The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a local newspaper in Masontown:
“If we want to save money on municipal garbage disposal fees, we need to encourage our residents to recycle more. Late last year, our neighboring town, Hayesworth, passed a law requiring that all households recycle paper and glass, or pay a fine. Since that time, Hayesworth has seen its garbage disposal costs significantly decrease. If we implemented an advertising campaign encouraging our residents to recycle, Masontown would also save money on disposal of its waste.”
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered 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 authorities in Masontown want to save money on garbage disposal fees and for that they plan on implementing an advertising campaign to encourage the residents to recycle, thus saving money on disposal of its waste. To support this argument, a comparison with a neighbouring town Hayesworth is done, who have passed a law requiring all households to recycle or pay a fine, and they have seen the disposal costs significantly decrease. This claim seems to be strong on first glance, however, there are several unstated assumptions that need to be examined before arriving at the conclusion.
The author compares Masontown to the neighbouring town Hayesworth, but fails to provide evidence that these two towns are actually comparable. Are the population of both these towns same? Is the amount of garbage of Masontown similar to Hayesworth? It might have been easier in Hayesworth to implement because they might have a lower population and the amount of garbage is therefore lesser. By recycling only paper and glass, they could have brought down the disposal cost. But that might not be the case in Masontown. If so, it weakens the argument significantly. Also, Hayestown residents are expected to pay a fine if they do not recycle. However, we do not know if the people of Masontown can afford to pay such a fine.
Moreover, to encourage the residents to recycle, the town has to implement an advertising campaign which requires money to be spent. Say they spend Rs.200000 to spread awareness among people and end up saving Rs.10000/year, then it would take 20 years to recover the initial investment. The cost for the campaign and the possible savings need to be established in order to evaluate the argument.
Even if the above assumptions are accounted for, say both the towns are comparable and it is profitable to implement an advertising campaign, it is given that the residents of Hayesworth recycled only paper and glass. It is not possible to recycle everything in an household and the people of Masontown might already be in the habit of recycling paper and glass. If so, to spread an awareness about recycling might be futile.
To conclude, it is a good initiative to try to save money on garbage disposal fees. However, the author fails to provide a cogent argument that by recycling it can achieved. The above questions need to be answered and more evidence is required to strengthen the argument, before reaching the conclusion that an advertising campaign encouraging residents to recycle needs to be implemented.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 425 350
No. of Characters: 2064 1500
No. of Different Words: 188 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.54 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.856 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.808 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 143 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 121 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 96 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 61 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.238 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.237 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.619 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.297 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.497 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.069 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 469, Rule ID: ON_FIRST_GLANCE[1]
Message: Did you mean 'at'?
Suggestion: at
...decrease. This claim seems to be strong on first glance, however, there are severa...
^^
Line 7, column 263, 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
...s not possible to recycle everything in an household and the people of Masontown m...
^^
Line 9, column 165, Rule ID: DID_BASEFORM[1]
Message: The verb 'can' requires the base form of the verb: 'achieve'
Suggestion: achieve
...ogent argument that by recycling it can achieved. The above questions need to be answere...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, however, if, moreover, so, then, therefore, thus, as to
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 14.0 11.1786427146 125% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 13.6137724551 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 27.0 28.8173652695 94% => OK
Preposition: 64.0 55.5748502994 115% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 16.3942115768 79% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2124.0 2260.96107784 94% => OK
No of words: 422.0 441.139720559 96% => OK
Chars per words: 5.03317535545 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.53239876712 4.56307096286 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.92561433631 2.78398813304 105% => OK
Unique words: 192.0 204.123752495 94% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.454976303318 0.468620217663 97% => OK
syllable_count: 666.9 705.55239521 95% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 4.96107784431 161% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 58.9936389207 57.8364921388 102% => OK
Chars per sentence: 101.142857143 119.503703932 85% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.0952380952 23.324526521 86% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.95238095238 5.70786347227 69% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => 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: 0.243396847466 0.218282227539 112% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0744641928945 0.0743258471296 100% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0524739279533 0.0701772020484 75% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.145395879759 0.128457276422 113% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0427598773599 0.0628817314937 68% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.3 14.3799401198 86% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.89 12.5979740519 94% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.66 8.32208582834 92% => OK
difficult_words: 81.0 98.500998004 82% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => 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.