Prompt: “The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a local newspaper: “‘Too much emphasis is

placed on the development of math skills in high school. Many students who are discouraged by the
difficulty of the content turn away from schoolwork merely because they lack basic math skills. But
practice questions and content review on the Internet provide an important alternative for students at
this crucial stage in their education, an alternative that the school board should not reject merely
because of the expense involved. After all, many studies attest to the value of using Internet-based
math review. Thus, allowing students to practice basic math skills and review relevant math content
on the Internet can only make students more eager to study and learn math. Therefore, the school
board should encourage schools to purchase computers and permit high school students to access
the Internet.’”

While it may be true that the internet based learning could improve students’ math skills, this
author’s argument doesn’t make a cogent case for buying computers and allowing internet access to
high school students. It is easy to understand the importance of computer in school but this
assumption is rife with holes and assumptions, and thus, not strong enough to lead to fund the
computers and internet.

The author makes a bold assumption that students will be willing to put an extra effort of practicing
questions off the internet to improve basic math skills. It does not consider the fact that student are
poor in math because of negligence in class or do not make their upmost priority to improve math
skills.

Likewise, the writer is optimistic that the internet would be used for improving skills and doesn’t
consider the fact that it might be misused as well. Easy access to social networking sites and illegal
website would do no good in improving students’ mathematics perhaps even harm students’
development process.

Last, the author does not consider where the additional fund would be diverted from. The school
budget must be assessed to determine if this increase can be afforded. In a sense, the school must
be willing to draw money away from other key school projects like improving science lab or extra
math classes. The author naively assumes that extra money can simply appear without forethought
on where it will come from.

A modern school with computers and internet would certainly benefit students and well as faculty
members. However the author does not make a compelling case for allocating fund in buying
computers and permitting students to use the internet.