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.
The argument is flawing in its attempt to provide a convincing case that prohibiting skateboarding in Central Plaza would return the business to its high level that took place in the past.
Firstly, the store owner unwarrantedly prescribes the increased amount of litter and vandalism to the group of skateboarders. For example, it is well-known, that litter can be brought by local animals who find food supplement in big trashes which are often placed next to shopping malls. Some pieces of evidence like video records should be presented to prove that assertion.
Secondly, the author of the argument attempts to compare business levels for different years for which the economy and, consequently, the financial state of affairs of the population could differ significantly. Eventually, some information about prices in shops or the population’s incomes should be presented. Maybe some of the shops' owners increased the prices of their goods that had made them unaffordable for shoppers. Such economic issues should be overseen, in other cases, no one could conclude that skateboarders caused the decrease of business in Central Plaza.
And finally, the argument contains no information about other shopping centers available for ex-shoppers of Plaza. Probably, during two years any other malls appeared in the nearby vicinity that have advantages appealing population, for example, free and big parking, playrooms for kids or wealth food court. If it is true, the store owners of Central Plaza should analyze features of concurrent shopping centers and make some improvements that would be able to return their shoppers.
Summing up the above, reasons of different origin can explain the decrease in business affairs of Central Plaza. Answering the presented question can help shop owners to evaluate the recommendation and to give a more convincing assumption.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 13 15
No. of Words: 291 350
No. of Characters: 1542 1500
No. of Different Words: 163 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.13 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.299 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.805 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 118 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 93 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 66 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 39 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.385 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.463 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.462 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.34 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.627 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.06 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 323, Rule ID: SOME_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'some'.
Suggestion: some
...os;s incomes should be presented. Maybe some of the shops owners increased the prices of th...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
consequently, finally, first, firstly, if, may, second, secondly, so, well, for example, it is true
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 9.0 19.6327345309 46% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 15.0 28.8173652695 52% => OK
Preposition: 40.0 55.5748502994 72% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1594.0 2260.96107784 71% => OK
No of words: 291.0 441.139720559 66% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.47766323024 5.12650576532 107% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.13022058845 4.56307096286 91% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.95015130675 2.78398813304 106% => OK
Unique words: 165.0 204.123752495 81% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.567010309278 0.468620217663 121% => OK
syllable_count: 484.2 705.55239521 69% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 4.96107784431 40% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 19.7664670659 66% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 37.6308761556 57.8364921388 65% => OK
Chars per sentence: 122.615384615 119.503703932 103% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.3846153846 23.324526521 96% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.61538461538 5.70786347227 133% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.171043786446 0.218282227539 78% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0641594625618 0.0743258471296 86% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0570347663527 0.0701772020484 81% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.10074202733 0.128457276422 78% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0347629263476 0.0628817314937 55% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.6 14.3799401198 108% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 40.69 48.3550499002 84% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.1 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.8 12.5979740519 117% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.18 8.32208582834 110% => OK
difficult_words: 82.0 98.500998004 83% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => 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.