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.
In the above memo, the author argues that people seeking longer and healthier lives should consider moving to small communities. The author bolsters his argument based on the report that the number of sick leaves in a small town Leeville is far higher than the number of sick leaves in the nearby large city Masonton though the proportion of physicians to residents is greater in the large city. However, before evaluating the author’s argument three unstated assumptions need to be answered.
Firstly, the author argues that according to a business report people in a small place took fewer sick leaves than people in a nearby large city without providing any necessitate evidence regarding the authenticity of the business report. There is a possibility that people in that survey are not veracious about their responses. Maybe people in the large city take more sick leaves as an excuse of skipping office than the people in the large city. If the above scenario is true then the author’s argument holds no water. If the author is able to provide more evidence perhaps in the form of a statistical data chart of each of the offices in both small and large cities then it will be possible to evaluate the author’s argument to a certain extent.
Secondly, the author strengthens his argument based on the ratio of the number of physicians to residents without any admissible evidence. Maybe people in the small town prefer to visit physicians in the large town when come to some serious diseases. Furthermore, maybe most of the people in the small town do not visit the physician when they have minor diseases, on the other hand, people in the Large town visit their physician on regular basis for routine checkups. The author does not provide any evidence regarding the residents of both places. In that case, the author’s method of using circumstances from one thing to generalize and predict the others is seriously unwarranted. The author has to provide more concrete evidence perhaps in the form of a systematic research study about the residents of both places to rectify his claim.
Thirdly, the author argues that the average age of Leeville residents is significantly higher than that of Masonton residents without providing the total number of people in both places. An average is a tricky number it depends on the total number of residents. Comparing the lifestyle based on only the average life expectancy is counterfeit to a certain extent. Perhaps the average age of Leeville town is 60 where the total number of peoples are only 10000. On the other hand, the average age of Masonton residents is 50 while the total number of residents is 500000. Then one can not argues that Leeville residents live a healthier lifestyle based on the only average. If the author is able to provide more legitimate evidence perhaps in the form of a frequency distribution of different age groups of both places then it will strengthen the author’s argument otherwise the author’s argument is built unreliably.
In the conclusion, as the author’s argument stands now is seriously unwarranted due to its reliance on several unwarranted assumptions. If the author is able to elucidate the three assumptions above ad offer more evidence (perhaps in a form of a systematic research study) then it will be possible to evaluate the viability of the proposed recommendation that switching living patterns from a hectic place to a relaxed place, people can live longer and healthier lives.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 8 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 582 350
No. of Characters: 2856 1500
No. of Different Words: 212 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.912 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.907 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.632 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 220 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 151 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 116 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 65 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.304 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.067 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.522 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.372 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.547 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.137 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 451, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...fice than the people in the large city. If the above scenario is true then the aut...
^^
Line 7, column 589, Rule ID: DID_BASEFORM[1]
Message: The verb 'can' requires the base form of the verb: 'argue'
Suggestion: argue
...f residents is 500000. Then one can not argues that Leeville residents live a healthie...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, firstly, furthermore, however, if, may, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, third, thirdly, while, as to, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.9520958084 54% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 11.1786427146 36% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 13.0 13.6137724551 95% => OK
Pronoun: 21.0 28.8173652695 73% => OK
Preposition: 90.0 55.5748502994 162% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2921.0 2260.96107784 129% => OK
No of words: 582.0 441.139720559 132% => OK
Chars per words: 5.01890034364 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.91168771031 4.56307096286 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.72476142424 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 215.0 204.123752495 105% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.36941580756 0.468620217663 79% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 940.5 705.55239521 133% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 0.0 4.96107784431 0% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 22.8473053892 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 69.5786943467 57.8364921388 120% => OK
Chars per sentence: 127.0 119.503703932 106% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.3043478261 23.324526521 108% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.0 5.70786347227 105% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 12.0 6.88822355289 174% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.162669839968 0.218282227539 75% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0516351315899 0.0743258471296 69% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0609193176936 0.0701772020484 87% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.103739330992 0.128457276422 81% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.049902344869 0.0628817314937 79% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.9 14.3799401198 104% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 46.1 48.3550499002 95% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.13 12.5979740519 96% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.86 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 110.0 98.500998004 112% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 12.3882235529 105% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.1389221557 108% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.