Argument Essay 6:The following appeared in a memo from a vice president of Alta Manufacturing.

"During the past year, Alta Manufacturing had thirty percent more on-the-job accidents than nearby Panoply Industries, where the work shifts are one hour shorter than ours. Experts believe that a significant contributing factor in many accidents is fatigue caused by sleep deprivation among workers. Therefore, to reduce the number of on-the-job accidents at Alta, we recommend shortening each of our three work shifts by one hour. If we do this, our employees will get adequate amounts of sleep."

Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.

 In memo from a vice president of Alta Manufacturing, it appears that the Alta Manufacturing had thirty percent more job accidents than Panoply industries due to the less sleep hours availed by the employees which is as a result of sleep deprivation.

The author’s claim firstly seems to be very convincing but the detailed scrutiny revealed that the claim is not based on reliable reasoning on the basis of following arguments.

First, the author is stating his point of view with reference to one year only. This is not a good prediction of the overall accidents. If the predication was on the basis of couple of years it would have been a good estimate.  There is possibility that it was due to some unusual circumstances during last year, which may include the intake of new employees who do not have enough experience of handling machinery.

Secondly, the author is comparing two of the manufacturing companies without any prior similarities or the basis. He has not mentioned the kind of manufacturing company, which plays essential role in determining the health of the employees and their injuries. There is possibility that Panoly industries are a kind of industry in which employees are less prone to the hazardous work conditions. Contrarily the Alta industries might be some kind of metallurgical industry in which people are highly prone to hazardous work conditions.

Thirdly, further observation shows that he has not mentioned the size of company. There is possibility that Panoly is a small scale industry, where as Alta is a large scale industry. Additionally the argument could be strengthened if he mentions whether each of company follows the international labor laws, or not. Furthermore if a company has well trained labor force, there is less probability to have accidents, alternatively if the labor is not well trained there are high chances of injuries.

Lastly, one more thing the author has taken into consideration is the services of expert, but he fails to mention that whether the expert has properly scrutinized the case or not.

The argument by the author facilitates us up to a considerable extent, however there is enough scholarship required to find why the accidents have been increased in the last year, other than the shortening of the sleep hours.