Essay topic In surveys Mason City residents rank water sports swimming boating and fishing among their favorite recreational activities The Mason River flowing through the city is rarely used for these pursuits however and the city park department devotes

The author of the argument claims that the city government should devote more money to the riverside recreational facilities in order to attract more individuals to perform water sports. The argument, in its current form, is not convincing - the support provided for the conclusion is weak and the argument makes too many unwarranted assumptions.

First, the author mentions the survey results without giving any evidence or additional information about it. The demographic and the number of people surveyed can greatly bias the results which can be the reason why the survey concluded that most people consider water sports one of their favourite recreational activities. Secondly, there is no way of knowing the exact cause why Mason River is not being used for recreational activities. It may have been the case that it was not being used in the first place which is why the city government decided to allocate less part of its budget for the maintenance of the recreational facilities. Also, there is a possibility of another water body near Mason City where the people enjoy these recreational activities.

Last but not the least, since the original cause of rare use of Mason River is unknown, it is wrong to assume that cleaning up the river will attract more people. Surely it will create a healthier environment to carry out these activities but other factors have to be taken into account before coming to this conclusion. Also, there might be no use in devoting more money to these facilities if they already have been set-up in the past.

The argument doesn’t address these issues. If it did and examined why Mason River is not used for recreational activities and whether increasing the budget would actually help, the argument would have been more convincing.