Argument Analysis 9

The nation of Claria covers a vast physical area. But despite wide geographic differences, many citizens are experiencing rising costs of electricity. A recent study of household electric costs in Claria found that families who cooled their houses with fans alone spent more on electricity than did families using air conditioners alone for cooling. However, those households that reported using both fans and air conditioners spent less on electricity than those households that used either fans or air conditioners alone. Thus, the citizens of Claria should follow the study's recommendation and use both air conditioners and fans in order to save money on electricity.

My response:

The author concludes that the citizens of Claria should use both air conditioners and fans to save money on electricity. The author bases his conclusions on a number of assumptions including the differences in electricity costs between households that use fans alone, households that use air conditioners and households that use both fans and air conditioners. However, the argument presented by the author is full of flaws and loopholes which renders the argument weak and unconvincing.

First, the author attempted to establish a correlation between geographic differences and rising costs of electricity. The relationship between the two factors seem spurious as there does not seem to be a logical link between the two factors. Even if there was a logical explanation for the relationship between the two factors, the author failed to explain in detail, which would have provide more credibility to the author's claims.

There are also several weaknesses in the study presented by the author. The author failed to mention where the study was conducted. The author did not mention if studies was all conducted in same area, or in separate areas. If studies was conducted in separate, areas, there might be other reasons why costs of electricity was higher despite different usage of cooling appliances as costs of electricity might be different in certain areas. There could be a number of reasons why prices are different; tariffs, different providers with different prices and so on.

Also, that author omitted the information on how the total electricity costs was spent by the households. Without including that information, the reader cannot conclude that it would be cheaper to use both fan and air conditioners to lower electricity costs. For example,even though the costs for electricity was higher in households that only used fans for cooling, the high costs could be due to other electrical activities. The author should present a total breakdown of how electricity costs was spent in the different households.

In sum, the argument is a result of a number of weak and flawed assumptions. Had the author taken the above factors into consideration, it would have rendered the author's stance irrefutable.