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 a letter to the editor, a store owner of a central plaza argued that the number of shoppers is decreasing bacause of the skateboard users in the plaza and by banning skateboarding, their business will restore to the previous high. But this conclusion is based on a number of faulty assumptions and do not answer few vital questions. Without considering these questions, the desired effect might not be achieved.
Firstly, the store owner assumed that the the decline in shopper is due to the dramatic increase in the popularity of the skateboarding. But that might not be the case at all. Although it might be true that the increase in skatborder in the mall has increased but it is also possible that those skaters are also among the regular shoppers there. Another possibility that the shop owners should consider is that whether a new shopping mall has been built or if any existing one is giving better deals to attract more customers. If that is the case that might explain the decrese in shoppers better. So, more comprehensive reasoning is required before pointing at the skateboarders.
Secondly, it was said by the author that the vandalism and littering has been increased in the plaza and the assumption here is that the skateboarders are the reason for that. But it is possible that the management system for keeping the plaza clean is not funtioning properly, so that regular amount of littering is accumulating and resulting into a increased load. It might also be the case that some other group of people are doing the vandalism. Just because skateboarding has become more popular, we cannot reason that they have become less civil. That would be stereotyping. A better monitoring system can solve the issue.
Furthermore, the author is predicting their success solely based on the banning of the skateboarders. As mentioned earlier, there might have other players in the fields who are giving better offers and variety to the customers. If that is the case, banning skateboarders may not have any effect whatsoever. Plus, it is possible that other plazas in the area have embraced the trend and made seperate path in the walkway for the skaters. This can actually increase the potential number of buyers. If the skaters feels safe skating in the plaza, they might go to the plaza more readily than to go somewhere else. So, if banned, it is possible that the plaza might lose a portion of their regular customer who have taken up skating along with a number of potential buyers.
Thus, it is not possible to guarantee the prediction of returing the old glory of high level of business can be reached by only prohibiting the skateboarding in the mall. Moreover it can result in adverse effect. Furthermore scrutiny is required of the other factors in play before making this decision.
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: 25 15
No. of Words: 477 350
No. of Characters: 2281 1500
No. of Different Words: 218 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.673 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.782 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.661 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 160 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 118 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 80 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 47 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.08 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.512 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.72 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.271 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.459 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.045 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 39, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: the
... Firstly, the store owner assumed that the the decline in shopper is due to the dramat...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 39, Rule ID: DT_DT[1]
Message: Maybe you need to remove one determiner so that only 'the' or 'the' is left.
Suggestion: the; the
... Firstly, the store owner assumed that the the decline in shopper is due to the dramat...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 528, 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.
...better deals to attract more customers. If that is the case that might explain the...
^^
Line 5, column 350, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
...ring is accumulating and resulting into a increased load. It might also be the ca...
^
Line 9, column 172, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Moreover,
...hibiting the skateboarding in the mall. Moreover it can result in adverse effect. Furthe...
^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 214, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Furthermore,
...reover it can result in adverse effect. Furthermore scrutiny is required of the other facto...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, firstly, furthermore, if, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, thus
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 31.0 19.6327345309 158% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 17.0 12.9520958084 131% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 22.0 13.6137724551 162% => OK
Pronoun: 40.0 28.8173652695 139% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 53.0 55.5748502994 95% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 16.3942115768 24% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2338.0 2260.96107784 103% => OK
No of words: 477.0 441.139720559 108% => OK
Chars per words: 4.90146750524 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.67336384929 4.56307096286 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.74441657136 2.78398813304 99% => OK
Unique words: 226.0 204.123752495 111% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.473794549266 0.468620217663 101% => OK
syllable_count: 730.8 705.55239521 104% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 4.96107784431 202% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 25.0 19.7664670659 126% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 53.1574867728 57.8364921388 92% => OK
Chars per sentence: 93.52 119.503703932 78% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.08 23.324526521 82% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.8 5.70786347227 67% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 16.0 8.20758483034 195% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.202851025625 0.218282227539 93% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0500524707679 0.0743258471296 67% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0734515254847 0.0701772020484 105% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.11531704092 0.128457276422 90% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0733316023728 0.0628817314937 117% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.2 14.3799401198 78% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 60.65 48.3550499002 125% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.5 12.197005988 78% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.14 12.5979740519 88% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.09 8.32208582834 97% => OK
difficult_words: 106.0 98.500998004 108% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 Out of 6
---------------------
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.