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

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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.

In the passage, it is stated that Omega University should stop the assesment of the professors by the students so that the students can get job. The author has come to this conclusion based on the issues that the professors give higher marks to the students to get positive feedback from them which makes the potential employers consider the possibility of biasing during student evaluation and results in not getting those students hired. However, before this recommendation can be properly evaluated, three evidences should be provided.

First of all, the author does not provide any evidence about the relative quality of students over the fifteen years compared to before and assumes that the students' quality has not improved – the students have remained in the same level. Perhaps, this is not the case. Maybe the students have been admitting to the Omega University during in the past 15 years are more talented and sincere than previous students. That’s why they are performing better in the examination, and professors are obliged to give them the marks they deserve. Further, professors require positive feedback from them and so they are teaching them with more sincerity and care, consequently, students are improving day by day which is evident from the exam grades. If either of those cases has merit, then the author’s conclusion that the professor evaluation should be terminated is significantly weakened.

Secondly, the author did not present any evidence about the grades of Alpha University students and also whether Alpha University’s professors have been evaluated by the students or not. The author simply assumes that Alpha University students have lower grade than Omega University students and it has not adopted the professor assessment policy. However, this might not be true. What if Alpha University actually adopted that policy and still its students are getting job because they are excellent in other qualities than grades? Or perhaps their grades are even higher than Omega University students – so the potential employers will higher them instead of lower grades Omega University studetns. If the above cases are true, the argument does not hold water.
Finally, the author does not give any information about the professor evaluation policy, how it works and why it was embraced fifteen years ago? The author just assumes that this policy is not necessary and without this, the students will get lower grades which then results in getting job. What if the teachers lose their motivation to teach and start ignoring their jobs? Without students' review, they could do anything they want with the students as there is no consequence. Hence, the students will not be learn anything fruitful which will certainly reduces their chance of getting employment after graduation in the desired company. If this is the case, then the author’s argument that students will get job after terminating the evaluation policy is not overly persuasive and in fact, it will do more damage.

In conclusion, the argument as it stands now, is considerably flawed due to its dependency on several unwarranted assumptions. If the author can provide the above three evidences, then it will be possible to fully evaluate the viability of the proposed recommendation to terminate the student evaluation of the professor.

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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 8 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 534 350
No. of Characters: 2740 1500
No. of Different Words: 219 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.807 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.131 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.603 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 201 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 161 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 119 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 64 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.217 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.5 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.783 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.324 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.457 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.104 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5