MST5: Argument Essay TOPIC: The following appeared in a letter to the editorial of a local newspaper in Masontown: If we want to save

money on municipal garbage disposal fees, we need to encourage our residents to recycle more. Law last night, our neighboring town, Hayesworth, passed a law requiring that all households recycle paper and glass, or pay a fine. Since that time, Hayesworth has seen its garbage disposal costs significantly decrease. If we implemented an advertising campaign encouraging our residents to recycle, Masontown would also save money on disposal of its waste. INSTRUCTION: 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.

RESPONSE: The memo states that the city should implement an advertising campaign encouraging residents to recycle in order to the city save money on disposal fees. They concluded this based on the fact that since a law requiring to recycle or pay a fine was implement, the garbage costs have decreased. Even though the results could be reached, this argument has some flaws that impede the conclusion and some questions need to be answered in order to predict the result. It is assumed that people are concerned with the disposal problem and they will follow the suggestions. The memo says that if the person did not recycle he had to pay a fine. If the person only recycled the garbage in order to not pay the fine, the campaign will not has effect. Actually, if the person is not concerned with problem, the campaign will not succed. We need to know how many of the population was concerned with the problem and accepted the law irrespetive the fine. Before proceeds with the campaign, we need to know if people are inclined to help face this problem. Also, there is a flaw in the argument concerning the visibility of the campaign. Since there will be and advertising campaign, the author assumes that people will see the campaign. But it is not stated in which media the campaign will be seen. For example, if the campaign will happen through the internet but the majority of population does not have access to internet or they do not use the internet, the campaign will also not succed. So, it is important to know the way the campaign will be advertised. Based on this argument, we can not conclude that the campaign will have good results. First, we need to know if the population really cares about the waste problem and it is inclined to follow the rules and also we need to know in which media does the campaign will be seen and if the population will has access to this media.