Manager: Our new computer network, the purpose of which is to increase productivity, can be installed during the day, which would disrupt our employees’ work, or else at night, which would entail much higher installation charges.
Conclusion
The network should be installed during the day.
Evidence (since)
The network is designed to increase productivity. Installing it during the day disrupts employees’ work, while a nighttime installation would cost significantly more. Saving money is important.
Evaluate
This argument weighs the trade‐offs between a daytime installation (which disrupts work) and a nighttime one (which is more expensive). The manager concludes that because saving money is important, the daytime disruption is acceptable.
To make this conclusion, the argument must assume that the monetary loss due to daytime productivity disruption is lower than the additional cost of a nighttime installation. Essentially, the argument hinges on a cost–benefit comparison: the cost of lost productivity during the day must be less than the premium paid for a nighttime installation.
Goal
We need an answer that supplies the necessary link by quantifying or comparing the expense of the productivity loss during a daytime installation to the higher cost of installing at night. In other words, the assumption must be that the financial loss from daytime disruption is less than the extra installation cost at night.