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.
Central plaza store owner’s statement that is negatively linking the number of skateboard users in the plaza to the business, seems reasonable initially. But the recommendation fails to provide any substantial evidence that connects decrease in Central Plaza business to increased number of skateboard users in the Plaza. So, some substantive proof is needed to conclude that the recommendation has predicted correctly.
Plaza owner mentions that from past two years, number of customers is decreasing. There might be other reasons for a reduced number of customers. Major question that should be answered here is apart from skateboard users are there any other notable things in plaza that is causing the customers to deviate from the plaza. For example, if the plaza is old and it frequently undergoes repair work due to which there is lot of noise and dust, because of such reasons customers may not feel like visiting the plaza . Also very less information is given about the skateboard users. One needs further details to come to a conclusion. Details like, on an average how many skateboard users are present at the plaza? What are business hours and skateboard users use plaza for skating in business hours or after closing hours? It is also important know whether the Plaza owner has taken any action on skateboard users earlier.
Moreover, there is no mention of any customer complaining about skateboard users, garbage or vandalized plaza to plaza owners. If, customers are really bothered by skateboard user and other problem they should have complained. So it is crucial to know if there any complaints from customers coming to Central plaza. Conversely, if there are lot of complaints against skateboard users from plaza customers , it bolsters the owner’s recommendation. The recommendation utterly fails to give proof that skateboard users are vandalizing the property. Vandalism and increased garbage may be due to lack of garbage cans and security measures. Plaza owner should give more information such as- are garbage cans available in plaza? If yes, how many and are they easily accessible to customers? Plaza owner mentions about vandalism, but he fails to inform about any preventive measures that are taken and why they are not successful. However, if it is proved that skateboards users are vandalizing the property and making the plaza filthy, the recommendation correctly predicts that prohibiting skating will cause the business to flourish.
Further, there is no solid proof that the Plaza was making huge profits earlier. It is also possible that customers are dissatisfied by the services of the shops in the plaza. It is important to know about customer satisfaction about the services provided by the plaza shops.
Due to aforementioned reasons, Central Plaza Owner’s recommendation may not be useful. The City council should further investigate about this matter before proscribing skateboard users from Central Plaza.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 7 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 27 15
No. of Words: 469 350
No. of Characters: 2432 1500
No. of Different Words: 203 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.654 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.186 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.786 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 165 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 141 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 97 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 67 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 17.37 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.331 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.63 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.351 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.493 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.122 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 511, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Don't put a space before the full stop
Suggestion: .
...ers may not feel like visiting the plaza . Also very less information is given abo...
^^
Line 3, column 514, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Also,
... may not feel like visiting the plaza . Also very less information is given about th...
^^^^
Line 5, column 405, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma, but not before the comma
Suggestion: ,
...st skateboard users from plaza customers , it bolsters the owner’s recommendation....
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, conversely, however, if, may, moreover, really, so, apart from, for example, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 32.0 19.6327345309 163% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 12.9520958084 69% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 13.6137724551 95% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 28.8173652695 83% => OK
Preposition: 60.0 55.5748502994 108% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 16.3942115768 79% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2501.0 2260.96107784 111% => OK
No of words: 469.0 441.139720559 106% => OK
Chars per words: 5.33262260128 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.65364457471 4.56307096286 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.86838482457 2.78398813304 103% => OK
Unique words: 211.0 204.123752495 103% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.449893390192 0.468620217663 96% => OK
syllable_count: 788.4 705.55239521 112% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 3.0 8.76447105788 34% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 27.0 19.7664670659 137% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 22.8473053892 74% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 39.6608392164 57.8364921388 69% => OK
Chars per sentence: 92.6296296296 119.503703932 78% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.3703703704 23.324526521 74% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.51851851852 5.70786347227 62% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.20758483034 134% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.302359608931 0.218282227539 139% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.102134019008 0.0743258471296 137% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0825360996146 0.0701772020484 118% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.212391467776 0.128457276422 165% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0757104285939 0.0628817314937 120% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.4 14.3799401198 86% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 45.76 48.3550499002 95% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.34 12.5979740519 106% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.12 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 108.0 98.500998004 110% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 11.1389221557 79% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => 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.