The following appeared in a letter to the editor of the Balmer Island Gazette.
"On Balmer Island, where mopeds serve as a popular form of transportation, the population increases to 100,000 during the summer months. To reduce the number of accidents involving mopeds and pedestrians, the town council of Balmer Island should limit the number of mopeds rented by the island's moped rental companies from 50 per day to 25 per day during the summer season. By limiting the number of rentals, the town council will attain the 50 percent annual reduction in moped accidents that was achieved last year on the neighboring island of Seaville, when Seaville's town council enforced similar limits on moped rentals."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
The author of the letter puts forth some seemingly valid points but his entire reasoning as a whole seems to be rife with holes and inconsistencies. The entire argument is based on assumptions made about the popularity of rented mopeds, baseless statistics and another town's actions. The town council would have to consider a number of questions and evaluate these thoroughly before actually implementing the recommendation.
The author states that the population rises to 100,000 in the summer months. This may indeed be a fact but it is unknown since no source is quoted in the letter for this particular number, so this claim must be verified. Also, an increase in population does not necessarily mean an increase in number of mopeds used. Perhaps an alternative form of transport is used, such as public buses, or even walking. Whatever the case may be, a detailed trend analysis must be carried out to see how population increase, if any, affects moped usage. When patterns of usage are determined a decision can be made on limiting the number of mopeds on the roads.
The author states that mopeds are a popular form of transport. While this may be true, popular is a subjective term and could quite literally mean anything. There is no backing to prove that most people in the town use mopeds as their primary form of transport. Mopeds may be most commonly used by some section of residents or tourists and this is one of the questions that the council would have to find the answer to. If the council can determine how popular the use of mopeds is it will be able to evaluate the situation better.
The author seems to believe that all the mopeds used by the general population are rented, but perhaps some section of the people own their own mopeds. If this is true, then limiting the number of rentals need not bring about any kind of a reduction in the number of these vehicles that are on the streets of Balmer Island during the summer months. It must be determined by the town council whether the majority of the people rent or own mopeds. Also, it is not necessary that by reducing the number of mopeds on the streets, the number of accidents will drastically fall. There will still be a substantial number of mopeds and pedestrians, and one careless rider can do more damage that four careful riders. This must also be taken into consideration by the town council before any decisions are made.
Although it seems like the author has put forth some valid points about the number of accidents in summer and their reduction, it is necessary that the town council consider all the related questions before taking any decision on the matter. So it seems unlikely that any immediate action will be taken based on one recommendation by the author, but on investigating the matter further perhaps the council can decide on the best course of action.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 22 15
No. of Words: 498 350
No. of Characters: 2319 1500
No. of Different Words: 209 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.724 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.657 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.522 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 172 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 104 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 71 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 43 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.636 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.631 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.682 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.321 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.321 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.058 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 285, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...s statistics and another towns actions. The town council would have to consider a n...
^^^
Line 2, column 1, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...ually implementing the recommendation. The author states that the population rises...
^^^
Line 2, column 539, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “When” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
... increase, if any, affects moped usage. When patterns of usage are determined a deci...
^^^^
Line 3, column 420, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...uncil would have to find the answer to. If the council can determine how popular t...
^^
Line 4, column 230, Rule ID: KIND_OF_A[1]
Message: Don't include 'a' after a classification term. Use simply 'kind of'.
Suggestion: kind of
...ber of rentals need not bring about any kind of a reduction in the number of these vehicl...
^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, if, may, so, still, then, while, kind of, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 29.0 19.6327345309 148% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 20.0 12.9520958084 154% => OK
Conjunction : 15.0 11.1786427146 134% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 30.0 28.8173652695 104% => OK
Preposition: 66.0 55.5748502994 119% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 16.3942115768 79% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2364.0 2260.96107784 105% => OK
No of words: 498.0 441.139720559 113% => OK
Chars per words: 4.74698795181 5.12650576532 93% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.72397222731 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.58274463111 2.78398813304 93% => OK
Unique words: 221.0 204.123752495 108% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.443775100402 0.468620217663 95% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 756.0 705.55239521 107% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 0.0 4.22255489022 0% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 22.0 19.7664670659 111% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 42.6030107965 57.8364921388 74% => OK
Chars per sentence: 107.454545455 119.503703932 90% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.6363636364 23.324526521 97% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.18181818182 5.70786347227 56% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 8.20758483034 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 6.88822355289 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.189768514515 0.218282227539 87% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0648357498424 0.0743258471296 87% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0587793229441 0.0701772020484 84% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.100977077744 0.128457276422 79% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0539931461808 0.0628817314937 86% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.3 14.3799401198 86% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 57.61 48.3550499002 119% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.57 12.5979740519 84% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.9 8.32208582834 95% => OK
difficult_words: 100.0 98.500998004 102% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.