The data from a survey of high school math and science teachers show that in the district of Sanlee many of these teachers reported assigning daily homework, whereas in the district of Marlee, most science and math teachers reported assigning homework no more than two or three days per week. Despite receiving less frequent homework assignments, Marlee students earn better grades overall and are less likely to be required to repeat a year of school than are students in Sanlee. These results call into question the usefulness of frequent homework assignments. Most likely the Marlee students have more time to concentrate on individual assignments than do the Sanlee students who have homework every day. Therefore teachers in our high schools should assign homework no more than twice a week.
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.
The argument prompt states that high school teachers should assign homework no more than twice a week. The main premise, that has been provided to bolster the claim, is that Marlee students earn better grades and are less likely to repeat a year than students of Sanlee, despite receiving less homework than students of Sanlee. Another evidence used to support this claim is that Sanlee students have more time to concentrate on individual assignments. However before this claim can be properly evaluated, three unwarranted assumptions must be cleared.
First of all, the author assumes that both high schools have comparable quality of teaching. Perhaps the quality of teachers in Sanlee high school may be considerably better than Marlee high school, leading to better overall results acheived by the students at Sanlee. Another instance might be that quality of teaching at Marlee might be significantly below the average. The reasons why Sanlee students are less likely to repeat a year of school might be because they are given a more customized type of teaching suited to each student's specific needs. If the above is true, then the argument doesn't hold water.
Secondly, the author assumes that both schools assign the same type of homeworks. It is possible that Sanlee students are given a more innovative homework whereas Marlee students are given more generic homework, thereby encouraging a more qualitative learning compared to Marlee students. If the above argument is true, the argument is significantly weakened.
Finally, the author assumes that Sanlee students are focusing more on individual assignments. It may be possible that Marlee students, on average, have more individual assignments than Sanlee students, even if Sanlee students have more free time on their hands. Perhaps Marlee students are concentrating on more challenging assignments. Therefore the argument is considerably flawed.
In conclusion, the argument, as it stands now, is considerably flawed. If the author is able to respond these three issues and provide more evidence, perhaps in the form of a systematic research, then it will be possible to properly evaluate the claim made in the argument essay.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 348 350
No. of Characters: 1807 1500
No. of Different Words: 152 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.319 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.193 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.65 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 153 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 109 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 77 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 29 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.333 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.69 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.667 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.363 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.558 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.118 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 454, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: However,
... concentrate on individual assignments. However before this claim can be properly evalu...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 595, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...If the above is true, then the argument doesnt hold water. Secondly, the author a...
^^^^^^
Line 13, column 338, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Therefore,
...rating on more challenging assignments. Therefore the argument is considerably flawed. ...
^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
finally, first, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, whereas, in conclusion, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.6327345309 127% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 12.9520958084 69% => OK
Conjunction : 2.0 11.1786427146 18% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 19.0 28.8173652695 66% => OK
Preposition: 37.0 55.5748502994 67% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 16.3942115768 61% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1867.0 2260.96107784 83% => OK
No of words: 347.0 441.139720559 79% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.38040345821 5.12650576532 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.31600926901 4.56307096286 95% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.72589575852 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 157.0 204.123752495 77% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.452449567723 0.468620217663 97% => OK
syllable_count: 577.8 705.55239521 82% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 55.5167642349 57.8364921388 96% => OK
Chars per sentence: 103.722222222 119.503703932 87% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.2777777778 23.324526521 83% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.05555555556 5.70786347227 106% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.116383297598 0.218282227539 53% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0424137303365 0.0743258471296 57% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0617819163404 0.0701772020484 88% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0711936981449 0.128457276422 55% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0364405087581 0.0628817314937 58% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.5 14.3799401198 94% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 43.73 48.3550499002 90% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.92 12.5979740519 110% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.99 8.32208582834 96% => OK
difficult_words: 75.0 98.500998004 76% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => 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.