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 this paragraph, the Central Plaza store owner claims that an increase in popularity of skateboarding has repelled shoppers thus leading to a decline in business. The author thus recommends the interdiction of skateboarding as a solution to the plummeting business.
While skateboarding could be a potential cause for this issue, there are other factors that should also be considered. For instance, in his argument, the author mentions a drastic increase in littering and vandalism, implying that this is due to the increased popularity of skateboarding. However, there is no evidence to support that there is a relationship between skateboarding and the rundown state of the plaza. If these two factors are indeed unrelated, prohibiting skateboarding will not reduce vandalism and littering and these elements will remain deterrents to shopping in the plaza.
Even if there is a correlation between skateboarding and the poor condition of the plaza, actions need to be taken towards removing the trash and vandalism in order to promote shopping in the plaza. As a result, it is likely that the suggestion to prohibit skateboarding will not improve business as predicted on its own.
Furthermore, it is important to note that if the skateboarders are the sources of vandalism and littering in the plaza, prohibiting skateboarding might not necessarily prevent them from these actions. It could actually lead to an increase in vandalism and littering if the skateboarders decide to protest against the interdiction of skateboarding through these means. Thus the author's suggestion could have the opposite effect if measures aren't taken to ensure that there are suitable locations available for skateboarding.
There are also other possible explanations that need to be considered. For example, it is probable that the opening of a new shopping center with more varied options is the reason for the drop in business at the plaza. The shoppers need to look into other possible explanations and eliminate them before coming to a conclusion about the source of the decrease in business.
As can be seen, in order for the author's recommendation to have the predicted result, several questions need to be investigated. Is the increase in littering and vandalism truly the reason for the drop in business? Is there a correlation between the skateboarders and vandalism in the plaza? Will prohibiting skateboarding actually increase vandalism as a way of rebelling against the interdiction? The author of this argument has made assumptions about the answers to these questions without looking for evidence to support them. As a result, it is likely that his predictions may not occur.
Comments
Essay evaluation 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: 20 15
No. of Words: 426 350
No. of Characters: 2216 1500
No. of Different Words: 178 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.543 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.202 4.6
Word Length SD: 3.137 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 162 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 139 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 108 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 69 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.3 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.325 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.8 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.338 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.338 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.104 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 4, column 368, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Thus,
...n of skateboarding through these means. Thus the authors suggestion could have the o...
^^^^
Line 4, column 377, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...eboarding through these means. Thus the authors suggestion could have the opposite effe...
^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 439, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: aren't
...ld have the opposite effect if measures arent taken to ensure that there are suitable...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: ALSO_OTHER[1]
Message: Use simply 'there are other' or 'there are also'
Suggestion: There are other; There are also
...locations available for skateboarding. There are also other possible explanations that need to be c...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 6, column 34, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...ness. As can be seen, in order for the authors recommendation to have the predicted re...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, furthermore, however, if, look, may, so, thus, while, for example, for instance, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 22.0 19.6327345309 112% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.9520958084 116% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 30.0 28.8173652695 104% => OK
Preposition: 62.0 55.5748502994 112% => OK
Nominalization: 15.0 16.3942115768 91% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2261.0 2260.96107784 100% => OK
No of words: 425.0 441.139720559 96% => OK
Chars per words: 5.32 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.54043259262 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.19699166551 2.78398813304 115% => OK
Unique words: 177.0 204.123752495 87% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.416470588235 0.468620217663 89% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 712.8 705.55239521 101% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 39.8711675274 57.8364921388 69% => OK
Chars per sentence: 113.05 119.503703932 95% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.25 23.324526521 91% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.4 5.70786347227 95% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => 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: 0.183964491226 0.218282227539 84% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0624397752627 0.0743258471296 84% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0644532463213 0.0701772020484 92% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.112016053819 0.128457276422 87% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0551706538865 0.0628817314937 88% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.3 14.3799401198 99% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 41.7 48.3550499002 86% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.197005988 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.58 12.5979740519 108% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.02 8.32208582834 96% => OK
difficult_words: 90.0 98.500998004 91% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 12.3882235529 97% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => 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.