From a letter to the editor of a city newspaper.“One recent research study has indicated that many adolescents need more sleep that they are getting, and another study has shown that many high school students in our city are actually dissatisfied with the

According to this letter, two groups which includes adolescents and high school students suffer low sleeping extents. The study proposes a solution to solve this problem and provides a conclusion. However, this conclusion cannot be accepted as it relies on a number of premises all of which can be challenged in three ways.

A threshold assumption upon which the letter relies is that the letter refers to a study but does not indicate how many people participated in the study reported. As you know, in research studies the greater number of the people in the sample, the more reliable and valid the findings are. Maybe in this study only ten people participated; hence, the findings of such a study are neither reliable nor valid.

Even assuming that enough people took part in the study, there is still another problem with the sample. In a research study, the findings can be generalized to the target population if the sample used is representative of the concerned population in terms of age, sex, social class, culture and so forth; however, in this argument there is no evidence to show whether the sample used was representative of the target population. It can be concluded that the findings of this study cannot be applied to the members of the population without doubt.

The third problem with the argument is that the letter does not mention the period of time in which the survey is carried out. Maybe this research was done during an economic recession for some months in which even adolescents and school students had to work in the afternoon. Therefore they did not have much time to sleep thereby not satisfying with their academic performance.

In the final analysis, the letter`s conclusion cannot be taken to be correct because, as it was shown in the body paragraphs above, it depends on a number of assumptions each of which is questionable. Despite of the writer`s reasonings, the conclusion can only be accepted if the weaknesses already referred to are all removed.