Request for Review - GRE ARGUMENT

[Danyal Zafar]

Please be kind enough to give you valuable feedback on my attempt.

 

Argument - 1

The following appeared in a memo from the vice president of a company that builds shopping malls around the country.

"The surface of a section of Route 101, paved just two years ago by Good Intentions Roadways, is now badly cracked with a number of dangerous

potholes. In another part of the state, a section of Route 40, paved by Appian Roadways more than four years ago, is still in good condition. In a

demonstration of their continuing commitment to quality, Appian Roadways recently purchased state-of-the-art paving machinery and hired a new

quality-control manager. Therefore, I recommend hiring Appian Roadways to construct the access roads for all our new shopping malls. I predict that

our Appian access roads will not have to be repaired for at least four years."

 

Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the

predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.

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The argument presented by the vice president has a number of logical flaws. These flaws give birth to numerous questions that have to be answered in

order to decide whether the recommendation will have the predicted result or not. A major flaw in the vice president's reasoning that raises

questions is the flawed comparison between Good Intentions Roadways and Appian Roadways.

 

To begin, the first question that needs to be answered is whether the traffic on Route 101 is similar to Route 40 or not. If, for instance, Route

101 caters to heavy traffic whilst only light traffic is allowed on Route 40, the presence of potholes on Route 101 can be explained. Therefore, it

is not necessary that the deterioration of Route 101 is because of poor quality. The superior quality of Appian's work can only be accepted if the

routes cater to the same traffic. Even then other circumstances on the two routes may also explain the difference in their conditions.

 

The fact that the two routes are present in different parts of the state begs the question: are the weather conditions similar or different on the

two routes? If, for example, the region where Route 101 runs through experiences torrential rainfall whilst the area where Route 40 passes from has

a mild climate, the differences in the road conditions can be attributed to weather as well. This means that it is not necessary that the condition

of Route 40 is better because of higher quality work by Appian Roadways. The better road condition can be attributed to favourable weather

conditions. Therefore, it is imperative that the above question is answered as it can render the basis of the recommendation illogical.

 

In addition to the differences (or similarities) in weather conditions, it is also important to ask if there are any other alternative companies

available than Good Intentions and Appian Roadways. The above argument assumes that there are only two companies available in the market. However,

it is important to see if other companies can be approached or not and how Appian Roadways fares against them. It can be possible that Appian

performs poorly in comparison to other competitors.

 

Another interesting question that needs to be answered is about the credentials of the new quality control manager of Appian Roadways. The argument

assumes that the new manager will perform better than the previous manager and therefore improve the quality of work. It could very well be the case

that the new manager was hired on the basis of nepotism and not on the basis of performance. As a result, the quality of the work deliviered could

deteriorate. Therefore, it weakens the preditiction that the roads will not have to be repaired for four years, thus, weakening the recommendation.

 

The answers to the questions above would provide a better picture of the comparision between Appian Roadways and its competitiors. For the

recommendation to be valid, it is important that Appian and its competitors deliver in similar conditions.