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.
In this argument, the author claims that our high school teachers should assign homework no more than twice a week. At the first glance, the argument seems plausible to some extent. While with detailed analysis, readers could identify some logical fallacies that can undermine the original chain of reasoning in this argument.
The first evidence that the author needs to provide is that high school teachers in our school could refer to the best practice of those in Marlee. Apparently, the author does not consider that there should exist great differences between the two schools, and such different might weaken the analogy of the two schools. Chances are very good that the school management, education quality and the capacity of students might be quite different in two schools. As a result, the author cannot simply propose that teachers in our schools should copy the successful experience in district of Marlee.
The second evidence that the author needs to provide is that our students' time reduced from frequent homework can be paid for individual assignment or other useful extracurricular activities. In my opinion, it is very likely that students may put much time on computer game or TV shows rather than individual assignment if they do not need to finish daily homework. In other words, declined homework might not lead to increased individual assignments. Thus, the statement that students are likely to have more time to concentrate on individual assignments could not hold water.
The third evidence that the author needs to provide is that Marlee students earn better grades overall and are less likely to be required to repeat a year of school is due to less frequent homework. Clearly, other reasons also exist to lead to the mentioned enhancement. First and foremost, teachers in Marlee might have higher degrees or more education experience. In addition, the average scores of school admission exam of Marlee students could be much higher than those of students in Sanlee. Last, school management in Marlee may be much more effective. All the possible reasons listed above could also lead to better grades.
To sum up, the argument is not persuasive enough due to the shortage of specific evidence. Before making the final conclusion, the author should conduct detailed survey on the specific advantages and disadvantages of less homework to better evaluate the recommendation.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 389 350
No. of Characters: 1976 1500
No. of Different Words: 183 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.441 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.08 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.56 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 160 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 106 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 83 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 37 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.474 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.451 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.842 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.325 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.564 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.073 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, apparently, first, if, may, second, so, third, thus, while, in addition, as a result, in my opinion, in other words, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 19.6327345309 71% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 19.0 12.9520958084 147% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 13.6137724551 95% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 28.8173652695 83% => OK
Preposition: 52.0 55.5748502994 94% => OK
Nominalization: 20.0 16.3942115768 122% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2038.0 2260.96107784 90% => OK
No of words: 389.0 441.139720559 88% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.23907455013 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.44106776838 4.56307096286 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.6563219718 2.78398813304 95% => OK
Unique words: 190.0 204.123752495 93% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.488431876607 0.468620217663 104% => OK
syllable_count: 622.8 705.55239521 88% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 4.96107784431 20% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 43.1887566163 57.8364921388 75% => OK
Chars per sentence: 107.263157895 119.503703932 90% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.4736842105 23.324526521 88% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.94736842105 5.70786347227 122% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.176477979871 0.218282227539 81% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.055712247919 0.0743258471296 75% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.063090436235 0.0701772020484 90% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0929687323221 0.128457276422 72% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0344201302696 0.0628817314937 55% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.5 14.3799401198 94% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.11 12.5979740519 104% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.2 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 88.0 98.500998004 89% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => 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.