A peer-reviewed assignment for the course about critical thinking in coursera

1. Delivery of individual practice with peer evaluation
Decription of argument:
The reading passage presents argument for the idea of applying the policy on raising tax on
sweentened drinks as a way to reduce obesity in a particular country.
Consistencies/inconsistencies:
The consistencies were apparent through the description of the context. Logically, it was pointed
out from the high rate of sugar to the result of public health problem, which required changes in
eating and physical habits. This was the rationale for the National strategy for obesity and
diabete control, which covered the policy on raising tax on producer and importer of sweentened
drinks.
However, the biases/inconsistencies started right from the begining of the argument. To begin
the story, the author immediately blamed the high rate of sugar as the reason for obesity without
any certain evidence/refences. Actually, this problem could be explained by other reasons like
lack of doing exercise, imbalance diet, food problems, etc. Especially, in the later section, it was
mentioned that there should be changes in both eating habits and physical activities. The former
aspect was too general, which included more than sweentened drinks. The latter aspect was not
developed/supported by any other details, which reduces the reliability of the information. It
should also be emphasized that the focus of the text was taxing drinks. But this idea was not fully
proved to show the effects/statistics of linkage between high tax and low obesity.
Fallacies, false inference, deceptive satistics:
The passage was bias in the way of completely stating the high sweet was the cause of obesity.
It led to the false inference is the way of reducing sweet as the way tonreduce obesity. Also,
another false lay in the way of stating that high tax would result in low obesity
The passgae was lack of real numbers or statistics to show the linkage between the policy on tax
and the result of low obesity rate
Cause of obesity
Actually, causes of obesity were not fully mentioned and developed in the text. At the beginning
of the passage, the author immediately jumped to the conclusion that sweet would be the cause,
which should be resovled. Therefore, it misled readers to focus on sweet only.
Personal conclusion
The text ended with no personal conclusion. In other words, the author did not clearly state
his/her perspetive about the effects of the policy

2. Argumentation
Not a well-argued task.
It raised the problem, but the problem was not analyzed from different perspectives, it was
neither supported by any specific examples to show the linked between the tax and the obesity.
Especially, another explanation to the impersuasiveness should be no rebuttal, which means that
the counter-argument was not mentioned and assessed.
In short, the arguments would be more persuasive and logical if:
- At the beginning, the author discussed differenct causes of obesity.
- There was explanation to the focus on sweented drinks, in other words, why this was regarded
as the most concerning point
- Different measures to control high consumption of sweentened drinks, one of which would be
high tax
- Some statistics about the link between high tax and low usage, leading to low obesity
- Conclusion
By that suggestion, more rationale and logic can be seen from the text, and it can avoid
biase/inconsitencies