Identifying Misleading Information in an Argument

Focusing on argument based on statistics, the stated hypothesis that ‘Black and Hispanic students are underrepresented in top colleges in America’. The hypothesis is supported by the facts that in 2015, Black students presented 6 percent whereas Americans presents 15% and Hispanics presented 13 % whereas Americans present 22% (Ashkenas, Park & Pearce, 2017).  The causes of this gap are race and ethnicity, and despite affirmative actions in addressing these problems, there is persistent underrepresentation.  Black and Hispanics join less selective colleges where they   meet inexperienced teachers, inadequate facilities and less advanced courses. These statistical arguments   make a conclusion that Black and Hispanic students are underrepresented and face racial inequalities in top colleges in United State (Ashkenas, Park & Pearce, 2017).

However, the argument uses deceptive statistics in that when showing the percent of Black students and Americans in freshman enrollment in 2015, the graph does not show the actual figures in 1980. It is important to compare the figures since 1980 to 2015. Other misleading information is shown on the graph that presents Hispanics and Americans. The New York Times fails to present the actual figure in 1980 and this makes it hard to do comparison (Ashkenas, Park & Pearce, 2017).  Graphs may present accurate figures and information on fall enrollment data since 1980, but data should be available to show the wide gap. Generally, the methodology used in presented the data is not correct as it compares the percentages instead of ratios. Though  there is some  mistakes  in emitting some figures,  the argument is persuasive  since  Black, Hispanics  and  other minority students are underrepresented in higher education due to racial  and ethnicity issues, and this meet the hypothesis. It is clear that the gap in higher education is due to multiracial component and the failure of the affirmative action (Ashkenas, Park & Pearce, 2017).

In my current position, statistics offer persuasive arguments when dealing with security hardware such as alarm, security camera system, locks and more. Customer may argue that burglars may not enter in the house but statistics offer argument that the rate of violate crime in urban centers is 80%. Thus, putting a sensor or security device in the compound is a way of promoting self-defense against the threat of violence (Mueller, 2005).In addition; the statistics may be used to show that the burglars break in between 6am and 6 pm and 95% of invasion is through breaking a window or door.  Other important fact about the statistics is that it shows 83% of burglars say that they enter in houses where alarms are not installed (Mueller, 2005).Thus, these persuasive arguments will persuade the client to put an alarm system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference

Ashkenas J.,Park H & Pearce A. (2017). Even With Affirmative Action, Blacks
and Hispanics Are More Underrepresented at Top Colleges Than 35 Years Ago.

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmative-action.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region%C2%AEion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Mueller, J. (2005). The savvy guide to home security. Indianapolis, IN: Indy-Tech Publishing.