Fifteen years ago, Omega University implemented a new procedure that encouraged students to evaluate the teaching effectiveness of all their professors. Since that time, Omega professors have begun to assign higher grades in their classes, and overall stu

The writer of the argument recommends the Omega University to terminate student evaluation of professors in order to assist its graduates to secure better jobs. The author also cites anecdotal evidence regarding the nearby Alpha University to support his or her recommendation. Close scrutiny of the evidences supplied by the author reveals that they lend little creditable support to the recommendation, as discussed below.

Firstly, the argument is based on what might be a false analogy between the two universities, in that the author assumes that all relevant circumstances in the two universities were essentially the same. Absent any evidence that this is the case, the author’s recommendation lacks any merit whatsoever. Perhaps the students of Alpha University were guided effectively by their parents or by their professors through securing a job. Or perhaps more job opportunities were available at the nearby region where the Alpha University was. Unless the author supply evidence substantiating that all conditions were the same in both universities, I cannot accept the recommendation.

Secondly, no information in the argument is presented that whether the students at Alpha University evaluated their professors or not. If so, maybe their evaluation process were more effective than that of Omega University, in which event the student managed to secure better jobs. Or maybe Alpha University utilized another effective measure to aid the students in securing a good job. In short, the recommendation is not acceptable without considering and accounting for this and other plausible scenarios.

Finally, the author hastily asserts that termination of the evaluation process would ensure that the students would be enable the graduates to secure better jobs. Yet no evidence is offered in the argument that termination of the evaluation process by itself would bring the expected results to the desired extent. Maybe the termination would bring opposite results for the graduates of Omega University, in that the professors might assign lower grades in their classes, in which event the students, with lower grade average, would have less chance to secure good jobs. Alternatively, maybe another measure such as supplementary class or internships would be also required to assist the students to obtain superior jobs. Consequently, any of these scenarios would serve to undermine the author’s recommendation.

In sum, the argument is logically flawed, and therefore unpersuasive. To better assess the argument, the author must supply convincing evidence that all parameters involving the universities were essentially the same. The author also must indicate whether the Alpha University was implemented any procedure similar to that of Omega University. Finally, to bolster the recommendation, the editorial’s writer should prove that elimination of the evaluation process would suffice by itself to enable the graduates to secure better jobs.