corroborate this assumption. There should be an indication of the customer dissatisfaction before and after the seminar by carrying out a survey subject to the clients.

In conclusion, the author’s argument lack the evidence to support its underlying assumptions, and the argument could be made more convincing by corroborating the reliability of the survey, ruling out other plausible reasons for the increased sales and evidence in form of client’s opinions regarding employee interpersonal skills.