The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a journal on environmental issues.
"Over the past year, the Crust Copper Company (CCC) has purchased over 10,000 square miles of land in the tropical nation of West Fredonia. Mining copper on this land will inevitably result in pollution and, since West Fredonia is the home of several endangered animal species, in environmental disaster. But such disasters can be prevented if consumers simply refuse to purchase products that are made with CCC's copper unless the company abandons its mining plans."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
According to the letter to the editor appeared in a journal on environmental issues, the author asserts that the environmental catastrophe possibly caused by the CCC’s purchase of 10,000 square miles of land can be prevented if the consumers avoid to buy the firm’s products made by copper. However, before this conclusion is evaluated , three questions must be answered.
First of all, the author is assumes that the CCC will use the purchased 10,000 square miles of land to perform mining. Even so, this might not be the case. The company could have purchased the land for conservation projects to set an image to the world. There could be a possibility that the firm will use the land to enhance their past reputation regarding their environmentally destruction operations. It is also possible for the firm to have this asset as an investment and the executives assure that the land will have a significant purpose. In either of the above scenarios have merit, then the argument is enfeebled.
Second of all, the letter to the editor claims that if mining is carried out on the land purchased by CCC, then it will inevitably pollute the environment. Perhaps, this may not be true. The author presumes this because of older mining technologies that might have proven to cause tremendous pollution and harm the environment. There may be a possibility that, due to advancement in technology the new mining techniques have become somewhat more environmental friendly and are significantly less likely to cause pollution. In addition, even if the mining techniques have not advanced to that level, the company might have learnt from past experiences and have found ways to clean and restore the damage caused to the environment by the mining operations. If either case hold water, the author’s contention the mining of copper will result in environmental pollution dramatically weakens.
Finally, if we consider the claim that the land acquired by the CCC will be used to mine copper which will affect the environment severely, the author believes that the consumers will have the resources to identify the products made by the CCC’s copper obtained by mining activity. It is probable, the CCC whole sales their copper to dozens, if not hundreds, of retail corporations and its trademarks do not appear in any of the products. There may a possibility that their logo is indistinguishable or hidden in the detailed information manual and hence many consumers might be unable to ascertain the origins of the components. If it is true that the customers find it arduous to select products without CCCs influence, then the authors submission is not valid and his suggestion will do little to convince the company to forgo its mining plan.
In conclusion, it is possible that consumers refusing the buy products made by CCC will force the firm to abandon its propositions regarding the purchase of land. However, the argument, as it stands now, relies on three unwarranted assumptions that portray its conclusion unpersuasive at best and specious at worst. Thus, the author needs to provide additional evidence regarding the company’s true intentions to use the land, the prospects of pollution from mining and whether consumers will be able to differentiate CCC’s products from its competitors.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 8 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 7 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 539 350
No. of Characters: 2699 1500
No. of Different Words: 238 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.818 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.007 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.866 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 194 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 139 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 113 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 77 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.667 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 11.395 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.905 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.308 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.308 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.071 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 243, Rule ID: ADMIT_ENJOY_VB[1]
Message: This verb is used with the gerund form: 'avoid buying'.
Suggestion: avoid buying
... land can be prevented if the consumers avoid to buy the firm’s products made by copper. How...
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 336, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma, but not before the comma
Suggestion: ,
...ver, before this conclusion is evaluated , three questions must be answered. Fir...
^^
Line 3, column 491, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ronmental friendly and are significantly less likely to cause pollution. In addit...
^^
Line 3, column 636, Rule ID: PAST_EXPERIENCE_MEMORY[1]
Message: Use simply 'experiences'.
Suggestion: experiences
...vel, the company might have learnt from past experiences and have found ways to clean and restor...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 732, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...oducts without CCCs influence, then the authors submission is not valid and his suggest...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 556, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...te CCC’s products from its competitors.
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, first, hence, however, if, may, regarding, second, so, then, thus, even so, in addition, in conclusion, first of all, it is true
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 22.0 12.9520958084 170% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 38.0 28.8173652695 132% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 72.0 55.5748502994 130% => OK
Nominalization: 22.0 16.3942115768 134% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2767.0 2260.96107784 122% => OK
No of words: 539.0 441.139720559 122% => OK
Chars per words: 5.13358070501 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.81833721656 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.94422955191 2.78398813304 106% => OK
Unique words: 247.0 204.123752495 121% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.458256029685 0.468620217663 98% => OK
syllable_count: 853.2 705.55239521 121% => 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: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 22.8473053892 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 70.0050856591 57.8364921388 121% => OK
Chars per sentence: 131.761904762 119.503703932 110% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.6666666667 23.324526521 110% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.80952380952 5.70786347227 119% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
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: 0.310429077808 0.218282227539 142% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0995732496253 0.0743258471296 134% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0855155656675 0.0701772020484 122% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.195328996682 0.128457276422 152% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0546041236651 0.0628817314937 87% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.6 14.3799401198 108% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 46.1 48.3550499002 95% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.77 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.8 8.32208582834 106% => OK
difficult_words: 134.0 98.500998004 136% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.1389221557 108% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => 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.