Self-study
Office manager: Support Every vacation an office worker takes significantly reduces the psychological exhaustion experienced on the job. ██████████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████████ ██████████ ██ ████ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █ █████ ██████ ███████ ██████ ██████ █████ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ █████ █████████ ██████ ██████████ ███ █████ ██████ ████ ████ ███ ██ ███ ████ ██████████
Summarize Argument
The manager concludes that workers should take several short vacations throughout the year instead of one or two long ones to reduce psychological exhaustion as much as possible. She supports this by saying that each vacation a worker takes significantly reduces the psychological exhaustion experienced on the job.
Identify and Describe Flaw
Just because each vacation "significantly reduces" exhaustion doesn't mean they’re equally effective. If long vacations reduce exhaustion more than short ones, then one or two long vacations might actually be more effective than several short ones. In that case, the manager can't conclude that workers should take several short vacations to reduce exhaustion as much as possible.
9.
The office manager's argument is ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████
a
It takes for ███████ ████ ████ █████ ████████ █████ ██ ██ ██████ ██████ ██████ █ ████ ███████ ███ █████████████ ██████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ██ █████ ███████
Even if the manager did assume this, it wouldn’t affect her conclusion. Instead, her argument is vulnerable to criticism because she assumes that short vacations are equally as effective as long vacations at reducing exhaustion.
b
It overlooks the ███████████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ ██████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████████ ██████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ███ ██ █████████ ██ ██████ ██████████
The manager never assumes that vacations are the only methods that effectively reduce workers’ exhaustion. She just argues that workers should take several short vacations instead of one or two long ones to reduce exhaustion as much as possible.
c
It overlooks the ███████████ ████ ██████████ ██████ ███████ ███ ██████ █████████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ██████ █████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████████ ██████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████
Even if vacations reduce exhaustion differently for each worker, it doesn’t change the manager’s argument that several short vacations are better than one or two long ones for reducing exhaustion. It doesn't matter if some workers experience more or less reduction.
d
It fails to ████████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █ ████ ███ ████ █ ████ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █████████████ ██████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ █████ ██████ ███ █████
The manager focuses on how vacation time is divided, not the total amount. More vacation time probably is better, but this doesn’t impact the argument that workers— regardless of their total vacation time— should take several short vacations instead of one or two long ones.
e
It fails to ████████ ████ █ ████ ████████ ███ ██████ ███ █████████████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ████ ████ █ █████ ████████ █████
The manager fails to consider that long vacations might reduce exhaustion much more than short ones. If this is the case, then one or two long vacations might actually reduce exhaustion more than several short ones.