Fifteen years ago, Omega University implemented a new procedure that encouraged students to evaluate the teaching effectiveness of all their professors. Since that time, Omega professors have begun to assign higher grades in their classes, and overall student grade averages at Omega have risen by 30 percent. Potential employers, looking at this dramatic rise in grades, believe that grades at Omega are inflated and do not accurately reflect student achievement; as a result, Omega graduates have not been as successful at getting jobs as have graduates from nearby Alpha University. To enable its graduates to secure better jobs, Omega University should terminate student evaluation of professors.
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 mentioned above states that inflated grades given by professors to students , results in a lack of students from Omega University being able to secure jobs. The passage takes into consideration the data of another college to support it's viewpoint. But the argument made above takes some major assumptions while arriving at this conclusion. These assumptions need to be justified and need evidence which can successfully warrant their claims.
The initial and major factor in evaluating is that what are the criteria and evaluation metrics that are used for rating the professors. From the passage above , we can deduce that inflated and sudden changes in the grades of students may arise from the fact that the professors face the risk of losing their jobs if their ratings are below a specific level. Students exploit these gaps in the system and give unfair grades to even the best of the faculty. This in turn puts pressure on the professors and the way out of this , is to give the students higher grades than normal. This discrepancy in the data and the system needs to be checked and a much more robust management needs to be implemented.
The second assumption being made is that the overall grades increased by 30 percent since this new policy came into effect. The time span mentioned if of 15 years and it is a significant amount of time for an new policy and law to have it's up's and downs. It might me possible that 15 years ago the professors at Omega University may no be fully satisfied with this new policy, but in this span of 15 years the policy may have undergone several changes. So so state that a logical comparison can be made between the two cases is illogical. Probably in these 15 years there has been an increase in the number of hardworking students studying in the college and these students are bound to score higher grades. The increase of 30 percent is also subject to the validity and efficacy of the survey being conducted that gives out these numbers. The methods and the type of questions asked may vary in this span of 15 years and hence any statistical data being presented needs a proper justification towards it.
Lastly the author of this passage makes a comparison with another university in terms of the number of the students securing jobs. It may be possible that the number and quality of companies arriving at Alpha University are much greater and well known as compared to Omega University. The student quality at Alpha University may be generally much more qualified than that at Omega University and this significant factor affects the jobs being secured. Thus it makes absolutely no sense to compare and contrast these Universities in terms of the jobs secured.
Thus to put the entire blame on inflated grades and a failure of the professor evaluation process is a bit uncalled for. By stating and warranting the above the assumptions and gaps in the passage we can clearly draw some conclusions. These holes in the passage made above need to be justified with sufficient evidence for it to hold true. Even if one of these assumptions is proved false then it severely reduces the stability and validity of the argument made above.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 24 15
No. of Words: 552 350
No. of Characters: 2611 1500
No. of Different Words: 239 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.847 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.73 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.543 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 172 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 133 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 90 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 55 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.305 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.583 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.28 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.28 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.087 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 89, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma, but not before the comma
Suggestion: ,
...d grades given by professors to students , results in a lack of students from Omeg...
^^
Line 2, column 159, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma, but not before the comma
Suggestion: ,
...g the professors. From the passage above , we can deduce that inflated and sudden ...
^^
Line 2, column 525, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma, but not before the comma
Suggestion: ,
...n the professors and the way out of this , is to give the students higher grades t...
^^
Line 3, column 206, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'a' instead of 'an' if the following word doesn't start with a vowel sound, e.g. 'a sentence', 'a university'
Suggestion: a
... it is a significant amount of time for an new policy and law to have its ups and ...
^^
Line 3, column 333, Rule ID: NOW[3]
Message: Did you mean 'now' (=at this moment) instead of 'no' (negation)?
Suggestion: now
... the professors at Omega University may no be fully satisfied with this new policy...
^^
Line 3, column 453, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: So
...icy may have undergone several changes. So so state that a logical comparison can be ...
^^^^^
Line 4, column 452, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Thus,
... factor affects the jobs being secured. Thus it makes absolutely no sense to compare...
^^^^
Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Thus,
...ersities in terms of the jobs secured. Thus to put the entire blame on inflated gra...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, hence, if, lastly, may, second, so, then, thus, well, while
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 27.0 19.6327345309 138% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 25.0 11.1786427146 224% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 44.0 28.8173652695 153% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 81.0 55.5748502994 146% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 16.3942115768 67% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2644.0 2260.96107784 117% => OK
No of words: 552.0 441.139720559 125% => OK
Chars per words: 4.78985507246 5.12650576532 93% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.84713113593 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.59597310727 2.78398813304 93% => OK
Unique words: 238.0 204.123752495 117% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.43115942029 0.468620217663 92% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 862.2 705.55239521 122% => 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: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 33.9392584464 57.8364921388 59% => The essay contains lots of sentences with the similar length. More sentence varieties wanted.
Chars per sentence: 110.166666667 119.503703932 92% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.0 23.324526521 99% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.91666666667 5.70786347227 51% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 8.0 5.25449101796 152% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 15.0 8.20758483034 183% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.237730131651 0.218282227539 109% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0665110134206 0.0743258471296 89% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0641600500708 0.0701772020484 91% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.133368097384 0.128457276422 104% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0525392349485 0.0628817314937 84% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.6 14.3799401198 88% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.3550499002 100% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.8 12.5979740519 86% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.15 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 118.0 98.500998004 120% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.