The following is a recommendation from the personnel director to the president of Acme Publishing Company."Many other companies have recently stated that having their employees take the Easy Read Speed-Reading Course has greatly improved productivity. One

The personnel director states that in order to improve productivity for the company, all its employees should be enrolled in the speed-reading course. However, this argument is not completely cogent from a logical standpoint as it fails to address some essential questions that are necessary to effectively evaluate its message.

Firstly, the speaker of the argument states that it is obvious that the faster one reads, the more one absorbs greater amounts of information. How does one know this? This claim is baseless because the author provides no specific evidence or support to buttress this assertion. The speed-reading course can teach its enrollees to read at a quicker pace, but there are no other benefits to the course addressed in the argument. More so, the faster one reads, the more likely one is to accidentally skip or forget a vital piece of information. Ultimately, one who reads at such a quick rate may not have grasped anything due to the rapid pace of reading and less time to actually focus on the words and allow for the information to get absorbed into the mind. For example, say that two employees were to read a ten page document and explain its significance. The employee who read more carefully and at a slightly slower speed may be able to recite the points of the paper better than the employee who perhaps skimmed or read the paper too quickly. This argument could be strengthened if the author would provide a scientific poll or research finding that indicated a positive correlation with the speed of reading and the amount of information that is effectively absorbed.

Secondly, the author mentions that one graduate of the program became promoted from the position of assistant manager to vice president. How do we know that this is due to the reading course? There are usually a multitude of factors required for a job position, especially one that requires a promotion. The candidate for vice president may have been highly qualified in other responsibilities. This does not necessarily dictate that their fast reading skills or lack thereof was the cause for their promotion. It could be merely a coincident that the employee promoted to vice president was a graduate of the program. This argument could be fortified if it specifically stated that the employee got promoted because of his or her superior speed in reading.

Finally, the argument asserts that the $500 fee that is to paid for each employee to enroll in the course is not a huge sum of money when considering the potential benefits. Does the amount of money not depend on the company's current financial status? The author is not considering Acme's profits or revenues when claiming the $500 per employee is not a huge amount of money. Furthermore, there is not indication of the actual number of employees that are working under the publishing company. Therefore, it is possible that the company may not be able to afford, atleast at this time, to send all its employees in the reading course. The author can strengthen the argument by providing a financial statement or the actual percentage of their costs that Acme would be investing for the Easy Read course.

It is evident that the questions of the relationship between reading speed and information absorption, the vice president's basis for earning the promotion, and the financial data for Acme would need to be clearly answered in order for the premise of the argument to have a strong foundation. Without these concepts being addressed, the conclusion is inherently weak and presents an irrational argument.