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 argues that, in order to reduce the number of accidents involving mopeds during the summer season, the moped rental companies should be restricted to moped rental per day. To support his/her argument, the author cites the following evidences: first, increasing population are likely to cause serve accidents involving mopeds and pedestrians; second, limiting the number of rentals, the moped accidents can be reduced; third, this policy is effective when implemented in Torseau. Tough the proposal has its merit, due to lack of relevant evidences and unaddressed assumptions, the argument remains unsubstantiated and flawed.
To begin with, the author unfairly suggests that rented moped is the only cause causes of the accidents. If the accidents were mainly due to the increasing number of mopeds on the street, the proposed policy for reducing the number of mopeds might be helpful. Nonetheless, what if the accidents were mainly due to the recklessness of a small number of mopeds riders? It makes no sense to restrict the supply for rentals when a small number of young people who ride the moped in an irresponsible way were the main causes of the accidents. Or perhaps, certain areas in Balmer were just too crowded to ride mopeds safely and banning mopeds in such area would be a much better solution than restricting the rentals.
Moreover, the author assumes that the accidents can be declined after executing this policy. The rental companies are not the only sources of mopeds. Local residents can own mopeds privately while this policy will not reduce the number of such mopeds. If the self-owned mopeds compose a larger proportion of the total mopeds in the city, then the total amount of mopeds will not decrease significantly owing to policy, therefore unlikely to decreasing accidents a lot. Perhaps some tourists will bring their own mopeds along and the policy could not prevent them from doing so. In addition, if mopeds are really fun to ride, maybe people who could not rent the mopeds will buy one, a scenario the policy could not prevent, either. We need to ask whether the majority of mopeds in Balmer are from the rental company to decide if the policy will make any difference.
The last issue we need to address is the extent to which the success of the policy in Seaville could be replicated in Balmer. To consider this issue, we have to answer the following questions. Did the policy reduce the accidents in Seavelle? Or could other factors such as the number of tourists or weather be responsible for the improvement? Balmer should only consider adopting the policy if it really helped reduce the accidents in Seavelle. Another question is this: did Balmer have the characteristics similar to Seavelle that were important for the proposed policy to work? For example, suppose Seavelle had an effective and competent management team to carry out the policy. Would Balmer be able to implement the policy in an equally effective way with its local officials? Balmer has to be similar enough to Seavelle in various aspects in order for the policy to work.
Overall speaking, imitating the policy adopted in Seavelle to reduce the number of accidents involving Moped may or may not be a good idea depending on the answers to a host of questions that have been explored above. Unless these questions are answered with more solid evidence, the issue remains unresolved.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- somehow duplicated to argument 1
argument 3 -- OK
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something missing:
...the population increases to 100,000 during the summer months....
...the town council will attain the 50 percent annual reduction..
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 568 350
No. of Characters: 2778 1500
No. of Different Words: 255 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.882 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.891 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.534 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 227 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 133 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 97 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 61 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 27.048 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 15.843 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.571 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.359 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.563 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.209 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 92, Rule ID: THE_FALL_SEASON[1]
Message: Use simply 'summer'.
Suggestion: summer
...er of accidents involving mopeds during the summer season, the moped rental companies should be r...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 335, Rule ID: SMALL_NUMBER_OF[1]
Message: Specify a number, remove phrase, use 'a few', or use 'some'
Suggestion: a few; some
... were mainly due to the recklessness of a small number of mopeds riders? It makes no sense to res...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 426, Rule ID: SMALL_NUMBER_OF[1]
Message: Specify a number, remove phrase, use 'a few', or use 'some'
Suggestion: a few; some
...to restrict the supply for rentals when a small number of young people who ride the moped in an i...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 476, Rule ID: IN_A_X_MANNER[1]
Message: Consider replacing "in an irresponsible way" with adverb for "irresponsible"; eg, "in a hasty manner" with "hastily".
...mber of young people who ride the moped in an irresponsible way were the main causes of the accidents. ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 712, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...r solution than restricting the rentals. Moreover, the author assumes that the ac...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 865, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... if the policy will make any difference. The last issue we need to address is the...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 343, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ther be responsible for the improvement? Balmer should only consider adopting the...
^^
Line 7, column 446, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...helped reduce the accidents in Seavelle. Another question is this: did Balmer hav...
^^
Line 7, column 582, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...portant for the proposed policy to work? For example, suppose Seavelle had an eff...
^^
Line 7, column 685, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...management team to carry out the policy. Would Balmer be able to implement the po...
^^
Line 7, column 785, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... effective way with its local officials? Balmer has to be similar enough to Seave...
^^
Line 7, column 882, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...aspects in order for the policy to work. Overall speaking, imitating the policy...
^^^^^^
Line 9, column 220, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...questions that have been explored above. Unless these questions are answered with...
^^
Line 9, column 313, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... evidence, the issue remains unresolved.
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
first, if, may, moreover, nonetheless, really, second, so, then, therefore, third, while, as to, for example, in addition, such as, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.6327345309 127% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 22.0 12.9520958084 170% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 22.0 28.8173652695 76% => OK
Preposition: 75.0 55.5748502994 135% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 16.3942115768 73% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2900.0 2260.96107784 128% => OK
No of words: 561.0 441.139720559 127% => OK
Chars per words: 5.16934046346 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.86676880123 4.56307096286 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.02864377348 2.78398813304 109% => OK
Unique words: 260.0 204.123752495 127% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.463458110517 0.468620217663 99% => OK
syllable_count: 908.1 705.55239521 129% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 19.7664670659 86% => OK
Sentence length: 33.0 22.8473053892 144% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 207.989036842 57.8364921388 360% => The lengths of sentences changed so frequently.
Chars per sentence: 170.588235294 119.503703932 143% => OK
Words per sentence: 33.0 23.324526521 141% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.52941176471 5.70786347227 149% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 14.0 5.25449101796 266% => Less language errors wanted.
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => 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: 0.194687513249 0.218282227539 89% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0729033368894 0.0743258471296 98% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.050878398547 0.0701772020484 72% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.118271891749 0.128457276422 92% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0407373248451 0.0628817314937 65% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 19.4 14.3799401198 135% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 37.98 48.3550499002 79% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 16.2 12.197005988 133% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.3 12.5979740519 106% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.1 8.32208582834 109% => OK
difficult_words: 136.0 98.500998004 138% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 15.2 11.1389221557 136% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => 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.