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 letter given to editor from Central Plaza owner, it is assumed that the decrease of their business and increased vandalism throughout the plaza is because of skateboarders in the Plaza. This conclusion is based on the assumption that, from the last two years number of skateboarding has increased and at the same time numbers of shopper decreased dramatically. Therefore, it is recommended that city should prohibit the skateboarding in plaza. However, before this recommendation is properly evaluated three questions must be answered.
Firstly, is there any strong relation that can act as a testimony to decreased number of shoppers in the plaza because of skateboarders? Perhaps it is possible that skateboarding has gained popularity in past two years and the shoppers are themselves enjoy skateboarding in the plaza or it might be possible that for the first year the skateboarding was very less popular and also at that the same time shoppers drop dramatically, also it might be the case that during the second the year popularity of skateboarding increased whereas the shoppers numbers remain at its nadir. Therefore, without giving proper evidence the arguer makes unfair assumption.
Secondly, are there any other aspects taken into consideration for dwindling number of shoppers? Perhaps it is possible that new plaza has opened up in the area which captivated the numbers of shoppers. For example, it might be possible that this new plaza offers discounts and it is cheap as compared to the Central Plaza. It might be also possible that the surfeit of shops have been opened in the area which has curtailed the number of shoppers in the Central Plaza. If above is true, the argument doesn’t hold water.
Thirdly, has there been any breakthrough in the past two years that has affected the Central Plaza? Perhaps it is possible that the introduction of online shopping has transformed the whole world resulting in decline number of shoppers in the Central Plaza. Hence, shoppers do shopping just sitting at home without even stepping out of their home. Therefore, considering this aspect the arguer makes unwarranted assumption.
In sum, the argument, as it stands now, is considerably flawed due to its reliance on several unwarranted assumption. If the author is able to offer more evidence (perhaps in the form of a systematic research study), then it will be possible to fully evaluate the feasibility of the argument.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 398 350
No. of Characters: 2001 1500
No. of Different Words: 181 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.467 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.028 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.851 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 140 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 113 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 84 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 48 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.111 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 14.271 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.722 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.34 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.34 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.075 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 539, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'shoppers'' or 'shopper's'?
Suggestion: shoppers'; shopper's
... of skateboarding increased whereas the shoppers numbers remain at its nadir. Therefore,...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, firstly, hence, however, if, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, third, thirdly, whereas, for example
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 11.1786427146 54% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 34.0 28.8173652695 118% => OK
Preposition: 55.0 55.5748502994 99% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2049.0 2260.96107784 91% => OK
No of words: 397.0 441.139720559 90% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.16120906801 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.46372701284 4.56307096286 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.92589193352 2.78398813304 105% => OK
Unique words: 185.0 204.123752495 91% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.465994962217 0.468620217663 99% => OK
syllable_count: 637.2 705.55239521 90% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 2.0 8.76447105788 23% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 83.0368057617 57.8364921388 144% => OK
Chars per sentence: 113.833333333 119.503703932 95% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.0555555556 23.324526521 95% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.5 5.70786347227 114% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => 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: 0.382220177014 0.218282227539 175% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.119860652965 0.0743258471296 161% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.11988157021 0.0701772020484 171% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.212184790085 0.128457276422 165% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.119300467312 0.0628817314937 190% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.9 14.3799401198 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 49.15 48.3550499002 102% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.65 12.5979740519 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.15 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 86.0 98.500998004 87% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 12.3882235529 93% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.