72. The following appeared as a letter to the editor of a national newspaper.
"Your recent article on corporate downsizing* in Elthyria maintains that the majority of competent workers who have lost jobs as a result of downsizing face serious economic hardship, often for years, before finding other suitable employment. But this claim is undermined by a recent report on the Elthyrian economy, which found that since 1999 far more jobs have been created than have been eliminated, bringing the unemployment rate in Elthyria to its lowest level in decades. Moreover, two-thirds of these newly created jobs have been in industries that tend to pay above-average wages, and the vast majority of these jobs are full-time."
*Downsizing is the process whereby corporations deliberately make themselves smaller, reducing the number of their employees.
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
A recent article from Elthyria maintains that workers who lost their jobs because of corporate downsizing face serious problems in finding another job. However another article claims that since 1999 far more jobs have been created than have been eliminated and two-thirds of these newly created jobs pay above average wages and a vast majority of these are full time jobs. The author makes an argument that the second article undermines the first. But we cannot conclude that unless we consider the following points.
Firstly, a different set of skills is required for different jobs. There is a possibility that these new jobs require a totally different kind of skill and therefore the people who lost their jobs because of downsizing are not able to make an instant switch to there jobs. And developing a new skill set takes time and effort. This is probably why it takes along time, often years, before people can find other suitable employment.
Another point that the author makes is that the unemployment rate in Elthyria is lowest in decades and two-third of these newly created jobs are in industries that tend to pay above-average wages and thus the competent workers who lost their jobs because of downsizing should not face economic hardships. This reasoning is however flawed as we do not know weather the industries facing downsizing and the one with new jobs are the same. Or how easily a switch between the two can be made.
An example of this is the downsizing faced by the oil and gas industry and the rapid increase in number of jobs in software industry. Although the overall number of jobs in the market increased, the people who lost their jobs because of downsizing faced serious economic hardship as a switch between the two industries is not easy. They require totally different skill sets. A person who has worked as a field engineer for an oil and gas company will have to make tremendous efforts in order to secure job in software industry.
Given all this, it can be concluded that we cannot say for sure that the second article mentioned in the argument undermines the first unless we have more information about the industries facing downsizing and creation of new jobs.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 16 15
No. of Words: 376 350
No. of Characters: 1801 1500
No. of Different Words: 178 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.403 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.79 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.461 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 128 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 96 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 60 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 37 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.5 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.723 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.5 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.345 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.563 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.099 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 153, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: However,
...erious problems in finding another job. However another article claims that since 1999 ...
^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 358, Rule ID: EN_COMPOUNDS
Message: This word is normally spelled as one.
Suggestion: fulltime
... wages and a vast majority of these are full time jobs. The author makes an argument that...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 358, Rule ID: ALONG_TIME[1]
Message: Did you mean 'a long time'?
Suggestion: a long time
...d effort. This is probably why it takes along time, often years, before people can find ot...
^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, firstly, however, if, second, so, therefore, third, thus, kind of
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 19.6327345309 81% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.9520958084 54% => OK
Conjunction : 14.0 11.1786427146 125% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 30.0 28.8173652695 104% => OK
Preposition: 39.0 55.5748502994 70% => OK
Nominalization: 6.0 16.3942115768 37% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1838.0 2260.96107784 81% => OK
No of words: 376.0 441.139720559 85% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.88829787234 5.12650576532 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.40348946061 4.56307096286 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.48776430836 2.78398813304 89% => OK
Unique words: 176.0 204.123752495 86% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.468085106383 0.468620217663 100% => OK
syllable_count: 576.9 705.55239521 82% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 19.7664670659 81% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 75.266920855 57.8364921388 130% => OK
Chars per sentence: 114.875 119.503703932 96% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.5 23.324526521 101% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.8125 5.70786347227 84% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.273013600878 0.218282227539 125% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0903975921988 0.0743258471296 122% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.102741643084 0.0701772020484 146% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.160292411494 0.128457276422 125% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0744077919 0.0628817314937 118% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.4 14.3799401198 93% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 56.59 48.3550499002 117% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.38 12.5979740519 90% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.63 8.32208582834 92% => OK
difficult_words: 68.0 98.500998004 69% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.9071856287 67% => The average readability is low. Need to imporve the language.
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.