Analytical Thinking: Midwest Mills has a plant that can mill wheat grain into a cracked wheat cereal and then further mill the cracked wheat into flour. The company can sell all the cracked wheat cereal that it can product at a selling price of $490 per ton. In the past, the company has sold only part of its cracked wheat as cereal and has retained the rest for further milling into flour. The flour has been selling for $700 per ton, but recently the price has become unstable and has dropped to $625 per ton. The cost and revenues associated with a ton of flour follows:
Per Ton of Flour Selling Price $625 Cost of Manufacture: Raw Materials: Enrichment Materials $80 Cracked Wheat 470 Total Raw Materials 550 Direct Labor 20 Manufacturing Overhead 60 630 Manufacturing Profit (loss) Because of the weak price for flour, the sales manager believes that the company should discontinue milling flour and use its entire milling capacity to produce cracked wheat to sell as cereal. The same milling equipment is used for both products. Milling one ton of cracked wheat into one ton of flour requires the same capacity as milling one ton f wheat grain into one of cracked wheat.
Hence, the choice is between one ton of flour and two tons of cracked wheat. Current cost and revenue data on cracked wheat cereal follows: Per Ton of Cracked Wheat $490 Cost of Manufacturing: Wheat Grain $ 390 Manufacturing Profit $ 20 The sales manager argues that because the present $625 per ton price for flour results in a $5 per ton loss, the milling of flour should not be resumed until the price per ton rises above $630. The company assigns manufacturing overhead cost to the two products on the axis of milling hours.
The same amount of time is required to mill either a ton of cracked wheat of a ton of flour. Virtually all manufacturing overhead cost are fixed. Materials and labor cost are variable. The company can sell all of the cracked wheat and flour it can product at the current market prices. 1. Do you agree with the sales manager that the company should discontinue milling flour and use the entire milling capacity to mill cracked wheat if the price of flour remains at $625 per ton? Support your answer with computations and explanations.
Critique Assignment
The article which I will be critiquing on is titled ‘For some, wounds will never heal’ written by Max Venables. It was published in “The Sunday Mail” on 18 March 2007, p. 42. This article is about a former Prisoner of War’s views and his feelings about Australia’s Prime Minister’s agreement with Japan for a closer relationship and co-operation between the two militaries. I will be examining how the author put up his argument, using Aristotle’s rhetoric namely ethos, pathos, logos and fallacies. Ethos can be defined as sets of values held either by an individual or by a community, reflected through language, social attitudes and behavior.
The concept of ethos is divided into ‘two interdependent concepts, Personality and stance’ (Cockcroft & Cockcroft 2005, p. 16). Personality is referred to as the image that was projected through interaction involving spoken or written persuasion. It is also defined as a projection of character traits of the writer matching the reader and the topic (Cockcroft & Cockcroft 2005, p. 28). Max Venables was a prisoner of war in Singapore during the occupation by the Japanese. He had personally gone through the suffering inflicted by the Japanese, hence making his view more credible and valid.
According to Cockcroft and Cockcroft, stance refers to ‘…something inherently interactive, reflecting group values but decidedly subject to the persuader’s own control’ (2005, p. 28). The author’s stance was negative as he did not like the idea of working closely with the Japanese. It can be seen in the quoted sentence in the article ‘…if I close my eyes, I can see, hear and smell a different Japan – a country I still can’t trust’ (Venables 2007, p. 42). It revived negative thoughts and feelings that he had personally experienced during the Japanese Occupation where he was a prisoner of war.
