1 The following appeared in a letter to the editor of Parson City s local newspaper In our region of Trillura the majority of money spent on the schools that most students attend the city run public schools comes from taxes that each city government colle | TOEFL IELTS GMAT GRE SAT ACT PTE ESL

Essay topics:

1. The following appeared in a letter to the editor of Parson City's local newspaper. "In our region of Trillura, the majority of money spent on the schools that most students attend — the city-run public schools — comes from taxes that each city government collects. The region's cities differ, however, in the budgetary priority they give to public education. For example, both as a proportion of its overall tax revenues and in absolute terms, Parson City has recently spent almost twice as much per year as Blue City has for its public schools — even though both cities have about the same number of residents. Clearly, Parson City residents place a higher value on providing a good education in public schools than Blue City residents do." Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.

In the letter to the editor of Parson city’s local newspaper, the author concludes that Parson City residents care more about providing good education in public schools than Blue city residents by citing the amount spent on public school being twice that of what Blue city residents spent. On first glance, the author’s argument seems valid, but on further analysis, it is apparent that the author’s argument is rife with holes and based on three assumptions, that if not substantiated, can dramatically weaken the persuasiveness of the argument.

Firstly, the author claims without evidence that Parson city has spent almost twice per year as Blue city has for its public schools. However, the author has not provided any proof of this claim. He states that the money has been spent ‘per year’, but no details regarding the number of years has been given. It begs the question for how many years has Parson city paid twice the amount of Blue city. Additionally, no details about how much money the Parson city government and Blue city government collects in a year have been given. For instance, perhaps, the residents of Blue city don’t pay taxes regularly and that might be the reason why they haven’t given much budgetary allocation for public schools. It is also likely that Parson city government used leftover funds from previous years to pay more this year, this might explain why Parson city has paid (almost) twice as of Blue city. If either of these scenarios is true, then the author’s contention that Parson city cares more about giving to public schools than Blue city does not hold water.

Secondly, the author states that both the cities have equal number of residents and even so Parson city has paid almost twice of what Blue city has paid for public schools. However, this claim might not necessarily be evident. Here, the author assumes that the population distribution of both cities is similar. Perhaps, only a small percentage of Blue city’s population constitute of school going children and therefore they have a smaller number of public schools. This might explain why Blue city has allocated less funds for public education. Consequently, Parson city might have a greater percentage of school going children and hence, need a greater number of schools, which necessitates in more funds to be allocated. If this case is true, then the author’s presumption that Parson city values education more by citing that it has spent almost twice as Blue city on public school funding even though they have equal population, is dubious at best and specious at worst.

Finally, the author assumes that the priorities of Parson city government and Blue city government in budgetary allocations for the year are similar. Although, this might not be true at all. Perhaps, Parson city residents have collected extra money for the technological advancement of their public schools and these funds have been added to the yearly funds’ allocation towards public schools. Perhaps, Blue city had different priorities. For instance, it is possible that Blue city needs to repair the roads in the city and hence have given higher priority to Transport department, and hence, more funds. If either of these scenarios is true, then the author’s assumption that both the cities’ budget allocation priorities are same, is unwarranted.

In conclusion, it is possible that Parson City’s residents place a higher value on providing good education to students in public schools than Blue city residents. However, as it stands now, the argument resides on three unsubstantiated assumptions that significantly weaken the author’s claim. The author needs to provide additional evidence regarding budgetary allocation report of Parson city and Blue city, population distribution according to age of Blue city and Parson city, and budgetary priorities of both cities for the aforesaid timeline.

Votes

Essay Categories

GMAT/GRE Argument Task

Comments

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 291, Rule ID: ON_FIRST_GLANCE[1]
Message: Did you mean 'at'?
Suggestion: At
...that of what Blue city residents spent. On first glance, the author’s argument see...
^^
Line 3, column 474, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ow much money the Parson city government and Blue city government collects in a y...
^^
Line 5, column 515, Rule ID: FEWER_LESS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'fewer'? The noun funds is countable.
Suggestion: fewer
...ght explain why Blue city has allocated less funds for public education. Consequentl...
^^^^
Line 7, column 151, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “Although” 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.
...y allocations for the year are similar. Although, this might not be true at all. Perhaps...
^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 486, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...to age of Blue city and Parson city, and budgetary priorities of both cities for ...
^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, consequently, finally, first, firstly, hence, however, if, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, as for, even so, for instance, in conclusion

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 22.0 19.6327345309 112% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 19.0 13.6137724551 140% => OK
Pronoun: 41.0 28.8173652695 142% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 61.0 55.5748502994 110% => OK
Nominalization: 33.0 16.3942115768 201% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3296.0 2260.96107784 146% => OK
No of words: 633.0 441.139720559 143% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.20695102686 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.01592376844 4.56307096286 110% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.6453140617 2.78398813304 95% => OK
Unique words: 236.0 204.123752495 116% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.372827804107 0.468620217663 80% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 985.5 705.55239521 140% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 11.0 4.96107784431 222% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 26.0 19.7664670659 132% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 22.8473053892 105% => OK
Sentence length SD: 66.7551052942 57.8364921388 115% => OK
Chars per sentence: 126.769230769 119.503703932 106% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.3461538462 23.324526521 104% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.30769230769 5.70786347227 111% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 11.0 4.67664670659 235% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.336304226296 0.218282227539 154% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.128353516705 0.0743258471296 173% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0886946582719 0.0701772020484 126% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.24779613214 0.128457276422 193% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0156475777649 0.0628817314937 25% => 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: 15.3 14.3799401198 106% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 47.12 48.3550499002 97% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.197005988 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.23 12.5979740519 105% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.42 8.32208582834 89% => OK
difficult_words: 104.0 98.500998004 106% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 18.5 12.3882235529 149% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 11.1389221557 104% => 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.

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments