The following appeared in a health magazine published in Corpora.
"Medical experts say that only one-quarter of Corpora's citizens meet the current standards for adequate physical fitness, even though twenty years ago, one-half of all of Corpora's citizens met the standards as then defined. But these experts are mistaken when they suggest that spending too much time using computers has caused a decline in fitness. Since overall fitness levels are highest in regions of Corpora where levels of computer ownership are also highest, it is clear that using computers has not made citizens less physically fit. Instead, as shown by this year's unusually low expenditures on fitness-related products and services, the recent decline in the economy is most likely the cause, and fitness levels will improve when the economy does."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
The author would like to argue that the main reason to cause the decline of the fitness level in Corpora is the economic recession instead of the increasing time spent on computers. However, his arguments are based on unwarranted assumptions which require further examination.
First of all, the major evidence that the author leverages is that the computer ownership is also highest in the regions of Corpora, so it makes the time-spending statement invalid. However, the logical flaw within the author’s claim is that the possession rate of computers does not equal to the time consumed on the computers. It is possible that the people in Corpora do have computers but may not use them that often and that’s potentially one of the reasons that the fitness level is still high in Corpora. If that's the case, the theory of time-spending on computers leading to lower fitness level actually holds on the ground and weakens the author’s thesis.
Apart from this, the author also mentions that the people spend less on fitness-related products and services and further elaborates that the economic downturn is the root cause for the drop of the fitness level. Again, what we know is only the fact that the expense of fitness-related activities is getting lower, and there are multiple reasons that may contribute to this result. For example, people are lacking interest in fitness activities while they find spending time on the computer more attractive and engaging, or the fitness-related services are poorly provided. What I would like to emphasize is that alternative reasons may be possible to explain the decline of the expenditure on fitness-related services, so a quick jump to the conclusion of the economic recession without further proof or evidence is problematic.
Last, the most questionable issue from the paragraph is that we actually don’t know whether the fitness level does drop or not in Corpora since only the portion of the population is provided. If the whole population is growing, a lower portion may still indicate that a higher amount of people is above the fitness level requirement. Under this circumstance, the whole argument that the author claims will be thoroughly challenged in that actually no fitness level drop issues at all.
In conclusion, what author contends can be challenged from the wrong assumption of computer ownership, the incorrect causal relation of the economic recession, as well as the insufficient interpretation of the decline of the fitness level in Corpora.
Comments
e-rater score 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: 14 15
No. of Words: 410 350
No. of Characters: 2068 1500
No. of Different Words: 186 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.5 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.044 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.841 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 149 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 126 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 82 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 49 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 29.286 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.035 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.929 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.412 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.647 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.152 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 516, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: that's
...ness level is still high in Corpora. If thats the case, the theory of time-spending o...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, however, if, may, so, still, well, while, apart from, for example, in conclusion, as well as, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 22.0 19.6327345309 112% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 18.0 13.6137724551 132% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 28.8173652695 97% => OK
Preposition: 53.0 55.5748502994 95% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2123.0 2260.96107784 94% => OK
No of words: 409.0 441.139720559 93% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.19070904645 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.49708221141 4.56307096286 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.92221968544 2.78398813304 105% => OK
Unique words: 192.0 204.123752495 94% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.469437652812 0.468620217663 100% => OK
syllable_count: 662.4 705.55239521 94% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 4.96107784431 40% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 14.0 19.7664670659 71% => 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: 29.0 22.8473053892 127% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 40.965889245 57.8364921388 71% => OK
Chars per sentence: 151.642857143 119.503703932 127% => OK
Words per sentence: 29.2142857143 23.324526521 125% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.57142857143 5.70786347227 168% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 8.20758483034 37% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.130666645105 0.218282227539 60% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0532673111047 0.0743258471296 72% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0470188507763 0.0701772020484 67% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0796939626296 0.128457276422 62% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0228414481254 0.0628817314937 36% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.6 14.3799401198 122% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 42.04 48.3550499002 87% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.6 12.197005988 120% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.41 12.5979740519 106% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.7 8.32208582834 105% => OK
difficult_words: 94.0 98.500998004 95% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.6 11.1389221557 122% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.