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.
The argument makes several unstated assumptions and hence, is not well reasoned. While it may be true that decrease in the Central Plaza’s business is due to the number of skateboard users in the plaza, the author's unsubstantiated argument utterly fails to weave a cogent case to prove it.
The author makes a crucial error in logic when it assumes that skateboarding enthusiasts are a subset of shoppers. There could be a possibility that the shoppers and skateboarding enthusiasts are a distinct community. In that case, the decline in shopping volume cannot be attributed to the increasing popularity of skateboarding. The shopping volumes may have declined due to other factors such as newer shopping complexes with better amenities and greater attraction.
Also troubling is the argument's assumption that shopping and skateboarding timings are the same. People may prefer a certain time slot for recreational activities such as skateboarding and a different one for shopping. Let us say that if the majority of skateboarding enthusiasts prefer a morning slot and shoppers visit the Plaza in the evening - It is unlikely that the skateboarding is eating into shopping volume. Had the author mentioned that both the activities happen during the same time and skateboarding enthusiasts are a subset of shoppers, the logic would have been stronger.
Another unstated attribution the argument makes is that the litter and vandalism are caused by skateboarding enthusiasts. There could be several other reasons responsible for it. Opening of food joints in the Plaza or vicinity; the opening of bars; deteriorating security infrastructure or police patrolling in and around the Plaza could well be responsible for the same. Had the author stated that both littering and vandalism are done by skateboarding enthusiasts, the logic would have been more cogent.
Finally, the author does not provide other important details such as the changes in security measures as well as the shopping experience at the mall. Also, changes in the locality, local consumer landscape as well as the opening of new shopping complexes in the vicinity. These data points would be an important indicator of business drivers.
To conclude, the author makes many unaddressed assumptions that seriously undermine its validity. Unless these underlying assumptions are addressed, the argument falls apart, the conclusion that skateboarding is hurting the business volume at Central Plaza could be flawed.
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: 19 15
No. of Words: 386 350
No. of Characters: 2053 1500
No. of Different Words: 178 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.432 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.319 4.6
Word Length SD: 3.046 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 155 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 125 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 97 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 59 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.316 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.519 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.474 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.33 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.592 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.095 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 1, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Also,
...er amenities and greater attraction. Also troubling is the arguments assumption t...
^^^^
Line 3, column 23, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'arguments'' or 'argument's'?
Suggestion: arguments'; argument's
...er attraction. Also troubling is the arguments assumption that shopping and skateboard...
^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, if, may, so, thus, well, such as, as well as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.9520958084 77% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 18.0 28.8173652695 62% => OK
Preposition: 28.0 55.5748502994 50% => More preposition wanted.
Nominalization: 6.0 16.3942115768 37% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1859.0 2260.96107784 82% => OK
No of words: 337.0 441.139720559 76% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.51632047478 5.12650576532 108% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.28457229495 4.56307096286 94% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.12734768787 2.78398813304 112% => OK
Unique words: 168.0 204.123752495 82% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.498516320475 0.468620217663 106% => OK
syllable_count: 582.3 705.55239521 83% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 4.96107784431 20% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 19.7664670659 86% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 38.5406808846 57.8364921388 67% => OK
Chars per sentence: 109.352941176 119.503703932 92% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.8235294118 23.324526521 85% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.76470588235 5.70786347227 66% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 8.20758483034 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 0.0 4.67664670659 0% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.120159339304 0.218282227539 55% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0384865630572 0.0743258471296 52% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0375636335937 0.0701772020484 54% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0680440442874 0.128457276422 53% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0403593726822 0.0628817314937 64% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.5 14.3799401198 101% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 43.73 48.3550499002 90% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.74 12.5979740519 117% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.03 8.32208582834 109% => OK
difficult_words: 95.0 98.500998004 96% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 12.3882235529 85% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 15.0 11.9071856287 126% => 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.