The following appeared in an editorial in a local newspaper.
"Commuters complain that increased rush-hour traffic on Blue Highway between the suburbs and the city center has doubled their commuting time. The favored proposal of the motorists' lobby is to widen the highway, adding an additional lane of traffic. Opponents note that last year's addition of a lane to the nearby Green Highway was followed by a worsening of traffic jams on it. Their suggested alternative proposal is adding a bicycle lane to Blue Highway. Many area residents are keen bicyclists. A bicycle lane would encourage them to use bicycles to commute, it is argued, thereby reducing rush-hour traffic."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
The given local newspaper editorial discusses the issue of increased rush-hour traffic on Blue Highway between the suburbs and the city center which has doubled the commuting time of residents. The two proposals are provided with one for adding an additional lane of traffic and other for adding a bicycle lane to the highway. However, the latter one is based on a number of doubtful assumptions and therefore unconvincing. Certain questions need to be answered before accepting this proposal.
The favored proposal of motorist's lobby to widen the highway by adding an additional lane is refused by the opponents by giving the reason that the similar solution used by Green Highway resulted in an opposite effect. However, it is not necessary that the same consequences will follow with Blue Highway. It can be possible that the number of commuters increased after the addition of the new lane. Considering all the problems faced by Green Highway, the given proposal should be modified by figuring out the solutions to those problems.
Coming to the suggested solution of adding a bicycle lane, the assumption that bicyclists are one of the significant source of the traffic on the highway needs to be substantiated. The statement that many area residents are keen bicyclists is not enough of the evidence to conclude that they cause the traffic. It can be possible that the traffic is mostly caused by motorbikes, cars and other vehicles, and not bicycles. Therefore, adding a bicycle lane will not be any helpful in reducing the traffic.
Moreover, it can also not be concluded that the people will surely consider using bicycle for commuting once the bicycle lane is added. Even though the residents may be keen bicyclists but this does not mean they will use bicycle to go to their office. Using bicycle takes more time and energy and one may not consider it over automobiles. So, to accept this proposal, it should be first confirmed with the residents if they are willing to switch to bicycles for commuting.
Both the proposals seem plausible but are proved not convincing enough to be implemented. The problems faces by Green Highway should be considered before adding the additional lane on traffic. And if it is not feasible, certain questions such as what are the real source of traffic and are the residents willing to use bicycle for commuting should be answered before applying the other solution.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 3 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 2 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 402 350
No. of Characters: 1977 1500
No. of Different Words: 177 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.478 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.918 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.602 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 155 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 119 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 82 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 50 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.158 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.322 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.474 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.319 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.546 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.059 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 239, Rule ID: ADD_AN_ADDITIONAL[1]
Message: This phrase might be redundant. Use simply 'adding a lane'.
Suggestion: adding a lane
...two proposals are provided with one for adding an additional lane of traffic and other for adding a bicyc...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 65, Rule ID: ADD_AN_ADDITIONAL[1]
Message: This phrase might be redundant. Use simply 'adding a lane'.
Suggestion: adding a lane
...motorists lobby to widen the highway by adding an additional lane is refused by the opponents by giving t...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 104, Rule ID: AGREEMENT_SENT_START[1]
Message: You should probably use 'face', 'fax'.
Suggestion: face; fax
... enough to be implemented. The problems faces by Green Highway should be considered b...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, may, moreover, so, therefore, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.6327345309 132% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 13.6137724551 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 23.0 28.8173652695 80% => OK
Preposition: 52.0 55.5748502994 94% => OK
Nominalization: 7.0 16.3942115768 43% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2022.0 2260.96107784 89% => OK
No of words: 402.0 441.139720559 91% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.02985074627 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.47771567384 4.56307096286 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.68955978523 2.78398813304 97% => OK
Unique words: 183.0 204.123752495 90% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.455223880597 0.468620217663 97% => OK
syllable_count: 644.4 705.55239521 91% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => 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: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 42.7672305753 57.8364921388 74% => OK
Chars per sentence: 106.421052632 119.503703932 89% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.1578947368 23.324526521 91% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.57894736842 5.70786347227 63% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.20758483034 134% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => 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: 0.227391988949 0.218282227539 104% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0757425538723 0.0743258471296 102% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.11624005556 0.0701772020484 166% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.142908692937 0.128457276422 111% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.109668417017 0.0628817314937 174% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.8 14.3799401198 89% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.89 12.5979740519 94% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.41 8.32208582834 101% => OK
difficult_words: 95.0 98.500998004 96% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.