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Sample Response to GMAT AWA Argument Questions
8.
The following appeared in the editorial section of a corporate
newsletter. “The common notion that workers are generally apathetic
about management issues is false, or at least outdated: a recently
published survey indicates that 79 percent of the nearly 1,200 workers
who responded to survey questionnaires expressed a high level of
interest in the topics of corporate restructuring and redesign of
benefits programs.” Discuss how well reasoned . . . Etc.
In this argument, the arguer claims that workers are becoming more and
more enthusiastic about management issues. To substantiate this
conclusion, the arguer provides the result of a survey, which point out
that more than half of the workers asked were considerably interested in
the topics of certain corp9orate programs, While this argument has
several merits, there are some logical errors that seriously undermine
the reasoning.
In the first place, the procedure of the sampling is unclear. With
different views on management issues, the 1,200 workers should come from
different fields. If they worked in the same department, however, the
results of the survey would be unreliable. In addition, the arguer must
provide a more detailed process of the questionnaire.
In the second place, no evidence is offered to indicate that most of the
other workers take the same level of interest in those programs as the
ones asked, for the reason that the 1,200 workers are not representative
of all of the workers. Hence, the arguer must present much more data
such as the total number of worker.
Last but not least, the arguer makes a hasty generalization about the
types of issues that the workers are interested in. It is entirely
possible, for example, that most of the 1,200 workers were concerned
about only the corporate restructuring and redesign of benefits programs
and still apathetic about other issues. If so n the survey on which the
argument relies would lack credulity and therefore would not lend strong
support to the argument.
In conclusion, the arguer fails to demonstrate that the results of the
survey are reasonable and convincing. To solidify the argument, the
arguer must present more concrete information about the procedure and
many other samples of the survey. Furthermore, the arguer would have to
provide a clearer definition of management issues so that the workers
might have more choices when answering the questions of the survey.
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