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schools might even use the interview as a public relations tool, helping to promote their schools so that in the event a candidate is accepted, the candidate would be more likely to accept the school’s offer. In choice B, we don’t know for sure whether the interview is the most important element in the admissions process.

With reference to choice E, there is no need for interviews to be held at similar times and places in order for them to be effective. Different interview venues do not necessarily imply inconsistency with respect to interview procedures or outcomes.

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Problem 30: Yuppie Café

Proposed Solution in Outline Form

The argument concludes that you can use the Internet to advertise and make your business more profitable. The author uses as evidence the fact that Yuppie Café advertised on the Internet and its business increased by 15% over last year’s total. I do not find this argument to be well reasoned, as it rests on several debatable assumptions.

Attacking the assumptions

• First, the argument assumes that a 15% increase in business is the same as a 15% increase in revenue or profit. The term “business increase” must be clarified in order to enable a proper comparison.

• Second, the argument assumes a cause-and-effect relationship between advertising on the Internet and the increase in business.

• Third, the argument assumes that Yuppie Café is representative of all other businesses — e.g., your own business.

• Fourth, the argument assumes that companies have access to the Internet in order to place company advertisements, and that they employ personnel capable of administering the system. The argument also assumes that a company has the money to spend on Internet advertising. These considerations create implementation assumptions. Finally, the argument likely assumes that the costs of Internet advertising do not outweigh the revenues to be received.

Attacking the evidence

• Within any given industry, achieving a business increase is easier for a younger business than for an older, more mature business. A typical business’s natural growth cycle is characterized by an upward growth curve which flattens as the business matures. A younger business is more likely to have significant year-to-year growth. An increase in business will result in a higher percentage increase given that the increase is compared to a relatively smaller base.

Conclusion

• In conclusion, to strengthen this argument, we need more information to substantiate the cause-and-effect, representative sample, comparison and analogy assumptions, and implementation assumptions mentioned above.

• We could also strengthen the argument by softening the absolute wording as used in the original argument. The original sentence states, “Their success shows you how you too can use the Internet to make your business more profitable.” The wording could instead read, “Their success shows how you too can probably use the Internet to make your business more profitable,” or “Their success shows how a number of companies can use the Internet to make their businesses more profitable.”

• Finally, we need clarification as to what exactly the word “success” means. How is it defined?

Proposed Solution in Essay Form

The argument concludes that you can use the Internet to advertise and to make your business more profitable. The author uses as evidence the fact that Yuppie Café advertised on the Internet and its business increased by 15% over last year’s total. I do not find this argument to be well reasoned, as it rests on several debatable assumptions.

First, the argument assumes that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between advertising on the Internet and an increase in business. It could be that Yuppie Café saw an increase in business for reasons not related to advertising on the Internet. For example, a major competitor of Yuppie Café may have gone out of business, the company may have started serving a higher-quality coffee product, business may have increased because word-of-mouth advertising