In surveys Mason City residents rank water sports (swimming, boating and fishing) among their favorite recreational activities. The Mason River flowing through the city is rarely used for these pursuits, however, and the city park department devotes little of its budget to maintaining riverside recreational facilities.

TOEFL, IELTS, Personal Statement and CV Proofreading Services. GRE Writing In surveys Mason City residents rank water sports (swimming, boating and fishing) among their favorite recreational activities. The Mason River flowing through the city is rarely used for these pursuits, however, and the city park department devotes little of its budget to maintaining riverside recreational facilities.

  • howardlei
    University: National University of Singapore
    Nationality: Chinese
    July 24, 2022 at 10:07 am

    In surveys Mason City residents rank water sports (swimming, boating and fishing) among their favorite recreational activities. The Mason River flowing through the city is rarely used for these pursuits, however, and the city park department devotes little of its budget to maintaining riverside recreational facilities. For years there have been complaints from residents about the quality of the river’s water and the river’s smell. In response, the state has recently announced plans to clean up Mason River. Use of the river for water sports is therefore sure to increase. The city government should for that reason devote more money in this year’s budget to riverside recreational facilities.

    Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on the assumptions and what the implications are if the assumptions prove unwarranted.

     

    In the recent announcement given by the states, the government of Mason Ciy argues for devoting more money to improving the recreational facilities since they believe that the cleaning of Mason River helps resolve the problem of rife residents’ complaints regarding the poor quality and odor of Mason River and thus increases the use of water for recreation. While the city government’s line of reasoning may seem robust, close examination reveals several unsubstantiated assumptions. When these assumptions prove wrong, the government’s conclusion may face serious challenges.

    First of all, the author assumes that the Mason River is truly of poor quality and smells. Yet, little is known about the complaints from the residence. It may be the case that the Mason River is not polluted or of bad quality at all, other than the residents themselves being too oversensitive or overreacting. At the same time, the complaints may not be representative of all the residents that enjoy the water facilities of Mason River given that the complaints might just come from the minorities. If it proves that the complaints are just coming from the minorities, or even the case that most of the residents are actually enjoying the Mason River, then the government’s measure of devoting more money becomes meaningless.

    Even if we assume that the Mason River is indeed poor in quality, the author assumes that this situation is attributed exclusively to the scrimp use of government budgets that maintain the riverside recreational facilities. Instead, this may come from the misusage and abuse of water recreational facilities by residents. For example, residents may flout the regulation of keeping good behavior and perform badly, which may cause damage to the environment of the Mason River, such as peeing in the river and throwing trash into the river just for convenience. This could generate a lot of problems for the government and may go beyond the range of control of the government. If this is the case, then the government should intensify control over the Mason River instead of devoting more money to the riverside recreational facilities.

    Furthermore, granting that the poor quality of Mason River simply comes from the limited budget of governments instead of the misbehaviour of residents, there lies another important assumption behind the author’s line of reasoning. That is whether devoting more money can help mitigate the severity of the problem. It may be the case that the Mason River is too large and the quality of the river is heavily related to or even dependent on the quality of the surrounding environment. This assumption is important because the money required to improve the quality of the environment may be too much to do so. For example, negotiating with the surrounding chemical factories to reduce the amount of chemicals discharged to the Mason River. If this is the case, then it proves that the government’s method of devoting more money is inefficient to solve the problem.

    To sum up, although the author presents a seemingly reasonable argument for devoting more money to Mason River facilities, his or her lines of reasoning are built upon a series of uncorroborated assumptions. When those assumptions turn out to be wrong, the author’s argument will no longer hold and one should consider more before investing money on Mason River facilities.

     

    July 25, 2022 at 2:03 am
    • Fix the issues indicated in the screenshot reviews.