The following appeared as a letter to the editor from a Central Plaza store owner.
"Over the past two years, the number of shoppers in Central Plaza has been steadily decreasing while the popularity of skateboarding has increased dramatically. Many Central Plaza store owners believe that the decrease in their business is due to the number of skateboard users in the plaza. There has also been a dramatic increase in the amount of litter and vandalism throughout the plaza. Thus, we recommend that the city prohibit skateboarding in Central Plaza. If skateboarding is prohibited here, we predict that business in Central Plaza will return to its previously high levels."
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.
In the above evidence, the author assumes that the decrease in the customers in Central Plaza is due to the increased popularity of skateboarding. The reason that the author assumes this is due to increased cases of vandalism along with the increased number of skateboard users in the central plaza. Hence to increase the number of shoppers in the central plaza, skateboarding should be prohibited in the central plaza. However, this recommendation is fallacious and it very likely may not have the intended results.
Primarily, there is no evidence pointing to the decrease in the number of shoppers in the central plaza is due to the increased number of skateboarders. No proof has been provided, no surveys have been taken and there haven't even been any complaints by the shoppers of the central plaza that the skateboarders are a nuissance to them. So simply assuming that the skateboarders are the root of the problem will not prove fruitful. The decrease in the number of shoppers may be because of a different reason altogether like the public not wanting to physically go and shop anymore. The increased current trend of online shopping allows the customers to shop from the comfort of their home and this can very well be the reason of the decreased number of shoppers.
As for the dramatic increase in the amount of litter and vandalism, there has been no proof that the skateboarders were responsible for them. Without any proofs or evidences, assuming that the skateboarders are responsible for them will not serve the purpose of finding the root problem of the decreased number os shoppers in the central plaza. Even if it was to be assumed that the skateboarders were responsible for the vandalism, and hence even if skateboarding was to be prohibited in the central plaza, there is no guarantee that that will increase the number of shoppers.
Although, the skateboarders might prove to be a nuisance to the shoppers on foot in the central plaza as there is an increased chances of accidents happening when the skateboarders are using the same place for skateboarding as the pedestrians are using while they are shopping.
Thus, the relation drawn between the decreased number of shoppers in the central plaza, the increased number of skateboarders and the increased amount of litter and vandalism throughout the plaza although plausible, is not cogent enough and hence the conclusion derived on it as a solution to the decreased number of shoppers in the central plaza is fallacious and may to lead to the expected result.
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: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 14 15
No. of Words: 426 350
No. of Characters: 2083 1500
No. of Different Words: 154 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.543 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.89 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.874 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 148 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 118 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 88 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 55 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 30.429 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.91 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.643 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.463 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.654 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.199 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 301, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Hence,
... skateboard users in the central plaza. Hence to increase the number of shoppers in t...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 219, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: haven't
...d, no surveys have been taken and there havent even been any complaints by the shopper...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 531, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: that
...he central plaza, there is no guarantee that that will increase the number of shoppers. ...
^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
hence, however, if, may, so, thus, well, while, as for, as to
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 29.0 19.6327345309 148% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 12.9520958084 69% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 20.0 28.8173652695 69% => OK
Preposition: 63.0 55.5748502994 113% => 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: 2126.0 2260.96107784 94% => OK
No of words: 425.0 441.139720559 96% => OK
Chars per words: 5.00235294118 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.54043259262 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.93316556089 2.78398813304 105% => OK
Unique words: 154.0 204.123752495 75% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.362352941176 0.468620217663 77% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 660.6 705.55239521 94% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 4.96107784431 20% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 14.0 19.7664670659 71% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 30.0 22.8473053892 131% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 77.6332626481 57.8364921388 134% => OK
Chars per sentence: 151.857142857 119.503703932 127% => OK
Words per sentence: 30.3571428571 23.324526521 130% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.35714285714 5.70786347227 76% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.67664670659 21% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.420901116379 0.218282227539 193% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.184459046925 0.0743258471296 248% => Sentence topic similarity is high.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.118083110022 0.0701772020484 168% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.280577891867 0.128457276422 218% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0657613491321 0.0628817314937 105% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.3 14.3799401198 120% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 41.03 48.3550499002 85% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.0 12.197005988 123% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.31 12.5979740519 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.02 8.32208582834 96% => OK
difficult_words: 78.0 98.500998004 79% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 14.0 11.1389221557 126% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.