The following appeared as part of an article in the education section of a Waymarsh city newspaper:
"Throughout the last two decades, those who earned graduate degrees found it very difficult to get jobs teaching their academic specialties at the college level. Those with graduate degrees from Waymarsh University had an especially hard time finding such jobs. But better times are coming in the next decade for all academic job seekers, including those from Waymarsh. Demographic trends indicate that an increasing number of people will be reaching college age over the next 10 years; consequently, we can expect that the job market will improve dramatically for people seeking college-level teaching positions in their fields."
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.
The argument concludes that people seeking college-level teaching positions will find it easier to get the jobs in the next ten years. To support this conclusion, the author cites the demographic data that indicates the number of people reaching college age will be increasing in the next decade. However, I think this argument is not convincing, as it’s flawed for following reasons:
First of all, the author readily assumes that limited population at college age is the main cause of the difficulty of finding collage level academic jobs. However, it’s well known that the criteria of those academic positions is getting higher and higher with the overall academic improvement. Hence, it’s not surprised that those who have graduate agrees will find it hard to get the jobs because they are competing with those who have master or PHD degrees. Consequently, there’s no warranty that the increasing college-age population will dramatically improve the job market for those who have graduate degree.
Moreover, even if the limited population is the main cause for difficulty of find the college academic jobs, it’s not necessarily indicating that the increasing number of people at college age will help with the situation. More people reaching college age also means that more people is reaching the age to graduate from university. There will be more people who has graduate degree competing with each other on the academic positions. Therefore, the demographic trends cited can not substantiate author’s conclusion.
In summary, this argument is not compelling as it commits fallacy of oversimplification and careless conclusion. To make proper conclusion, the author would have to take other factors into consideration. If the author could illustrate the population at college age is the main cause of difficulty getting academic jobs and eliminate that possibility of the increasing competition with the increased population, this argument will be more reasonable.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- OK, and more, like: people who will be reaching college age over the next 10 years may not like to go college.
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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: 308 350
No. of Characters: 1633 1500
No. of Different Words: 145 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.189 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.302 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.827 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 123 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 99 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 71 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 48 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.874 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.714 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.375 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.569 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.094 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, consequently, first, hence, however, if, moreover, so, therefore, well, i think, in summary, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 11.0 19.6327345309 56% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.9520958084 77% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 11.1786427146 36% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 13.0 13.6137724551 95% => OK
Pronoun: 23.0 28.8173652695 80% => OK
Preposition: 30.0 55.5748502994 54% => More preposition wanted.
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1704.0 2260.96107784 75% => OK
No of words: 308.0 441.139720559 70% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.53246753247 5.12650576532 108% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.18926351222 4.56307096286 92% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.99943071003 2.78398813304 108% => OK
Unique words: 146.0 204.123752495 72% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.474025974026 0.468620217663 101% => OK
syllable_count: 543.6 705.55239521 77% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.8 1.59920159681 113% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 19.7664670659 66% => 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: 54.813616414 57.8364921388 95% => OK
Chars per sentence: 131.076923077 119.503703932 110% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.6923076923 23.324526521 102% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.53846153846 5.70786347227 150% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => 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: 0.144037390919 0.218282227539 66% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0621478607797 0.0743258471296 84% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0486596185983 0.0701772020484 69% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0954707736434 0.128457276422 74% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0531092828761 0.0628817314937 84% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.5 14.3799401198 115% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 31.21 48.3550499002 65% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.6 12.197005988 120% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 15.09 12.5979740519 120% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.26 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 68.0 98.500998004 69% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 15.0 11.9071856287 126% => OK
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.