1. (1) It has been widely acknowledged that the quality of undergraduate education in this country is diminishing. (2) An often unrecognized cause of this malady is the exploitative way that universities as employers treat their parttime and temporary faculty members. (3) In many universities there are no formal guidelines for evaluating the work of these instructors. As a result, (4) poor instructors who solicit the favor of the department chairman are often retained over better ones who do not. (5) Another factor is the low pay given to these instructors. (6) In order to survive, many of them must accept heavy teaching loads spread out over three or four institutions. (7) The quality of instruction can only suffer when faculty members stretch themselves so thin. Lastly, because (8) part-time and temporary faculty are rarely members of the faculty senate, (9) they have no voice in university governance. But (10) without a voice, the shoddy conditions under which they work are never brought to light.
2. (1) Doctors who attend elderly people in nursing homes often prescribe tranquilizers to keep these people immobile. (2) This practice is often unwarranted, and (3) it often impairs the health of the patients. (4) These tranquilizers often have damaging side effects in that (5) they accentuate the symptoms of senility, and (6) they increase the likelihood of a dangerous fall because (7) they produce unsteadiness in walking. Furthermore, since (8) these medications produce immobility, (9) they increase the risk of bedsores. (10) Doctors at the Center for Aging and Health say that physicians who care for the elderly are simply prescribing too much medication.
3. (1) All of us have encountered motorists who will go to any length to get a parking spot within 20 feet of the door they expect to enter. (2) This obsession with good parking spots transcends all logic. (3) It might take 5 minutes to secure the ideal spot in a store parking lot, (4) while a more distant spot that is immediately available is only a 40-second walk from the door. (5) Waiting for that ideal spot also results in frenzied nerves and skyrocketing blood pressure. (6) Inevitably the occupant of the desired space will preen her hair before departing, and (7) all the while the cars backed up behind the waiting driver are blaring their horns. (8) Parking a little farther away is usually easier and safer because (9) you can pull out more quickly, and (10) it avoids damage to car doors by adjacent parkers.
The following arguments gradually increase in difficulty. Use the method presented in this section to construct argument patterns. If a statement is redundant or plays no role in the argument, do not include it in the pattern.