On Balmer Island, where mopeds serve as a popular form of transportation, the population increases to 100,000 during the summer months. To reduce the number of accidents involving mopeds and pedestrians, the town council of Balmer Island should limit the

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On Balmer Island, where mopeds serve as a popular form of transportation, the population increases to 100,000 during the summer months. To

reduce the number of accidents involving mopeds and pedestrians, the town council of Balmer Island should limit the number of mopeds rented

by the island's moped rental companies from 50 per day to 25 per day during the summer season. By limiting the number of rentals, the town

council will attain the 50 percent annual reduction in moped accidents that was achieved last year on the neighboring island of Seaville,

when Seaville's town council enforced similar limits on moped rentals.

In the argument the author claims in the letter to the editor that he wants to reduce number of rentals of mopeds from 50 to 25 per day during the summer season. He thinks that by limiting this number there will be reduction in number of accidents involving mopeds and pedestrians as mopeds serve the popular form of transportation. The author reaches to this point by thinking of step taken by neighboring island of Seaville last year. Though his claim may well have merit, the author presents poorly reasoned argument. Based on several questionable premises and assumptions, we cannot accept that his argument is valid. Hence, the argument is unconvincing and has some flaws.

First, the author argues on the base that during last year there was reduction in moped accidents in the neighboring island of Seaville because they enforced limitation on moped rentals. This statement is a stretch and not substantiated in any way. There are possibilities that during last year there have been some kind of activities held on the island of Seaville. Due to that Seaville's town council has to cut off rentals on mopeds. Activities such as conducting classes on the road for road safety. In certain situation there should be limit on use of mopeds. Clearly, the argument would have been much more clearer if the author has explicitly stated that neighboring island had conducted some kind of activities which leads to less of mopeds.

Second, the author asks for limiting moped rentals by giving example of neighboring island but he did not provide any geographical details about both islands, the Balmer and the Seaville. Which is weak and unconvincing. Is not it possible that Balmer has uneven roads and hilly or downhill drive and Seaville has straight or even roads. It is possible that only because of evenly surfaced roads there have been less number of accidents in Seaville but not by reducing number of rentals on mopeds. If the author had provided such evidences then it would be lot more convincing.

Third, the author requests for limiting the rentals on mopeds but did he think about what will happen when more than 100,000 people come to the tourist place like Balmer Island. If there were less use of mopeds then how people were travel through one place to another place. This will increase the amount of pedestrians, and result in greater risks of accidents on road involving pedestrians. The author weaken his argument by making assumptions.

In sum, the argument is unconvincing and flawed. If the author wants to change reader's mind about the issue then the author should have mentioned all the relevant fact and show some evidences or proofs or details which can prove his points. Without this his poorly reasoned argument will likely to convince few people.

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Average: 7.1 (9 votes)
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Comments

Sentence: The author weaken his argument by making assumptions.
Description: The fragment author weaken his is rare
Suggestion: Possible agreement error: Replace weaken with verb, past tense

flaws:
The argument 1 and argument 2 can be put in one argument.

argument 3 -- not OK

Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 1 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 25 15
No. of Words: 467 350
No. of Characters: 2270 1500
No. of Different Words: 218 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.649 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.861 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.491 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 174 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 102 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 74 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 39 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18.68 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.817 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.48 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.295 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.47 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.087 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5