The council of Maple County, concerned about the county's becoming overdeveloped, is debating a proposed measure that would prevent the development of existing farmland in the county. But the council is also concerned that such a restriction, by limiting the supply of new housing, could lead to significant increases in the price of housing in the county. Proponents of the measure note that Chestnut County established a similar measure ten years ago, and its housing prices have increased only modestly since. However, opponents of the measure note that Pine County adopted restrictions on the development of new residential housing fifteen years ago, and its housing prices have since more than doubled. The council currently predicts that the proposed measure, if passed, will result in a significant increase in housing prices in Maple County.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the prediction and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the prediction.
The council of Maple County predicts that, if the proposed measure to prevent the development of existing farmland in order to prevent the county from becoming overdeveloped is passed, then there will be significant increases in housing prices. They have come to this conclusion because Pine County, who adopted similar restrictions, have experienced a doubling in their housing prices. However, before evaluating the likelihood of these predictions, three questions must be answered.
First of all, what is the population of Maple County compared to Pine County? It is possible that Pine County’s population is far greater than Maple County’s. Perhaps Pine is located in an area that attracted more residents, whereas few people move to Maple County and many people choose to move away. If any of the above have merit, then the council’s prediction is highly unlikely, as the demand for housing is not as high in Maple County as it is for Pine County.
Second of all, is it possible that Maple County is more comparable to Chestnut County? Perhaps Chestnut and Maple County have similar populations and residential trends. It is also possible that are both located in an area that is mostly cold and snowy throughout the year, attracting fewer residents, while Pine County is typically warm and attracts new homeowners. If any of the above are true, then the council’s predicted outcome of adopting the proposed measures may be unreasonable. Rather, the outcomes would likely mirror those found at Chestnut County.
Lastly, how developed is Maple County compared to Pine County? Perhaps Maple County is far developed than Pine County was before they adopted the measures. It is possible Maple County already has enough housing available, whereas Pine County did not have extra houses available for potential homeowners. Consequently, Pine’s decision to implement the restrictions were detrimental to housing prices. However, if this were the case, then Maple County would not experience the same increases in housing price, and therefore, the council’s predictions would not be accurate.
In conclusion, the council’s prediction, as it stands now, is considerably flawed due to its lack of supporting evidence. If the council is able to answer these three questions and offer more evidence, then it will be possible to fully evaluate the council’s proposed recommendation and likelihood of their prediction.
Comments
e-rater score 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: 18 15
No. of Words: 382 350
No. of Characters: 1978 1500
No. of Different Words: 175 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.421 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.178 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.725 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 157 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 113 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 85 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 53 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.222 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.343 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.778 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.394 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.394 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.136 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, consequently, first, however, if, lastly, may, second, so, then, therefore, whereas, while, in conclusion, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.9520958084 54% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 7.0 13.6137724551 51% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 23.0 28.8173652695 80% => OK
Preposition: 39.0 55.5748502994 70% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 16.3942115768 67% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2049.0 2260.96107784 91% => OK
No of words: 382.0 441.139720559 87% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.36387434555 5.12650576532 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.42095241839 4.56307096286 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.88679842807 2.78398813304 104% => OK
Unique words: 182.0 204.123752495 89% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.476439790576 0.468620217663 102% => OK
syllable_count: 644.4 705.55239521 91% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 4.0 8.76447105788 46% => OK
Subordination: 9.0 2.70958083832 332% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 49.3668499357 57.8364921388 85% => OK
Chars per sentence: 107.842105263 119.503703932 90% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.1052631579 23.324526521 86% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.57894736842 5.70786347227 115% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 0.0 6.88822355289 0% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 12.0 4.67664670659 257% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.385519641255 0.218282227539 177% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.143136368103 0.0743258471296 193% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.107284291394 0.0701772020484 153% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.2294868216 0.128457276422 179% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0672286079584 0.0628817314937 107% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.9 14.3799401198 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 42.72 48.3550499002 88% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.81 12.5979740519 110% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.47 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 93.0 98.500998004 94% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 12.3882235529 93% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.