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

Essay topics:

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 to editor, a Central Plaza owner predicts that buisness in Central Plaza will increase if skateboarding is banned in the plaza. He makes this prediction on the basis that a decrease in buisness is due to increase in skateboarding in Central Plaza. The prediction can only be fully evaulated if the store owner is able to provide answers to the following 3 questions.
Firstly, What are the factors that dictate the volume of shoppers in Central Park? There are usually multiple factors which govern shoppong volume for a place. It may be the case that because of increase in shopping done online, physical stores may be experiencing a decrease in their footfall. It can also be the case the new shopping complexes have opened nearby and were diverting traffic from Central Plaza. Maybe, a few of the shops in Central Plaza have closed down and the decline in traffic is the shoppers that shopped in those shops. Increase in skateboarders should not be the reason for decline in shoppers instead the skateboarders could also be shopping at Central Plaza. If any of the reasons are true than assumptions are greatly weakened.
Secondly, What are the reasons for the rise in vandalism and littering? The rise is in vandalism maybe because of rising crime in the area not specifically in Central Plaza. The rise in littering maybe due to the budget cuts in the sanitation department of the city. The skateboarders maybe even be using the abondened part of Central Plaza and discouraging crimes in those parts. If either of the above statement are true, than the grounds of the prediction are filmsy at best.
Lastly, How scientific was the data collection regarding buisness,skateboarders, vandalism and loitering. It may be the case that only buisness for the shopkeeper writing the letter may have seen an decrease and the buisness for others would not have been affected. It may also be that no change or not a very huge difference was seen in the other activities described in the letter, the increase in them was only been observed by the particular shopkeeper and not by the shopkeepers, departments of the city or the police department. If either of these scenarios has merit, then prediction based on the original presumption is significantly weakened.
In conclusion, the prediction that banning skateboarding in Central Plaza will increase business to its previous high levels doesnot hold water because it is based on faulty assumptions. If the author of the letter can answer the 3 questions and provide evidence(perhaps in the form of a systematic study), than the validity of the prediction can be evaulated .

Votes
Average: 6.9 (3 votes)
Essay Categories

Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 583, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... Increase in skateboarders should not be the reason for decline in shoppers inste...
^^
Line 2, column 687, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...ould also be shopping at Central Plaza. If any of the reasons are true than assump...
^^
Line 3, column 267, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
... the sanitation department of the city. The skateboarders maybe even be using the a...
^^^
Line 3, column 424, Rule ID: COMMA_THAN[1]
Message: Did you mean 'then'?
Suggestion: then
...either of the above statement are true, than the grounds of the prediction are films...
^^^^
Line 4, column 66, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma
Suggestion: , skateboarders
...s the data collection regarding buisness,skateboarders, vandalism and loitering. It may be the...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 196, 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
...keeper writing the letter may have seen an decrease and the buisness for others wo...
^^
Line 5, column 305, Rule ID: COMMA_THAN[1]
Message: Did you mean 'then'?
Suggestion: then
...haps in the form of a systematic study, than the validity of the prediction can be e...
^^^^
Line 5, column 357, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Don't put a space before the full stop
Suggestion: .
...idity of the prediction can be evaulated .
^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, firstly, if, lastly, may, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, in conclusion

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 30.0 19.6327345309 153% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 13.6137724551 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 21.0 28.8173652695 73% => OK
Preposition: 58.0 55.5748502994 104% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 16.3942115768 79% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2194.0 2260.96107784 97% => OK
No of words: 441.0 441.139720559 100% => OK
Chars per words: 4.97505668934 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.58257569496 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.97603430158 2.78398813304 107% => OK
Unique words: 197.0 204.123752495 97% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.446712018141 0.468620217663 95% => OK
syllable_count: 692.1 705.55239521 98% => 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: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
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: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 44.5748370695 57.8364921388 77% => OK
Chars per sentence: 104.476190476 119.503703932 87% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.0 23.324526521 90% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.33333333333 5.70786347227 76% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 8.0 5.25449101796 152% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.67664670659 192% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.308306387407 0.218282227539 141% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0982025242843 0.0743258471296 132% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.111088981661 0.0701772020484 158% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.18319605743 0.128457276422 143% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.118833119352 0.0628817314937 189% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.5 14.3799401198 87% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.6 12.5979740519 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.12 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 96.0 98.500998004 97% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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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.

Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 442 350
No. of Characters: 2151 1500
No. of Different Words: 192 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.585 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.867 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.817 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 151 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 121 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 87 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 53 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.048 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.074 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.714 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.31 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.31 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.112 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5