Assignment 09: Roaches!
In the speech titled “Roaches” the speaker, Dale, does provide a formal inductive argument. He does this by using basic algebra and percentages to come to a conclusion on the number of German cockroaches compared to regular cockroaches that are invading his home. Dale’s sample size is just ten out of thousands of cockroaches. So, his conclusion isn’t based logically off of his sample size. What leads him to his conclusion is his sample sizes mixed with the information he received about the number of cockroaches in the county. But his sample size is not the only information that could logically be used to determine accuracy in the number of German cockroaches he has infesting his home. In my opinion, the generalizations that Dale makes are accurate when you consider all the
information that he had received. In Pasco County, the department of Agriculture had stated that
70% of all the cockroaches in the county were German cockroaches. That added to his own test and sample sizes which showed seven out ten were German. Both numbers matched 70% so therefore, I believe he was accurate to make that generalization.
Dale could have gone with a larger sample size and if he had it may have led to a different number. However, I do believe that his methods and the information he was using was accurate. If Dale had increased the sample size, he might have found that there were more or less
German cockroaches, so it didn’t fit with the information that he had received from the Department of Agriculture. But overall, from his own tests along with the information he received from Pasco County, I believe there was enough information to conclude that his statements were accurate.
