The following appeared in a letter to the editor of the Balmer Island Gazette.
"The population on Balmer Island increases to 100,000 during the summer months. To reduce the number of accidents involving mopeds and pedestrians, the town council of Balmer Island plans to limit the number of mopeds rented by each of the island's six moped rental companies from 50 per day to 30 per day during the summer season. Last year, the neighboring island of Torseau enforced similar limits on moped rentals and saw a 50 percent reduction in moped accidents. We predict that putting these limits into effect on Balmer Island will result in the same reduction in moped accidents."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the prediction 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 prediction.
At first glance, the argument put up in the letter to the editor about adding limits on several vehicles rented per day is optimistic and would cut the number of accidents. But if we closely look at the argument, there some loopholes in the argument, which, if don't go in favor of the argument would also lead to loss of business.
Firstly, the argument mentions the town council of Balmer Island have planned to limit the number of moped rentals during summers. There is no enumeration of the number of moped and pedestrian accidents happening in the Balmer Island. There should be evidence provided on the number of people who drive mopers vs the number of accidents. Even though the motive of the reduction of number of moped rentals is good, there needs to be enough evidence and data provided about the number of vehicle accidents.
Secondly, would the reduction from 50 moped rentals to 30 cut the number of road accidents? There is no supporting data on the reason of these road accidents. There could be variety of reasons why there are number of accidents happening. Some of them could be, there is constructions on the roads in progress, and due to uneven roads, these accidents happen. Oil could be spilled on the road, and may more reasons why these accidents are taking place. The town council of Balmer Island should take into account these factors, and investigate before enforcing these limits.
Additionally, there is mention of a similar enforcement passed in the neighboring island of Torseau. The data and evidence about the number of people on that island, the weather, the number of accidents that reduced is wanting. Also, was that the only measure taken by Torseau to cut the road accidents? There could be other remedies as well, due to which the number of accidents has reduced. It could be possible, that they have also enforced a strict fine for people breaking signals or crossing the speed limit. There should be further investigation, and all the conditions in island of Torseau should be studied thoroughly before imitating the same behavior for Balmer Island.
As we have seen, there is a lack of solid proof for enforcing the law for limiting the number of moped rentals. Balmer Island town council should consider all factors mentioned above before enforcing such laws, as, if the reasons for accidents is different than what is presumed, these efforts would be in vain and there will also be a loss of revenue for the moped rental businesses.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 425 350
No. of Characters: 2008 1500
No. of Different Words: 184 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.54 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.725 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.418 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 153 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 97 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 61 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 37 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.25 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.861 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.45 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.373 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.566 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.161 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 262, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...me loopholes in the argument, which, if dont go in favor of the argument would also ...
^^^^
Line 9, column 262, Rule ID: THERE_S_MANY[3]
Message: Did you mean 'there are constructions'?
Suggestion: there are constructions
...dents happening. Some of them could be, there is constructions on the roads in progress, and due to un...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 13, column 217, Rule ID: PROGRESSIVE_VERBS[1]
Message: This verb is normally not used in the progressive form. Try a simple form instead.
...r, the number of accidents that reduced is wanting. Also, was that the only measure taken ...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 13, column 608, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...onditions in island of Torseau should be studied thoroughly before imitating the ...
^^
Line 17, column 258, Rule ID: RATHER_THEN[2]
Message: Did you mean 'different 'from''? 'Different than' is often considered colloquial style.
Suggestion: from
... the reasons for accidents is different than what is presumed, these efforts would b...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, if, look, may, second, secondly, so, well
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 16.0 12.9520958084 124% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 6.0 13.6137724551 44% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 15.0 28.8173652695 52% => OK
Preposition: 64.0 55.5748502994 115% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2075.0 2260.96107784 92% => OK
No of words: 424.0 441.139720559 96% => OK
Chars per words: 4.89386792453 5.12650576532 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.53775939005 4.56307096286 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.51775357832 2.78398813304 90% => OK
Unique words: 194.0 204.123752495 95% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.457547169811 0.468620217663 98% => OK
syllable_count: 641.7 705.55239521 91% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 5.0 1.67365269461 299% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 45.7368560354 57.8364921388 79% => OK
Chars per sentence: 103.75 119.503703932 87% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.2 23.324526521 91% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.4 5.70786347227 60% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 13.0 6.88822355289 189% => 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: 0.232642076861 0.218282227539 107% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0870458770344 0.0743258471296 117% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0790118215061 0.0701772020484 113% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.139543992288 0.128457276422 109% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0681993522632 0.0628817314937 108% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.2 14.3799401198 85% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 58.62 48.3550499002 121% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 12.197005988 84% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.08 12.5979740519 88% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.92 8.32208582834 95% => OK
difficult_words: 87.0 98.500998004 88% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 12.3882235529 105% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => 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.