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.
Answer- In the above letter, the author argues about the after-effect of downsizing in Elthyria. The author states that the editor’s claim about after effect of downsizing is significantly weakened by the report, which suggests that far more jobs have been created than have been eliminated and most of them are full-time jobs with a better average salary. However, before evaluating the author’s argument three unstated arguments need to be answered.
Firstly, the author draws his conclusion based on a recent report about the proliferation of new jobs since 1999, though the author does not provide any veritable evidence about the authenticity of the report. The author does not provide any justifiable evidence regarding his conclusion, which was based on the recent report. There is a possibility that the report was based on very skimpy sample size. Maybe 1000 people responded to the report. Then, the author’s conclusion based upon a report, which was built on very small sample size is seriously weakened. If the author is able to provide some admissible evidence, perhaps in the form of a statistical data chart of each year’s job market, then, a reader may be little idea about the authenticity of the author’s conclusion.
Secondly, the author states that since the unemployment rate is the lowest level in decades, people should not have any problem getting new jobs. The author does not provide any evidence about the future condition of the job market. There is a possibility that in the recent future the job market may crash and the unemployment rate will rise significantly. Then, the ramification of downsizing will be severely pernicious for the employees, who lost their job. Even if this is not the case, in the recent future competition for the job will be increased significantly. Too many job seekers may enhance the unemployment rate in the future. If, any one of the above scenarios is true then, the author’s argument is built unreliably. The author does not provide any evidence regarding the job market condition in the recent future. If the author is able to provide perhaps in the form of statistical data about the future conditions of the job market then, a reader can understand the author’s argument.
Thirdly, the author argues that the newly created job is more lucrative than the previous one. Furthermore, the author states that most of the new jobs are full-time and they pay more average salaries than before, but the author does not provide any information regarding the types of requirements of the new jobs. Perhaps the new jobs are not similar to the previous ones. There is a case that, job opportunities in the IT industries are significantly lower following the recent downfall of the share market. Then, an employee, who was affected by the downsizing, may faces predicaments to find a new suitable job. The author does not provide any necessitate data regarding the job market. In addition to providing information about the salaries of new jobs, if, the author includes some pursuable information regarding the types of new jobs and requirements of the new jobs, then, the author’s argument may have been strengthened.
In the conclusion, the author’s argument stands now is seriously flawed due to its reliance on several unstated assumptions. If the author can answer the three unstated assumptions above and offer some pursuable evidence (perhaps in the form of a systematic research study) then, it will be possible to evaluate the viability of the proposed recommendation that after downsizing, employees will not find any difficulty finding new jobs.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 5 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 7 2
No. of Sentences: 27 15
No. of Words: 592 350
No. of Characters: 2951 1500
No. of Different Words: 207 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.933 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.985 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.758 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 215 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 146 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 119 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 75 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.926 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.736 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.704 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.384 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.543 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.161 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 7, column 418, Rule ID: DT_PRP[1]
Message: Possible typo. Did you mean 'the' or 'IT'?
Suggestion: the; IT
...re is a case that, job opportunities in the IT industries are significantly lower foll...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 934, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...’s argument may have been strengthened. In the conclusion, the author’s argument...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, firstly, furthermore, however, if, may, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, third, thirdly, in addition
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 29.0 19.6327345309 148% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 11.1786427146 54% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 18.0 28.8173652695 62% => OK
Preposition: 75.0 55.5748502994 135% => OK
Nominalization: 26.0 16.3942115768 159% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3052.0 2260.96107784 135% => OK
No of words: 592.0 441.139720559 134% => OK
Chars per words: 5.15540540541 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.93265142912 4.56307096286 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.86454414 2.78398813304 103% => OK
Unique words: 224.0 204.123752495 110% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.378378378378 0.468620217663 81% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 963.0 705.55239521 136% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 4.96107784431 20% => OK
Article: 19.0 8.76447105788 217% => Less articles wanted as sentence beginning.
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 27.0 19.7664670659 137% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 66.5085367418 57.8364921388 115% => OK
Chars per sentence: 113.037037037 119.503703932 95% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.9259259259 23.324526521 94% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.37037037037 5.70786347227 77% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 12.0 6.88822355289 174% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.67664670659 192% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.112166293185 0.218282227539 51% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.043248671711 0.0743258471296 58% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0411093939579 0.0701772020484 59% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0729360784348 0.128457276422 57% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0452028204082 0.0628817314937 72% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.8 14.3799401198 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.65 12.5979740519 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.72 8.32208582834 93% => OK
difficult_words: 114.0 98.500998004 116% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 15.0 11.9071856287 126% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.