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.
According to the letter from plaza store owner, the popularity of central plaza would be thrive again if the city government inhibit skateboarding in this area. The reason why store owner drive this conclusion is because he/she thought the popularity of skateboarding directly caused the decrease of customers and more litter and vandalism were made by these skateboarding players. Convincing though it seems at a first glance, there are still some questions remain asking to make the conclusion more credulous.
While it is true there are more skateboarding players in the plaza, we cannot confirm that these players are the most influential or even the only factor effect the running of store owner, so we need to ask some further questions to check whether the plaza is only dominated by players. Specifically, whether these players are the only group who use this plaza?
Also, how long and how often this players normally stay there compared with other users? If these answers all show that it is impossible for any other visitors or staffs to effect the running of plaza then the conclusion would be more believable, but on the other hand, the conclusion would be undermined if there are still other users since we need further research to see who affect the plaza most.
In addition to that, although there is an surge in the amount of litter and vandalism, no evidence directly determine that players are the only causer. We need to answer questions including how much litter was thrown by players and what’s the percent of damage was done by players to see is there a direct link between the dirty of plaza and behaviors of players. Only when those answers show that players are the main cause of these damage then we can insist that player would make the plaza dirtier or it is unfounded to draw that conclusion.
Granted that these skateboarding player do have a direct influence on the drop of customers of these stores, it is still too early to say that after they are totally prohibited, the popularity would come back to the highest level. Again, we do not know whether these players is the only trigger of the decrease and if not, other problems would take the priority and the popularity still cannot reach the high level. Store owners need to know something like the amount of visitors of the whole area or is there any stimulation previously before make the finally conclusion. If all these factors other than skateboard players show that it is impossible for the plaza to thrive again then the probability for the increase of customer is little, while if it shows that everything remain the same other than these skateboard players, then the prohibition of these players is plausible to a large extent.
In conclusion, it is undoubtedly that the emergence of skateboard players may affect the business. However, owners cannot make sure that this business would absolutely prosper again without these players. They need do more surveys about all different potential cause or change among the plaza before making a well-rounded conclusion.
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: 17 15
No. of Words: 517 350
No. of Characters: 2501 1500
No. of Different Words: 221 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.768 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.838 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.514 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 163 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 119 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 75 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 57 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 30.412 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 13.681 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.765 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.369 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.628 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.173 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 211, Rule ID: REASON_IS_BECAUSE[1]
Message: Probably an incorrect phrase. Use 'the reason 'is that''.
Suggestion: is that
...n why store owner drive this conclusion is because he/she thought the popularity of skateb...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 30, Rule ID: THIS_NNS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'these'?
Suggestion: these
...s plaza? Also, how long and how often this players normally stay there compared wi...
^^^^
Line 7, column 40, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'a' instead of 'an' if the following word doesn't start with a vowel sound, e.g. 'a sentence', 'a university'
Suggestion: a
... In addition to that, although there is an surge in the amount of litter and vanda...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, however, if, may, so, still, then, well, while, in addition, in conclusion, it is true, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 17.0 12.9520958084 131% => OK
Conjunction : 14.0 11.1786427146 125% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 49.0 28.8173652695 170% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 55.0 55.5748502994 99% => 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: 2557.0 2260.96107784 113% => OK
No of words: 516.0 441.139720559 117% => OK
Chars per words: 4.95542635659 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.76609204519 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.586938551 2.78398813304 93% => OK
Unique words: 226.0 204.123752495 111% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.437984496124 0.468620217663 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 790.2 705.55239521 112% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 4.0 8.76447105788 46% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 19.7664670659 86% => OK
Sentence length: 30.0 22.8473053892 131% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 74.3535927 57.8364921388 129% => OK
Chars per sentence: 150.411764706 119.503703932 126% => OK
Words per sentence: 30.3529411765 23.324526521 130% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.76470588235 5.70786347227 136% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 6.88822355289 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.157880269286 0.218282227539 72% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0622479684178 0.0743258471296 84% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0733471645313 0.0701772020484 105% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0990680673619 0.128457276422 77% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0689502359372 0.0628817314937 110% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.1 14.3799401198 119% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 49.49 48.3550499002 102% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.8 12.197005988 113% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.08 12.5979740519 96% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.82 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 88.0 98.500998004 89% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 14.0 11.1389221557 126% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.