The following appeared in an editorial in a business magazine.
"Although the sales of Whirlwind video games have declined over the past two years, a recent survey of video-game players suggests that this sales trend is about to be reversed. The survey asked video-game players what features they thought were most important in a video game. According to the survey, players prefer games that provide lifelike graphics, which require the most up-to-date computers. Whirlwind has just introduced several such games with an extensive advertising campaign directed at people ten to twenty-five years old, the age-group most likely to play video games. It follows, then, that the sales of Whirlwind video games are likely to increase dramatically in the next few months."
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 contends that the sales of Whirlwind video games will increase in the near future. The author arrives at this conclusion by stating the results of a survey that show that video gamers prefer lifelike graphics, and Whirlwind video games introduced such games to the market. The argument is based on many unwarranted assumptions that, if proved to be false, can seriously jeopardise it.
Firstly, the author assumes that the subjects questioned in the survey are indicative of all or even the majority of video gamers. It is possible that the subjects of the survey comprise only a smattering of the entire video gamer demographic. Perhaps the subjects come from an especially rich household and can afford up-to-date computers. It is also possible that the majority of video gamers actually prefer a game that is more accessible and can be played on any computer. If this is the case, then the argument put forth by the author does not hold water.
Secondly, the author also assumes that the most important feature of a game is the only feature that pushes gamers to buy the product. Perhaps video gamers also take into consideration other features like multiplayer connectivity, an open-world experience, and/or price. It might be the case that video gamers consider lifelike graphics to be the most important feature, but this does not necessarily push them to buy a game solely for this reason. If this is the case, then the argument upon which the conclusion stands does not lack merit.
Thirdly, the author also assumes that the audience targeted in the campaign is the same demographic as the survey subjects. It is possible that the subjects of the survey were much older than 25 years old, and their preferences differ drastically from those of the younger generation. It might also be possible that the games offered by Whirlwind video games do not appeal to the taste of the younger generation, or that the requirements to play this game cannot be met by them. If this is the case, then Whirlwind video games would be better off promoting their games to the older generation. But, as it currently stands, the argument stated by the author is not cogent.
In conclusion, further information regarding the subjects of the survey, the defining aspects of the video games offered, and data regarding the preferences of the targeted audience would help in better evaluating the argument. As it stands, the argument is based on unwarranted assumptions, which make it nothing but spurious conjecture.
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Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 8 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 421 350
No. of Characters: 2049 1500
No. of Different Words: 176 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.53 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.867 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.612 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 144 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 104 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 83 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 46 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.158 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.675 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.737 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.36 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.36 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.121 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 285, 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.
...es introduced such games to the market. The argument is based on many unwarranted a...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, firstly, if, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, third, thirdly, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 12.9520958084 69% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 13.6137724551 125% => OK
Pronoun: 36.0 28.8173652695 125% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 47.0 55.5748502994 85% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2098.0 2260.96107784 93% => OK
No of words: 420.0 441.139720559 95% => OK
Chars per words: 4.99523809524 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.52701905584 4.56307096286 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.69733638665 2.78398813304 97% => OK
Unique words: 188.0 204.123752495 92% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.447619047619 0.468620217663 96% => OK
syllable_count: 658.8 705.55239521 93% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 6.0 1.67365269461 358% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 39.9919659522 57.8364921388 69% => OK
Chars per sentence: 110.421052632 119.503703932 92% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.1052631579 23.324526521 95% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.73684210526 5.70786347227 101% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => 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: 0.289418849017 0.218282227539 133% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0954260095243 0.0743258471296 128% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0786403733023 0.0701772020484 112% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.176234906946 0.128457276422 137% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0672378803864 0.0628817314937 107% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.2 14.3799401198 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 49.15 48.3550499002 102% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.72 12.5979740519 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.41 8.32208582834 101% => OK
difficult_words: 98.0 98.500998004 99% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => 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.