There is now evidence that the relaxed pace of life in small towns promotes better health and greater longevity than does the hectic pace of life in big cities. Businesses in the small town of Leeville report fewer days of sick leave taken by individual workers than do businesses in the nearby large city of Masonton. Furthermore, Leeville has only one physician for its one thousand residents, but in Masonton the proportion of physicians to residents is five times as high. Finally, the average age of Leeville residents is significantly higher than that of Masonton residents. These findings suggest that people seeking longer and healthier lives should consider moving to small communities.
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 of the given argument infers that people seeking to live longer and healthier lives should consider moving to small communities. The author reasons from evidence indicating that the relaxed pace of small towns engenders more health benefits than does the hectic pace of life in big cities. The author states that the businesses in the small town of Leeville report fewer days of sick leave taken. The author also claims that Leeville has only one physician for its one thousand residents, but in Masontown, the proportion of physicians to residents is five times higher. Furthermore, the average age of Leeville residents is significantly higher than that of Masontown residents. Because of the evidence mentioned above the author suggests people seeking longer and healthier lives should consider moving to small communities. At first glance the argument above may appear well reasoned, however upon closer examination, the argument is hampered by several unsubstantiated assumptions that dramatically weaken the persuasiveness of the author's concludes.
The first flaw found in the given argument is that author makes the erroneous assumption that the pace of life in one’s location influences one’s health and longevity. While it may be true, that pace of life in one town may have some effect on the health and longevity of its citizens it is unreasonable to assume the small-town life offers any better advantages than living in the big city. For example, one’s diet can have a dramatic effect on one’s health and by extension their longevity, maybe the average diet of a citizen from Leeville consists primarily of highly processed foods and sugary confections. Or consider, the effect of regular exercise has on one’s health. Perhaps, the citizens of Leeville live a sedentary lifestyle, this in combination with an extremely unhealthy diet may promote the antithesis of a healthy and longer life. So, without considering the daily eating and exercise habits of its citizens the author cannot reasonably suggest that small-town life is better than big city life.
Another issue found in the given argument is that the author makes the fallacious assumption that the number of sick days people use is a reliable indicator of their health. Perhaps, the ethos of a small town conveys the notion that sick days must never be used unless it is a serious emergency therefore, even if citizens are presenting symptoms of some illness, their culture believes in persevering through the malady. So, it may be that the citizens of Leeville get sick just as much as people in the big city but simply refuse to call in sick due to their beliefs and work ethics. Moreover, it is possible that the businesses of Leeville do not offer many hours of sick time for their employees, consequently, the employees must be prudent with the few hours they are given. Therefore, without determining the reasons why the employees of Leeville take fewer sick days, the author’s position is severely undermined for the reasons mentioned above.
A further error found in the given argument is that the author makes the assumption that the number of physicians in each area is correlated with the health of their citizens. The author appears to imply that despite having only one physician for Leeville’s one thousand residents this attests to the benefits of small-town life. However, the number of physicians in each area is irrelevant if there are no patients. In other words, citizens of Leeville may be experiencing symptoms but may never receive treatment, meaning small-town life may not be any better than big city life. The author attempts to use this piece of evidence to support the benefits of small-town life but fails to prove exactly what the benefit of having a lower physician to patient ratio is.
In sum, the inference the author makes is fallacious for the reasons laid out above. To bolster the argument, the author might benefit from an in-depth study using more observable and measurable behaviors to determine what factors promote a healthier life. Additionally, it might be helpful to implement a survey asking Leeville residents why they do not use their sick time. Finally, the author would do well to find out whether the last premise helps to support their conclusion.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 5.0 out of 6
Category: Very Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 10 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 7 2
No. of Sentences: 27 15
No. of Words: 704 350
No. of Characters: 3525 1500
No. of Different Words: 286 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.151 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.007 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.629 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 265 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 194 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 144 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 88 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 26.074 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.659 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.593 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.328 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.465 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.094 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 302, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
... the hectic pace of life in big cities. The author states that the businesses in th...
^^^
Line 1, column 409, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
... report fewer days of sick leave taken. The author also claims that Leeville has on...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, consequently, finally, first, furthermore, however, if, may, moreover, so, therefore, well, while, for example, in other words
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.6327345309 132% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 17.0 12.9520958084 131% => OK
Conjunction : 15.0 11.1786427146 134% => OK
Relative clauses : 18.0 13.6137724551 132% => OK
Pronoun: 40.0 28.8173652695 139% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 95.0 55.5748502994 171% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3609.0 2260.96107784 160% => OK
No of words: 704.0 441.139720559 160% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.12642045455 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.1510191538 4.56307096286 113% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.71449978591 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 299.0 204.123752495 146% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.424715909091 0.468620217663 91% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1134.9 705.55239521 161% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 20.0 8.76447105788 228% => Less articles wanted as sentence beginning.
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 27.0 19.7664670659 137% => OK
Sentence length: 26.0 22.8473053892 114% => OK
Sentence length SD: 44.6962619232 57.8364921388 77% => OK
Chars per sentence: 133.666666667 119.503703932 112% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.0740740741 23.324526521 112% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.07407407407 5.70786347227 89% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 12.0 6.88822355289 174% => 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: 0.344909143467 0.218282227539 158% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.103773819106 0.0743258471296 140% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.116148363055 0.0701772020484 166% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.194617134418 0.128457276422 152% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0883511260943 0.0628817314937 141% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.8 14.3799401198 110% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 45.09 48.3550499002 93% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 12.197005988 110% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.77 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.58 8.32208582834 103% => OK
difficult_words: 163.0 98.500998004 165% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 12.3882235529 85% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.1389221557 111% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
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.