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 of the statement above opposes the belief of health experts who think that fewer people nowadays meet the standards of physical fitness because of the spending too much time using computers. The author further mentions that the reason for not meeting the standards of fitness is related to the people’s economy. The author reaches the conclusion by making several unsupported assumptions.
First, the author and the health experts assume that fewer people nowadays meet the standards of fitness than they did twenty years ago. There is no evidence to show that the standards are remained same throughout the 20 years and it is highly possible that the standards have been changed. If this is the case, then it is possible that regarding the past standards the people may meet the standards of fitness even more than they did in the past.
Secondly, even assuming that the fewer people currently meet the standards of fitness, the author cites that both levels of owing computers and meeting fitness standards are highest in some areas, and the author finds this as a discrepancy to what health experts are claiming. The author assumes that the ownership of the computers is the same with using them. It is possible that people just own the computers and are not using them so much in those area. People in that region of Corpora might have numbers of computers for their works or their study and they might use it not too much. At the same time, the other users of computers in the other areas might use computers through hundreds of hours by playing games and that has made them not to meet their fitness standards.
Finally, the author hastily assumes that there is a firm correlation between buying fitness related products and services and meeting the standards of fitness. As the economy is falling in Corpora, the author further concludes that it is because of the financial problems that people cannot afford to buy the fitness products, and they distance from observing the fitness standards. As there is no evidence for the price of the products, it is highly possible that the products are quite inexpensive and still people can afford to buy them but they prefer not to. The declining of buying these stuffs may be simply because they used to be fashionable and now they are not. Furthermore, as people can exercise without the products, the author’s conclusion cannot be reliable. Even if the economy becomes better, there might be no change in the trend. People might get used to not meeting the health standards and economy might do nothing.
In short, as discussed, the author's argument is replete with several unsupported assumptions. With each assumption being potentially unwarranted, the conclusion which is based on such an argument fails to be tenable.
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argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- OK
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 5.0 out of 6
Category: Very Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 470 350
No. of Characters: 2276 1500
No. of Different Words: 192 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.656 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.843 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.407 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 170 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 127 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 76 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 45 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.5 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.135 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.5 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.363 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.561 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.166 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5