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

Essay topics:

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 proposed argument, it is stated that Omega University should terminate student evaluation of professors in order to secure better jobs for the graduates. The author has come to this conclusion based on the evidence that professors were giving high grades to the graduates to receive positive feedback in return. Consequently, these inflated grades were seen as an inaccurate reflection of the student's accomplishment and therefore students are not successful at acquiring better jobs later. However, before this recommendation can be properly evaluated, three specific pieces of evidence must be collected and analyzed.

First of all, the author presumes, without evidence, that the main reason for rise in grades of the class is the "teaching evaluation procedure". However, this may not be the case. Perhaps students could have improved their grades because of some other factors. It is possible that new students of Omega University are brighter, sharper, and sincere than that of the last batches of the student. For instance, it is possible that admission standards were raised and now the students are required to submit high school GPA, standardized entrance exams, and presentations to get their desired courses. If either of these scenarios has merit, then the conclusion drawn in the original argument is significantly weakened.

Secondly, the evidence regarding the grade point averages of Alpha University and Omega University is to be evaluated. The author readily assumes that the grade point averages are roughly comparable. For example, the grading system of Alpha University might be based upon the student's performance in every lecture rather than his/her semester examination. Thus, such evidence would weaken the author's implication of Omega University students not getting better jobs than the students at Alpha University because of grades. Perhaps Alpha University has a better alumni network that allows its graduates to find employment more easily. If this is the case, then the author's claim is unwarranted and his suggestion that Omega University should terminate the evaluation of professors is not overly persuasive.

Finally, even if it is true that inflated grade point averages are the result of a flawed professor's teaching evaluation procedure, further evidence is needed whether other more approaches would help in mitigating the adverse effects of unemployment. It might be too extreme to terminate student evaluation of professors. Perhaps the university could redesign the evaluation process to not punish teachers strictly, so they will not feel compelled to assign higher grades to the students. If the above is true, then the argument does not hold water.

In conclusion, the argument, as it stands now, is considerably flawed and if the author is able to provide three pieces of evidence regarding the rise in grade point averages of Omega University's students, then it will be possible to evaluate the viability of the proposed recommendation to terminate student evaluation of professor.

Votes
Average: 7.3 (2 votes)
Essay Categories

Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 401, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'students'' or 'student's'?
Suggestion: students'; student's
...seen as an inaccurate reflection of the students accomplishment and therefore students a...
^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 277, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'students'' or 'student's'?
Suggestion: students'; student's
...lpha University might be based upon the students performance in every lecture rather tha...
^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 394, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...n. Thus, such evidence would weaken the authors implication of Omega University student...
^^^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
consequently, finally, first, however, if, may, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, thus, for example, for instance, in conclusion, first of all, it is true

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 29.0 19.6327345309 148% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.9520958084 100% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 30.0 28.8173652695 104% => OK
Preposition: 55.0 55.5748502994 99% => OK
Nominalization: 30.0 16.3942115768 183% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2590.0 2260.96107784 115% => OK
No of words: 471.0 441.139720559 107% => OK
Chars per words: 5.49893842887 5.12650576532 107% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.65859790218 4.56307096286 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.95872956272 2.78398813304 106% => OK
Unique words: 223.0 204.123752495 109% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.473460721868 0.468620217663 101% => OK
syllable_count: 838.8 705.55239521 119% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.8 1.59920159681 113% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 65.3634527269 57.8364921388 113% => OK
Chars per sentence: 123.333333333 119.503703932 103% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.4285714286 23.324526521 96% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.09523809524 5.70786347227 142% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.67664670659 171% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.326608763366 0.218282227539 150% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0964765639308 0.0743258471296 130% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0675966688911 0.0701772020484 96% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.191442209281 0.128457276422 149% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0329805873147 0.0628817314937 52% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.7 14.3799401198 109% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 32.22 48.3550499002 67% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.197005988 116% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.92 12.5979740519 118% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.02 8.32208582834 108% => OK
difficult_words: 128.0 98.500998004 130% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 12.3882235529 93% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => 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.

Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 8 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 2 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 472 350
No. of Characters: 2520 1500
No. of Different Words: 216 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.661 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.339 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.834 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 203 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 160 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 125 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 72 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.476 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.012 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.667 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.313 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.507 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.066 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5