The following appeared as part of an Op-Ed piece in a leading national newspaper:
Anyone can see the evidence for himself: as the movies we watch become more violent, the rate of crime that occurs in our cities goes up. The onus is on us, the people, to affect a change in this arena by either implementing an age requirement of 21 years old to view such movies, or abolishing the current oversight committee on violence in movies and creating a new one, since it is apparent that our representatives in government are unconcerned by these alarming developments. Just last month a bill proposing these measures failed to reach the veto-proof two-thirds majority in the legislature. We must act now.
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.
