Argument Essay: The following appeared in a letter to the editor of the Balmer Island Gazette.

 The following appeared in a letter to the editor of the Balmer Island Gazette.

"On Balmer Island, where mopeds serve as a popular form of transportation, the population increases to 100,000 during the summer months. To reduce the number of accidents involving mopeds and pedestrians, the town council of Balmer Island should limit the number of mopeds rented by the island's moped rental companies from 50 per day to 25 per day during the summer season. By limiting the number of rentals, the town council will attain the 50 percent annual reduction in moped accidents that was achieved last year on the neighboring island of Seaville, when Seaville's town council enforced similar limits on moped rentals."

Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.

The argument states that the number of mopeds rented during summer in Balmer Island should be reduced to half the current count to reduce the number of accidents in the Island and achieve a target of 50 percent annual reduction in moped accidents. This conclusion is made by the author by presenting an analogy between the moped accidents in Balmer Island and the same in Seavile Island. However the argument does not provide valid reasons and analogy to bolster it’s points and hence is not completely cogent and convincing to follow the suggestions by the author.

Firstly the two Islands under consideration may vary in multiple aspects like population, land area, kind of people and types of policies followed. Hence comparing the two does not give us valid grounds to support the author’s argument. The number of people in Balmer Island may be more than the number in Seavile and hence the policies followed by the government to check the moped accidents in Balmer island need to be different in their approach. Also, as stated above, the number of people, in Balmer Island, increase to 100,000 during summer months which implies that the new population might not be aware of the policy changes or the speed limits and rental details of the mopeds rented. Nothing similar is mentioned regarding the population increase in the Islands of Seavile, which implies that the population might not even change during the summer months and the present population renting the mopeds are well aware of the policies followed and might also be safe drivers, hence preventing accidents.

Secondly, the author presents statistical data regarding the percent of reduction in the mopeds rented. However the author neglects the fact that the number of mopeds rented in the Balmer Island and the island of Seaville are not the same. Therefore keeping the same percentage change in the new policy suggested by the author, might not help the Balmer island policies in the way as it would for the island of Seaville. This change might also affect the profit of the rental companies and in turn, affect the summer tourism revenue for the government in Balmer Island. The author, should, instead, consider the current mopeds being rented in the Island and then consider the percent deduction as per the rental policies and the profit and revenue kept under consideration. This would solve both purposes, of reducing the accidents as well as maintaining the revenue. The government can also come up with policies benefiting both, the pedestrians as well as the moped drivers. Therefore limiting the rentals as well as applying special policies for pedestrians would be more beneficial and might reduce the accidents by more than 50 percent. Also, the 50 percent reduction in the accident in mopeds was recorded last year in Seaville and there are no records mentioned for accident percentage in the current year. Therefore, there is no affirmation to the policy in the current year and this proves the author’s point to be noncohesive. The author should consider the current statistics for the same for a stronger point.

Therefore, the above points should have been considered by the author to make his argument cohesive and convincing. However, the argument is flawed and could be strengthened if the author considered the correct statistics and other factors mentioned above to bolster his argument. Without this information, the argument remains unsubstantiated and open to debate.

Issue Essay: Only once one has known real sadness can one feel true happiness

Only once one has known real sadness can one feel true happiness


Human beings are driven by emotions and logics. The two major emotions felt by humans are happiness and sadness. Any event or happening that makes us feel disappointed or not good, or drives our actions by sorrow is sadness. Happiness on the other hand is something that we feel when we feel good about something, or when something gives us pleasure, joy, content and satisfaction. However, only once has one known real sadness can one feel true happiness. This statement is not entirely true. Happiness and sadness are like the two sides of the same coin. They are completely opposite yet related to a single base. But how can we define something as true sadness or true happiness? Something that gives me immense happiness today might not incorporate the same intensity of the feeling in the future. Something that makes me truely sad today, might not affect me to the same extent tomorrow.  So bolstering the given topic is not right. 


The definition of true happiness and true sadness is different from person to person. As humans, we are emotionally erratic and tend to change our opinions and get used to our surroundings eventually. Our brain registers to emotions and stimuli in such a way that something which is new and fascinationg to us today might not feel the same few days later. Let us consider the following example of Mahatma Gandhi. He's called the father of the nation and has sacrificed a lot for us. He fought for the freedom of the nation and was assassinated due to his act of non violence and his role in the freedom movement. The day he was assassinated was a shock for the nation. A person then must have felt very sad and dejected due to Gandhi's death and maybe that was true sadness for the citizens of India then. But do the citizens of India feel the exact same emotions today? So how can they also realize the true meaning of the freedom they get today? True happiness to a school kid might be getting the first rank in the exam, even when he has been getting the best scores in every exam and has never failed or come in the second position. He has not experienced the sadness of failing and yet getting the best scores fulfills his target of true happiness. 

Another such example is the example of Steve Jobs from Apple. The person worked hard all his life to create his dream company and needless to say, the day Apple was inaugurated as a brand and as a company, there must be nobody happier than Mr Jobs. However, he faced multiple challenges in the later part of his life and had to give up on the company for his own well being. His decisions weren't derived by the fact of true happiness or true sadness, because if that was the case, Steve Jobs would have stayed in office till the last day of his life. 

Hence, in conclusion I can say that, true sadness and true happiness are distinct and variable. They do not depend on each other. There may be some cases where the two might collide and depend on few factors common to both, but aren't there exceptions to every thing on earth. Therefore, one does not need to experience true sadness to appreciate the value or feel true happiness.