Argument:
The following is a recommendation from the personnel director to the president of Acme Publishing Company.
“Many other companies have recently stated that having their employees take the Easy Read Speed-Reading Course has greatly improved productivity. One graduate of the course was able to read a 500-page report in only two hours; another graduate rose from an assistant manager to vice president of the company in under a year. Obviously, the faster you can read, the more information you can absorb in a single workday. Moreover, Easy Read would cost Acme only $500 per employee — a small price to pay when you consider the benefits. Included in this fee is a three-week seminar in Spruce City and a lifelong subscription to the Easy Read newsletter. Clearly, to improve overall productivity, Acme should require all of our employees to take the Easy Read course.”
Essay:
In the recommendation by the personnel director to the president of Acme publishing company, the director concludes that purchasing the easy reading course would significantly improve the productivity of it’s employees. However the director based his recommendation on the following three arguments, which if disproved, would weaken the validity of the report considerably.
Firstly, is reading a 500 page report in 2 hours a sign of productivity? It can be argued on a similar tone that it is a sign of mindless and lax reading. Maybe the employee skipped multiple parts from the report which would lead to him or her having an incomplete knowledge of the relevant details. As the saying the goes “half knowledge is more harmful than no knowledge”, such an employee can cause more loss to the company than if he hadn’t read the report at all. Maybe the employee is just going through the words of the report without really understanding the information the report sought to present. Such a practice, may lead to completing a report in 2 hours but won’t impart the relevant details to the employee and moreover would be a waste of valuable work-hours for the company.
Secondly, was the easy reading course the primary factor behind the steep rise of the graduate? It maybe the case that the graduate was naturally talented and went through the ranks of the company relying on his impressive performance and business acumen without even taking the course. In this case the easy reading course would have virtually no hand in the progress of the employee. Maybe the employee was related to a high ranking official in the company like a CEO or a director. A shrewd person in this case can also have a meteoric rise in the company by currying favours from his superiors owing to his relationship. If such a case be true, it would also disprove the relationship between the course and the productivity.
Finally, is 500 dollars really a small price to pay for the company? 500 dollars while may seem like a small price individually but will burgeon into a significant amount when taken into account for all the employees in the company. Is the company profitable enough to incur such a cost? Many small and intermediate companies starting out are strapped of cash and as such investing in such a scheme may spell doom for them in case the investment does not produce the desired results.
To conclude, it is possible that in accordance with the recommendations of the director, there may be a significant rise in the productivity of the employees, however the director needs to provide further information on the aforementioned points that is evidence regarding the fact the speed reading does not hinder information retention, evidence that the course is a major factor behind growth of the employees and evidence for the fact that company can incur such a cost. Failure to provide evidence on any of these arguments could render the inconsistent and damage it’s validity considerably.
By the way, welcome to the forum too…