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 makes an interesting proposal that teachers in our high school should assign homework at most twice a week because in a survey, Marlee's students who have assigned math and science homework no more than two or three days a week get better grades than Sanlee's students who have math and science homework everyday. While it may be true that too much homework may be counterproductive to the overall learning of students, the argument lacks some specific evidence, and thus requires a closer look.
To begin with, the argument declares that the Sanlee teachers assign math and science homework more frequently than Marlee teachers, with the hidden assumption that Marlee students have less homework than Sanlee students. However, there is no specific evidence to it. For example, the quantity of both school's homework is unknown. The homework assigned in Marlee is certainly possible to be more than that in Sanlee. And there might be other homework assigned for Marlee students not by their math and science teachers, but by there headmasters. We just do not know. These assumptions, if true, will largely weaken the argument.
Comparing between Sanlee and Marlee students, the argument implies that the talent of students in these two schools are analogous. But the argument's paucity in relative evidence is overt. If the Marlee students get better grades doing less homework, it will be reasonable to assume that they are generally smarter than Sanlee students. In this situation considering only the amount of homework can be irrational. Even if Sanlee student's talent is tantamount to that of Marlee students, talent of students in our school is another story. To enhance its point, the argument may benefit from collecting the evidence that students in three schools are of equal talent in learning.
Finally, the argument claims that Marlee students earn better overall grades, suggesting that they generally have better grades than Sanlee students in all subjects including math and science. Unfortunately, there is no solid corroboration to this. Had Sanlee students be doing more math and science homework than Marlee students but get worse overall grades, it would be likely that they spent too much time on math and science that although getting better grades in math and science, they were surmounted by Marlee students in all other subjects. If this proves to be authentic, then reduce homework in all subjects can be besotted. This potential evidence can seriously undermine the argument.
In summary, the argument lacks evidence about the amount of math and science homework, the talent of students and the corresponding grades of the students' math and science grades. Therefore, it cannot effectively back its proposal.
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: 22 15
No. of Words: 441 350
No. of Characters: 2261 1500
No. of Different Words: 180 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.583 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.127 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.55 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 190 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 137 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 107 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 31 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.045 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 13.33 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.682 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.347 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.501 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.073 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 316, Rule ID: EVERYDAY_EVERY_DAY[3]
Message: 'Everyday' is an adjective. Did you mean 'every day'?
Suggestion: every day
...ents who have math and science homework everyday. While it may be true that too much hom...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 140, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'arguments'' or 'argument's'?
Suggestion: arguments'; argument's
...hese two schools are analogous. But the arguments paucity in relative evidence is overt. ...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 147, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'students'' or 'student's'?
Suggestion: students'; student's
...nts and the corresponding grades of the students math and science grades. Therefore, it ...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, however, if, look, may, so, then, therefore, thus, while, for example, in summary, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 18.0 11.1786427146 161% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 34.0 28.8173652695 118% => OK
Preposition: 45.0 55.5748502994 81% => OK
Nominalization: 29.0 16.3942115768 177% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2309.0 2260.96107784 102% => OK
No of words: 441.0 441.139720559 100% => OK
Chars per words: 5.2358276644 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.58257569496 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.63635065266 2.78398813304 95% => OK
Unique words: 187.0 204.123752495 92% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.424036281179 0.468620217663 90% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 697.5 705.55239521 99% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 22.0 19.7664670659 111% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 79.9531371006 57.8364921388 138% => OK
Chars per sentence: 104.954545455 119.503703932 88% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.0454545455 23.324526521 86% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.0 5.70786347227 88% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => 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: 0.254697181635 0.218282227539 117% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0797716100174 0.0743258471296 107% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0851938091417 0.0701772020484 121% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.182394371472 0.128457276422 142% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.081554281224 0.0628817314937 130% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.3 14.3799401198 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.11 12.5979740519 104% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.6 8.32208582834 91% => OK
difficult_words: 83.0 98.500998004 84% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 18.0 12.3882235529 145% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.9071856287 84% => 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.