The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a Batavia newspaper.
"The department of agriculture in Batavia reports that the number of dairy farms throughout the country is now 25 percent greater than it was 10 years ago. During this same time period, however, the price of milk at the local Excello Food Market has increased from $1.50 to over $3.00 per gallon. To prevent farmers from continuing to receive excessive profits on an apparently increased supply of milk, the Batavia government should begin to regulate retail milk prices. Such regulation is necessary to ensure fair prices for consumers."
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.
While it may be true that the government should have some kind of regulation in retail milk prices to ensure farmers do not overprice the product, the author of this letter should need to analyze all possible reasons for the price changes, since he fails to evaluate all points in depth.
First, the author says that since the number of dairy farms have increase 25 percent over the last 10 years, the price of milk should reduce because of incremented production, however, he does not take into account the increase in population for Batavia, if the population growth overpassed that of the population coverage of the farms, it would result in an increase of demand but lack of offer, meaning the prices would go up.
Similarly, the author does not consider the changes in price of the cows that produce the milk, or a possible decrease of production per cow. If the cost of the animals producing the milk increases, the cost of the milk would also increase, no matter how much the number of farms grew. Likewise, if the production per cow decreased, that would explain the increase of farms, in order to maintain the supply of milk, but at the same time, increasing expenses for the farmers, and the cost of the product.
Finally, the author of the letter fails to take into account the changes of economy. If the economy has gone through a big inflation period, things like gasoline, vehicles, and workers’ salaries would have gone up, making profits smaller, which would translate into the farmers increasing prices to cover up those expenses.
If the author of the letter wants to make a strong case against the price increases of milk, and for the government to regulate retail prices of it, he would have to provide data about these scenarios and how they affected the prices, to see if farmers are overpricing milk or just compensating for other factors.
argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- OK
More content wanted.
For issue essays, around 450 words, for argument essays, around 400 words.
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 8 15
No. of Words: 323 350
No. of Characters: 1499 1500
No. of Different Words: 152 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.239 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.641 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.356 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 107 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 75 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 44 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 24 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 40.375 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 17.902 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 1 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.486 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.804 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.192 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5