Pathos is defined as emotional appeal where graphical vividness is used to create images in the mind of reader thus arousing ‘strongly positive or negative connotations…’ in the reader (Cockcroft & Cockcroft 2005, p. 62). ‘Although pathos may be used to distract the persuadee from making a rational judgement on a specific issue, it may equally be used to give force and focus to rational argument’ (Cockcroft & Cockcroft 2005, p. 79-80). Emotions on hunger and dying are being provoked in the below few pointers. …Changi PoW Camp took my youth, my dignity and my health’ (Venables 2007, p. 42) ‘We were starved, bashed, and very sick on the working parties at Bukatima, digging foxholes’ (Venables 2007, p. 42) ‘No lunch, so one man decided to eat something, He was spotted by a Japanese soldier and, in a rage, the Japanese emptied everybody’s food onto the road’ (Venables 2007, p. 42) Words such as starved, bashed, no lunch, sick arouses strong emotions and sympathy, hence able to win the readers’ empathy. Emotions on threats to a personal life is being stirred up in the below statements. About August 10, 1945, while carrying the soil past a Japanese soldier, he said to me: “If Singapore is invaded, you will carry the ammunition to the foxhole and we will shoot you…”’ (Venables 2007, p. 42) ‘“We have lost the war but we will come through the back door. ”’ (Venables 2007, p. 42) ‘…if I close my eyes, I can see, hear and smell a different Japan – a country I still can’t trust’ (Venables 2007, p. 42) Statements such as shoot you, come through the back door and a country I still can’t trust were being used hence arousing strong emotions where life is at stake.
Thus it is easier to win the reader’s empathy. Emotions on hurt and grieves is being projected in the statements below. ‘I recently asked to have the Japanese flag taken down from the Grand Hotel in Glenelg. ’ (Venables 2007, p. 42) ‘…was told to purchase any goods, I would have to change my money to yen. It hurt’ (Venables 2007, p. 42) Emotions on Nationalism and patriotism is being stirred up in the below few statements. ‘I am not in favour of our Government giving Australia away to anyone. ’ (Venables 2007, p. 42) ‘John, you can be a friend without giving Australia’s heart away. (Venables 2007, p. 42) ‘I understand that the world has changed, but don’t ask me to forget what happened just 65 years ago. ’ (Venables 2007, p. 42) Statements like giving Australia away, giving Australia’s heart away and forgetting what happen just 65 years ago had been used to arouse strong emotions of national identity and patriotism, hence able to win the readers’ empathy. Logos is defined as ‘the rational appeal’ based on logic (Reinking 1999, p. 157). Reasons have to be substantiated by evidence in order to convince.
As one reasons, reasons and evidence needs to be presented so that readers will be more likely agree, or at least see it as plausible. Evidence can be classified in the following categories: established truths, opinions of authorities, primary source information, statistical findings and personal experience. The strongest arguments usually combine several kinds of evidence. In the article, there are two type of evidence visibility used by the writer, respectively established truth and personal experience. Established truth can be defined as facts that no one can seriously dispute. This week Prime Minister John Howard signed an agreement for regional co-operation and a closer relationship between the Australian and Japanese militaries’ is something that had already been signed, hence making it a undisputable fact (Venables 2007, p. 42). Another fact which cannot be denied was the Japanese Occupation of Singapore which took place historically. The end of the occupation together with world peace happened on 15th August is a historical fact. Personal experience defined as telling stories of others to persuade, often using graphic vividness.
The writer wrote the article based on his own personal experience, telling his story of suffering hence making it a form of evidence. In this article I have found two of models of argument at work. Testimony model of argument referred to the testimony of witnesses or evidence to support the argument. The whole article had been written from the writer’s personal experience of the Japanese Occupation hence the testimony model has been seen at work. Root meaning model of argument can be defined through a question querying on what are the original origins/meaning of the words used in the argument. I am not in favour of our Government giving Australia away to anyone. ’ (Venables 2007, p. 42) This sentence makes me question the underlying meaning of the argument. Was the government really giving Australia away? Or was it just trying to improve inter-country relationship. Deduction can be found in the structure of the article. Deduction starts with a general observation most people accept as true and then show how certain conclusions about a specific thing follow from that observation. Below is the deducted statement from the article. He started off joining the A.
I. F. with war preparation effort, followed by the fighting in Singapore. He went through Japanese occupation with much suffering hence making him feel very bitter about Australia have close links with Japan 65 years later. Categorical syllogisms can be defined as a set of three statements that follow a fixed pattern to ensure sound reasoning. Below is a syllogism that is defined from the article Prisoner Of War had their youth, dignity and health taken away. Max Venable was a Prisoner Of War. Max had his youth, dignity and health taken away.
