“Several major newspapers have recently run articles noting an increased interest in pottery. The number of potters in this country has risen by eighteen percent in the past five years, and pottery is particularly gaining popularity on college campuses. I

The argument that all store managers should reallocate shelf space from the painting area for the display of pottery. Stores should display posters showing pottery that is designed to appeal to college-age individuals. These actions will undoubtedly increase our profits dramatically is not logically convincing because it lacks some crucial assumptions.

Firstly, the author addresses that several major newspapers that have recently run articles noting an increased interest in pottery but he has not reasoned it well as he has not mentioned the how recently was the articles published in newspapers. He has not given the exact timeline. Moreover, he has also not mentioned the name of the major newspapers he has used to support his argument.

Secondly, the author uses percentages from past five years to support his argument about increasing popularity on college campuses. But this data is inadequate. In absence of absolute figures, plain percentages can sometimes be quite misleading. He should specify the exact number of potters that have increased with the total number previously existed.

Furthermore, the argument assumes that decrease in sales of painting supplies has taken place due to increasing interest in pottery. But this assumption is seriously flawed as it is based on inadequate data. This decrease in sales of painting supplies may be due to presence of other good paintings in nearby stores or the quality of paintings may have degraded from their previous paintings.

Talking further, the argument assumes that all store managers should reallocate shelf space from painting area for the display of pottery and that stores should display posters showing pottery that is designed to appeal to college-age individuals. But this assumption is projected towards the age group of college-age individuals which cannot be true for other age group people also. The taste of other people may vary from individual to individual.

Finally the argument assumes from past five years that number of potters have increased. But this may not be true for post five years or hence as there may other professions that may come up. The author’s assumptions that undertaking all these actions would increase their profits is thus not completely sound and hence the evidence in support of this conclusion is fallacious.