In an attempt to improve highway safety, Prunty County last year lowered its speed limit from 55 to 45 miles per hour on all county highways. But this effort has failed: the number of accidents has not decreased, and, based on reports by the highway patrol, many drivers are exceeding the speed limit. Prunty County should instead undertake the same kind of road improvement project that Butler County completed five years ago: increasing lane widths, resurfacing rough highways, and improving visibility at dangerous intersections. Today, major Butler County roads still have a 55 mph speed limit, yet there were 25 percent fewer reported accidents in Butler County this past year than there were five years ago.
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 argument mentioned, the author referred to an attempt in which a city called prunty county tried to improve highway safety, and relied on some reports that showed no decrease in the number of accidents in that city. Based on those reports, the author concluded the failure of the attempt the city has followed, and then suggested that the city should undertake the same procedures taken by another city which showed a success. In his build of the argument, the author made assumptions that are questionable in terms of their veracity and reliability. More thorough investigation of the situation would make the argument more plausible,
first, the author concluded that the procedure taken by the city which is lowering the speed limit has failed to solve the problem, given that the number of accidents hasn't increased. Although this eviednce looks at the first glance cogent, the number of the accidents may not be the best indicator of the quality of the highway. that is, a highway that is very crouded and is used by myriad number of cars having the same number of accidents as another highway that is not frequently used by cars, would be considered better than the less crowded highway. given that, and considering that the number of cars in a city might change significantly from a season to season and from year to another, the percentage of the cars which make accidents would be more indicative of the quality of the high way than the number itself.
Moreover, the author referred to the reports by the highway patrol which stated that many drivers exceed the speed limit. this evidence would better be an incentive to the city to fine the speed limit exceeders, and is less implying to the failure of the procedure of lowering the speed limit itself. that is, to assess the success of such procedure, one must make sure first that it is conformed to by the drivers, as if it is not conformed to, it is just as it wasn't made at all.
Finally, in his pointing to the success of the improvement of the highway undertaken by the other city, the author mentioned that the number of accidents has decreased in a time peiod of five years, and did not consider any kind of comparison between the density of the traffic in both cities. such a comparison would make the numbers more meaningful. Also the author did not point to the results of this procedure undertaken by the butler county city after one year of applying them, for example, if after one year the number of accidents hasn't fallen significantly in butler county city, the case would be very similar to the case of the prunty county city, and would instead encourage the prunty county city to continue in their way of dealing with the problem to see similar results after the same five years period of time.
To recapitulate, the argument the author made, would at the first glance seem plausible. However, a deeper look at the evidences used, would give an intuition of the lack of reliability the evidences have, and would show that the argument require more evidence and questions to be raised, such as, a comparison between the density of the traffic in both cities mentioned and using the percentage of the accidents in the highways instead of the plain numbers.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 12 15
No. of Words: 568 350
No. of Characters: 2624 1500
No. of Different Words: 198 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.882 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.62 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.46 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 184 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 128 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 80 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 56 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 47.333 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 28.456 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.667 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.452 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.684 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.17 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 643, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... would make the argument more plausible, first, the author concluded that th...
^^^^
Line 3, column 173, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: hasn't
...lem, given that the number of accidents hasnt increased. Although this eviednce looks...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 336, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: That
...ndicator of the quality of the highway. that is, a highway that is very crouded and ...
^^^^
Line 3, column 563, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Given
...d better than the less crowded highway. given that, and considering that the number o...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...the high way than the number itself. Moreover, the author referred to the rep...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 128, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: This
...at many drivers exceed the speed limit. this evidence would better be an incentive t...
^^^^
Line 5, column 307, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: That
...ure of lowering the speed limit itself. that is, to assess the success of such proce...
^^^^
Line 5, column 469, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: wasn't
...t is not conformed to, it is just as it wasnt made at all. Finally, in his p...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 488, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...to, it is just as it wasnt made at all. Finally, in his pointing to the suc...
^^^^
Line 7, column 300, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Such
... density of the traffic in both cities. such a comparison would make the numbers mor...
^^^^
Line 7, column 358, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Also,
...would make the numbers more meaningful. Also the author did not point to the results...
^^^^
Line 7, column 546, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: hasn't
... after one year the number of accidents hasnt fallen significantly in butler county c...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 819, Rule ID: PERIOD_OF_TIME[1]
Message: Use simply 'period'.
Suggestion: period
...milar results after the same five years period of time. To recapitulate, the argument ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... the same five years period of time. To recapitulate, the argument the author...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, however, if, look, may, moreover, so, then, for example, kind of, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 19.6327345309 87% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 21.0 13.6137724551 154% => OK
Pronoun: 31.0 28.8173652695 108% => OK
Preposition: 91.0 55.5748502994 164% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 16.3942115768 67% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2684.0 2260.96107784 119% => OK
No of words: 565.0 441.139720559 128% => OK
Chars per words: 4.75044247788 5.12650576532 93% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.87542086881 4.56307096286 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.5184516038 2.78398813304 90% => OK
Unique words: 220.0 204.123752495 108% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.389380530973 0.468620217663 83% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 850.5 705.55239521 121% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.76447105788 148% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 7.0 1.67365269461 418% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 19.7664670659 76% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 37.0 22.8473053892 162% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 106.559320985 57.8364921388 184% => OK
Chars per sentence: 178.933333333 119.503703932 150% => OK
Words per sentence: 37.6666666667 23.324526521 161% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.66666666667 5.70786347227 117% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 14.0 5.25449101796 266% => Less language errors wanted.
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.247183615965 0.218282227539 113% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0894113405339 0.0743258471296 120% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.068279325415 0.0701772020484 97% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.140422874232 0.128457276422 109% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0512908020752 0.0628817314937 82% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 19.8 14.3799401198 138% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 42.38 48.3550499002 88% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 16.5 12.197005988 135% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.86 12.5979740519 86% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.52 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 109.0 98.500998004 111% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 16.8 11.1389221557 151% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => 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.