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 from the editor of central plaza store, it is stated that the business in Central plaza is declining due to increase in the number of skateboarders in the plaza and it is recommended that prohibiting skateboarders will help the central plaza to regain its business. However, before this recommendation can be properly evaluated, three questions must be answered.
First of all, is the decline in shoppers at central plaza only due to the increase in skateboarders? It is possible that the shoppers have moved to some other plaza which is offering much better deals than central plaza for shopping. Or perhaps the shoppers have moved to online platforms for shopping, which offers huge discounts on products that too with free home delivery. Further, there is a possibility that the economic conditions of shoppers have taken a hit, and that is the reason they are abstaining themselves from spending too much since last two years. If either of these scenarios has merit, then the recommendation given in the main argument is significantly weakened.
Secondly, is the amount of litter and vandalism directly proportional to increase in number of skateboarders? Are skateboarders the only reason for the litter and property damage? Perhaps there may be a local gang doing all the vandalism in the night just to irk the shop keepers or to hurt their business. Or there is another possibility that the litter and vandalism is done by store owners of nearby plaza to attract the shoppers of central plaza to their stores. Further, it is also possible that the building of Central plaza is too old and it is getting deteriorated by its own. If any of the above is true, then the main argument doesn't hold water.
Finally, third question is, how can the author be so sure of revival of business by prohibiting the skateboarders in the plaza? If the litter and vandalism is not stopped even after banning the skateboarders and if it is one of the reasons for shoppers for avoiding shopping in central plaza, then even by prohibiting the skateboarders, business will not be able to return to its previous high levels. Or maybe skateboarders are the only one who are shopping in the plaza and the old shoppers have stopped shopping in the central plaza due to its high cost. Therefore, banning them will only further decrease the business of central plaza. If any of the above is true, the recommendation in the argument cannot be adopted.
In conclusion the argument, as it stands now, is considerably flawed due to its reliance on several unwarranted assumptions. If the author is able to answer the three questions above and offer more evidence (perhaps in the form of a systematic research study), then it will be possible to evaluate the viability of the proposed recommendation to prohibit skateboarders in central plaza.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 479 350
No. of Characters: 2308 1500
No. of Different Words: 200 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.678 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.818 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.851 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 156 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 126 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 94 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 44 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.95 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.814 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.65 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.337 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.523 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.094 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 639, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...e above is true, then the main argument doesnt hold water. Finally, third question i...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, first, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, third, in conclusion, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 33.0 19.6327345309 168% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 12.9520958084 69% => OK
Conjunction : 14.0 11.1786427146 125% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 28.8173652695 97% => OK
Preposition: 68.0 55.5748502994 122% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 16.3942115768 67% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2364.0 2260.96107784 105% => OK
No of words: 478.0 441.139720559 108% => OK
Chars per words: 4.94560669456 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.67581127817 4.56307096286 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.91379263104 2.78398813304 105% => OK
Unique words: 204.0 204.123752495 100% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.426778242678 0.468620217663 91% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 743.4 705.55239521 105% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 1.0 8.76447105788 11% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 62.1233450484 57.8364921388 107% => OK
Chars per sentence: 118.2 119.503703932 99% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.9 23.324526521 102% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.65 5.70786347227 99% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.313352637944 0.218282227539 144% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.102500315134 0.0743258471296 138% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.1067307443 0.0701772020484 152% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.196217196783 0.128457276422 153% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0801997215792 0.0628817314937 128% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.8 14.3799401198 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.3550499002 100% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.73 12.5979740519 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.65 8.32208582834 92% => OK
difficult_words: 87.0 98.500998004 88% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => 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.