In a study of the reading habits of Waymarsh citizens conducted by the University of Waymarsh, most respondents said that they preferred literary classics as reading material. However, a second study conducted by the same researchers found that the type o

The author of the statement above seems to found a discrepancy between what the respondents said in the first study about that they prefer to read and the second study which shows that the public library is visited mostly because of reading mystery novels. Base on such a “paradox” between two observations, the author concludes that respondents in the first survey have lied. There are several important evidence is needed before reaching such a conclusion.

First, the author needs to provide evidence showing that the responds in the first survey reflect the general opinion of the society. The respondents might not be proper representatives of the whole society. It is possible that respondents are mostly members of an intellectual enclave who prefer special genre of reading like literary classic. In that case there would be no misrepresentation. Furthermore, the age, the sex, the occupation and many other variables can make it not possible to generalize the first survey's results to the whole society. Therefore the author should provide evidence illustrating that how much the survey can be generalized.

Secondly, the author needs evidence that the frequency of checking out the books in the public libraries of Waymarsh is the benchmark of what all people of Waymarsh prefer to read. Without such an evidence, it is possible that people use other measures in order to read the literary classic. People can buy the books at stores, or buy the electronic books from the internet. They might lend their books to each other and so on. Thus, the only way to find the favorite genre of the people would not be the public libraries. Furthermore, the numbers and the variety of available mystery novels might be much higher than available literary classic books. With the more variety in this sort of books, and limitation of the numbers and variety of the classic literature, it would be normal that why the checkout in this genre is more than the other. Therefore, the author needs evidence that both genres are equally available in that library.

Thirdly, even assuming that the surveys are valid, an evidence is needed to tell that the both surveys completed nearly at the same time. Although the same researchers carried out the surveys, the time between the two surveys might be significantly long. It is possible that people from the first survey had a very different taste in reading books than the people in the second survey as a long time might have passed between the two survey.

In short, as discussed, the author made a conclusion based on an argument lacking vital evidence. The enumerated evidence above makes the argument clearer. The current form of the argument defies any certain conclusion and thus it cannot be tenable.