essay - GMAT: Argument 20

The following appeared in an article in a health?and?fitness magazine:

Laboratory studies show that Saluda Natural Spring Water contains several of the minerals necessary for good health and that it is completely free of bacteria. Residents of Saluda, the small town where the water is bottled, are hospitalized less frequently than the national average. Even though Saluda Natural Spring Water may seem expensive, drinking it instead of tap water is a wise investment in good health. h

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

Answer:
The author tries to convince the readers to think that the Saluda Natural Spring Water is good for health and that drinking the water is a wise choice. To support the conclusion, he or she cites scientific data saying the water contains minerals good for health and it is free of bacteria, and statistical data showing that the residents living around the source of the water are less frequently hospitalized, that is, are healthier. While the two data seems reasonable to judge the effectiveness, the respective citations have serious errors.

The first citation is that laboratory studies show the advantages that the water has: containing beneficial minerals and being free of bacteria. Although it seems to give the consumers exquisite benefits, since the data has no relative data by which the readers can valid it, the argument is significantly weak. That is, although the author claims that the water is superior to the others, no data about the other water brands is shown. Therefore, the readers can not make out whether the water is better than the others or not. For instance, if the other famous water brand, X, has the same amount of the beneficial minerals and it is also free of bacteria, the Saluda Natural Spring Water has no advantage over X.

The second citation is that the residents who live around the source of the water are healthier than ones in the other cities. This citation is intended to make the readers believe the superiority that the water has, but, in terms of the lack of information about causal relationship between the data and the water's effectiveness, the citation fails to function. That is, the health of the residents can be considered the result from the other factors such as the style of life or food, not from the water. It is well happened that people in rural areas live longer than people in urban areas because of cleanness of the air and the land. In my country, residents in the capital city Tokyo are less healthy than ones in the southernmost city Okinawa. Therefore, to make the citation meaningful, the author should have shown the direct relationship between the cited data and the water.

In conclusion, although the author tries to show the superiority of Saluda Natural Spring Water, he or she fails is for the reasons that I mentioned above.