The following appeared in a letter to the editor of the Parkville Daily newspaper.
"Throughout the country last year, as more and more children below the age of nine participated in youth-league sports, over 40,000 of these young players suffered injuries. When interviewed for a recent study, youth-league soccer players in several major cities also reported psychological pressure exerted by coaches and parents to win games. Furthermore, education experts say that long practice sessions for these sports take away time that could be used for academic activities. Since the disadvantages outweigh any advantages, we in Parkville should discontinue organized athletic competition for children under nine."
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.
The letter received by the Parkville Daily Newspaper editor has concluded that it is better to discontinue athletic competition for children under the age of nine. The author of the letter in their defense has talked about the large number of injuries that youth league sports have caused in the past year. He or she has also stated interviews with children admitting to psychological pressure from their parents and coaches. He or she also believes that the time spent in playing these sports could be better utilized for academic purposes. Before going ahead with this recommendation we have to analyze some of the obvious assumptions by the author.
Firstly, we do not have any details about the total number of students under nine participating in the youth-league sports the previous year. Because of this, we cannot understand if the number stated, 40000, is even a big enough cause of worry. Furthermore, this study does not state the type of injuries suffered by such players. It is possible that even minor injuries, which are a part of everyday sports, have been considered while publishing these numbers. Thus, without knowledge of the total number of children in youth-league sports and the type of injuries recorded we cannot understand whether this statistic is worth consideration or not.
Secondly, we need to find out what a nine year old exactly considers to be psychological pressure and what is assumed by the interviewer. If a child simply admits that his coach and parents always want him to win, this is a trivial situation as this is the case with every parent and coach. From the given details it is not clear whether a child admits to psychological pressure or whether it is simply inferred by the their interviewer. Hence, proper information and details about the questions and responses need to be produced to be actually able to understand the mental space of the child.
Thirdly, the author of the letter has assumed that the disadvantages of an nine year old child playing sports is simply greater than the numerous advantages. This is a very gross oversimplification. In the age bracket being talked about it is extremely important for a child to stay active and socialize. It is in this age that a child understands his/her interests and tries to pursue a future path in it. Simply removing this exceptionally important aspect from a child’s childhood is irresponsible on its own.
Due to the above stated reasons and unwarranted assumption by the author, the argument as it stands now, is flawed. To further understand and analyze the recommendation more evidence is required (perhaps in the form of a more systematic and detailed study). Only then would we be able to evaluate its viability. Therefore, we have concluded that currently, the facts stated by the author do not hold water and more proof is required to understand and consider the argument effectively.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 10 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 3 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 486 350
No. of Characters: 2370 1500
No. of Different Words: 231 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.695 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.877 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.824 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 170 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 121 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 90 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 54 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.13 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 5.833 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.565 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.284 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.514 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.152 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 543, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “Before” 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 utilized for academic purposes. Before going ahead with this recommendation we...
^^^^^^
Line 1, column 606, Rule ID: SOME_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'some'.
Suggestion: some
... this recommendation we have to analyze some of the obvious assumptions by the author. F...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 416, Rule ID: DT_PRP[1]
Message: Possible typo. Did you mean 'the' or 'their'?
Suggestion: the; their
...ure or whether it is simply inferred by the their interviewer. Hence, proper information ...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 73, 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
...r has assumed that the disadvantages of an nine year old child playing sports is s...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, first, firstly, furthermore, hence, if, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, third, thirdly, thus, while
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.6327345309 127% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 12.9520958084 46% => OK
Conjunction : 18.0 11.1786427146 161% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 13.6137724551 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 47.0 28.8173652695 163% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 66.0 55.5748502994 119% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 16.3942115768 67% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2428.0 2260.96107784 107% => OK
No of words: 485.0 441.139720559 110% => OK
Chars per words: 5.00618556701 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.69283662038 4.56307096286 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.89352335661 2.78398813304 104% => OK
Unique words: 236.0 204.123752495 116% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.486597938144 0.468620217663 104% => OK
syllable_count: 758.7 705.55239521 108% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 11.0 4.96107784431 222% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 34.863059135 57.8364921388 60% => OK
Chars per sentence: 105.565217391 119.503703932 88% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.0869565217 23.324526521 90% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.30434782609 5.70786347227 93% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.172442870993 0.218282227539 79% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0488514824249 0.0743258471296 66% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0599467303149 0.0701772020484 85% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0933803341329 0.128457276422 73% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0582168340936 0.0628817314937 93% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.7 14.3799401198 88% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.78 12.5979740519 94% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.06 8.32208582834 97% => OK
difficult_words: 104.0 98.500998004 106% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.