The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a Batavia newspaper.
"The department of agriculture in Batavia reports that the number of dairy farms throughout the country is now 25 percent greater than it was 10 years ago. During this same time period, however, the price of milk at the local Excello Food Market has increased from $1.50 to over $3.00 per gallon. To prevent farmers from continuing to receive excessive profits on an apparently increased supply of milk, the Batavia government should begin to regulate retail milk prices. Such regulation is necessary to ensure fair prices for consumers."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
The letter asserts that the Batavia government should regulate retail prices of milk so that consumers get milk at a normalized rate. The letter further cites that, there has been an increase of twenty-five percent in dairy farms in past ten years, still the prices of milk have increased. Though, the argument seems convincing at the first glance, upon closer scrutiny it is found to be rife with assumptions for which no substantial evidence has been provided.
Firstly, the letter considers the milk price increase from $1.5 to $3 to be exorbitant and unnecessary; however no evidential proof for the same has been furnished. There is a possibility that the price of milk increased as the farmers have to pay extra for the transportation of milk from the farm to the market. The cost of fodder and maintaining the farm might have sky-rocketed forcing the farmers to increase the price. In this situation, the author’s claim is significantly weak and the farmers are not earning an increased profit. The author needs to find the real reason through analysis and research of the farms. This will help in understanding the actual cause behind the price increase as well as help us in further evaluating the claim.
Moreover, the letter asserts that a twenty-five percent increase in dairy farm means the milk is being produced in abundance; thus, the farmers should reduce the price. The argument stated in this way does not stand any solid ground. There is a possibility that the population of Batavia has increased significantly in the last ten years. Therefore, the ratio between milk produced and the population is still the same. In this circumstance, it is imprudent to assume that farmers are making a good profit. The situation might be reversed and they are still struggling to cope up with the population pressure. The author needs to provide statistical and numerical data co-relating the population increase and dairy products quantity increase. This will aid us in evaluating the claim.
In addition to this, the letter states that the increase in price is unwarranted. Nonetheless, there is a possibility that the price is quite moderate in relation to the taxes that the sellers need to pay to the government. In this circumstance, it is justified that the farmers increased their prices in order to live an economically stable life and pay taxes to the government. It is possible that the price is moderate in relation to the salary earned by the people of Batavia today. The correlation between people’s income and the price of milk is still the same as it was ten years back. The author is required to dwell deeper into the economic status of Batavia citizens and then draw a conclusion regarding the price of milk.
In conclusion, the letters claim might have some merits, but stated in this way it fails to give a view of a firm argument. The author further needs to study the relationship between people’s income and milk price. The author also needs to find out the real reason for the increase in price and the correlation between population and milk produced. This will aid in fixing a lot of fissures and misses of the argument. Thus, strengthening the claim. At this point, the argument is too weak to be trusted.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 29 15
No. of Words: 551 350
No. of Characters: 2635 1500
No. of Different Words: 219 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.845 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.782 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.674 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 174 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 129 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 99 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 58 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.264 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.517 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.291 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.291 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.099 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 63, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: to
...nsiders the milk price increase from .5 to to be exorbitant and unnecessary; however ...
^^^^^^
Line 2, column 65, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...iders the milk price increase from .5 to to be exorbitant and unnecessary; howeve...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, however, if, moreover, nonetheless, regarding, so, still, then, therefore, thus, well, in addition, in conclusion, as well as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 12.9520958084 69% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 13.6137724551 95% => OK
Pronoun: 32.0 28.8173652695 111% => OK
Preposition: 77.0 55.5748502994 139% => OK
Nominalization: 25.0 16.3942115768 152% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2695.0 2260.96107784 119% => OK
No of words: 550.0 441.139720559 125% => OK
Chars per words: 4.9 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.84273464058 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.7718663343 2.78398813304 100% => OK
Unique words: 227.0 204.123752495 111% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.412727272727 0.468620217663 88% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 829.8 705.55239521 118% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => 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: 0.0 2.70958083832 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 29.0 19.7664670659 147% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 22.8473053892 79% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 37.3753338004 57.8364921388 65% => OK
Chars per sentence: 92.9310344828 119.503703932 78% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.9655172414 23.324526521 81% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.24137931034 5.70786347227 92% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 14.0 8.20758483034 171% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.109486233724 0.218282227539 50% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.035873518669 0.0743258471296 48% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.028253130677 0.0701772020484 40% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0734027192989 0.128457276422 57% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0240224986004 0.0628817314937 38% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.1 14.3799401198 77% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 61.67 48.3550499002 128% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.1 12.197005988 75% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.14 12.5979740519 88% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.49 8.32208582834 90% => OK
difficult_words: 103.0 98.500998004 105% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.1389221557 83% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => 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.