Fallacies are ‘…lapses in logic that reflect upon one’s ability to think clearly…’, and therefore weakening the argument (Reinking 1999, p. 167). Arguing off the point is defined as sidetracking an issue by introducing irrelevant information. For example, the author mentioned that ‘Japan has been a dynasty for a thousand years. The dynasty can wait another thousand years to take over Australia. ’ (Venables 2007, p. 42) However, the article did not mention Japan being a dynasty, nor did it mention Japan having any plans to take over Australia. Making such a point is irrelevant, and hence this can be categorized as an example of a fallacy.
Argument ad hominem means an argument that attacks one’s individual rather than one’s opinions or qualification. In this statement ‘John, you can be a friend without giving Australia’s heart away’, the author made an unfair statement. He verbally attacked the Prime Minister, claiming he was giving Australia away when it was co-operation with the Japanese (Venables 2007, p. 42). Hence he was found to be attacking the individual instead of the problem. Appeal to the crowd arouses an emotional response from the reader playing on irrational fears and prejudices.
In the following statements, ‘I nearly died. I was 21. ’ and ‘I understand that the world has changed, but don’t ask me to forget what happened just 65 years ago. ’, the author can be found trying to instill fears of death and also stirring up emotions of readers that history is being forgotten in the light of advancement and better relationship with Japan (Venables 2007, p. 42). In Conclusion, the writer’s personality as a Prisoner of War gave him an advantage in rallying support with him as there are many war veteran still around.
This argument has got many pathos points, pulling on the readers’ emotions. But there isn’t much depth in the argument as most of the argument is regarding the writer’s emotions and suffering through the war experience. Considering the Logos pointers, the writer used mostly relational models to bring up emotions of the reader. With a few fallacies found, they had weakened the argument as strong logos pointers were not found. Having considering the evidence presented throughout the body, one can only conclude it is not a strong convincing article.
American History Vs Howard Zinn
Sins deliberate criticism of the foundation of the A Rican Republic effectively revealed the corrupt society Of colonial America in the 1 8th century ; however, Zion’s writing exposed only one side of these historical events in a biased ma inner. He ranted about the significant separation between the rich and the poor class, the lack of patriotism during the Revolutionary War, and the idea that the American Constitution WA s written to solely benefit the wealthy.
Following Britain’s victory over France in the French and Indian War, the British h began o place taxes on the colonists in order to pay for their extensive war debt. HTH s undoubtedly set set fire under the colonists who were now very eager to rebel against the English Wealthy political leaders began to emerge in the colonies and took leadership in direct ins this rebellious energy. Zion claims that these uppercases politicians used the lower class energy for their own benefits creating a substantial economic gap between the two CLC asses.
He supported this claim by stating, “The Regulators saw that a combination of we alt and political rower ruled North Carolina, and denounced those officials ‘whose highest SST day if the promotion of their wealth”‘ (Zion 63). He exclusively gave facts about the riots of the rich versus the poor and made it clear that the wealth of America was using the p or to benefit them. Despite the evident issue between the prosperous and he needy, Zion undermine the big picture throughout his argument.
He left out the fact that it was the wealth hay politicians who left American to independence and set an example for the future politicians o f a counteroffer country. Nevertheless, the colonists, both rich and poor, went to war with the British a ND their victory did not come easy. Only about a third of the colonists actually support deed the war and the other thirds were either against it or didn’t really care. Although most white men ended up serving in the military at some point in the war, most did not reenlist t due to the poor conditions and low pay.
George Washington and other war leaders were des rate for recruits and had to resort to forcing people onto the side of the Revolution. C incontinence even eased a law that required all men between the ages of 1660 to join the militia rye. Zion saw this effort by American leaders as, “what looks like the demagnification of the military forces in modern times shows up as something different: a way of forcing large number RSI of reluctant people to associate themselves with the national cause, and by the end of the process believe in it. Here, in the war for liberty, was conscription, as usual, cognizant of wealth h” (Zion 79).
It;s easy for Zion to say in hindsight that commanding the poor to fight a war t eye didn’t know much about was wrong in many ways; he makes it clear that the American’s vi story was hard fought and if it weren’t for their alliance with France then they most likely woo old have never won the war. But Clan fails to mention that if it weren’t for those wealthy lead errs who made sure a Revolutionary army actually existed, then the Americans would have SE mingle lost war as well. Despite the issues during the war, the Americans came out on top and were now ready to create a constitution that laid out the rights of the American people.