The following appeared in a letter to the editor of Parson City's local newspaper.
"In our region of Trillura, the majority of money spent on the schools that most students attend — the city-run public schools — comes from taxes that each city government collects. The region's cities differ, however, in the budgetary priority they give to public education. For example, both as a proportion of its overall tax revenues and in absolute terms, Parson City has recently spent almost twice as much per year as Blue City has for its public schools — even though both cities have about the same number of residents. Clearly, Parson City residents place a higher value on providing a good education in public schools than Blue City residents do."
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
The author of the letter to the editor of parson city's local newspaper claims that the parson city residents value good education in public schools more than blue city residents do. this is based on the premise that the majority of the money spent on schools in the region of Trillura comes from the city taxes and the two cities differ in budget allocation given to public education - both as a percentage of its overall tax revenues and in absolute terms. however, before any serious action is taken based on the aforementioned assertion, the following three specific pieces of evidences must be evaluated.
First of all, we need ascertain the exact total income of parson city and blue city and the percentage of this income being spent on education. The author states - without proof - that there is a difference in the budged alloted to public education in these two cities. He also sates that the parson city has recently spent almost twice as much per year as blue city. however, it may be completely possible that the revenue of parson city is more than 5 times blue city and is thus able to provide more money in absolute terms. Furthermore, if the percentage of income set aside for education is less for parson city it may mean that althougth parson city spends more than blue city on education, it residents place less importance on good education. consequently, it becomes imperative to find the absolute revenue and the percentages of income allotted to education for both the cities.
Second, we need to find out the number of students in each of the two cities and money spent on education per student. parson city may be a city full of students and as a result the number of students in the blue city may be miniscule as compared to the number of students in parson city. it may be possible that blue city was spending larger amounts of money per student than parson city. Accordingly, if this were to be true, it may mean that the resideents of blue city place a larger value on good education in public schools than parson city.
last but not the least, we need chronological records of absolute and percentage wise spending on education in the last 5-10 years. The author states that the evidence is recent, it may have been outdated or it may be that the evidence is only for a very samll time frame. Maybe the study was performed when there have been recent redevelopments in schools of parson city -- perhaps because they were old and dilapidated -- which may have cause an abnormal spike in the spends on expenditure. On the other hand it may be possible that the schools in blue city are newly built and hence require less maintaince. As a consequence, if this evidence were to be true, it would indicate that although both cities place equal importance on education in public schools, it was due to abonrmalities that the evidence was misinterpreted.
In conclusion, the seemingly cogent argument as it stands now, is considerably flawed due to its reliance on a multitude of unwaranted assumptions. if the auther of the letter is able to provide the three aforenamed evidences -- perhaps in the form of systematic research -- then it may be possible to exhaustively evaluate the viability of the assertion provided in the letter to the editor.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 6 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 14 2
No. of Sentences: 14 15
No. of Words: 567 350
No. of Characters: 2646 1500
No. of Different Words: 220 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.88 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.667 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.585 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 181 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 120 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 94 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 60 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 40.5 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 21.56 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.857 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.417 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.63 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.16 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 459, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: However
...all tax revenues and in absolute terms. however, before any serious action is taken bas...
^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 369, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: However
...st twice as much per year as blue city. however, it may be completely possible that the...
^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 752, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Consequently
...lace less importance on good education. consequently, it becomes imperative to find the abso...
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 120, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Parson
...d money spent on education per student. parson city may be a city full of students and...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 290, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: It
... the number of students in parson city. it may be possible that blue city was spen...
^^
Line 10, column 1, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Last
... public schools than parson city. last but not the least, we need chronologica...
^^^^
Line 13, column 149, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: If
... a multitude of unwaranted assumptions. if the auther of the letter is able to pro...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
accordingly, also, but, consequently, first, furthermore, hence, however, if, may, second, so, then, thus, in conclusion, as a result, first of all, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 31.0 19.6327345309 158% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 16.0 12.9520958084 124% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 38.0 28.8173652695 132% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 76.0 55.5748502994 137% => OK
Nominalization: 25.0 16.3942115768 152% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2721.0 2260.96107784 120% => OK
No of words: 567.0 441.139720559 129% => OK
Chars per words: 4.79894179894 5.12650576532 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.87972968509 4.56307096286 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.66295396111 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 227.0 204.123752495 111% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.400352733686 0.468620217663 85% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 885.6 705.55239521 126% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 13.0 4.96107784431 262% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 28.0 22.8473053892 123% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 47.9054015744 57.8364921388 83% => OK
Chars per sentence: 136.05 119.503703932 114% => OK
Words per sentence: 28.35 23.324526521 122% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.3 5.70786347227 145% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 7.0 5.25449101796 133% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.67664670659 192% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.355491875529 0.218282227539 163% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.123967556365 0.0743258471296 167% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.106775459055 0.0701772020484 152% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.218229730437 0.128457276422 170% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.140055797939 0.0628817314937 223% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.4 14.3799401198 107% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 43.06 48.3550499002 89% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.197005988 116% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.86 12.5979740519 86% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.92 8.32208582834 95% => OK
difficult_words: 104.0 98.500998004 106% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 19.0 12.3882235529 153% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.2 11.1389221557 119% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => 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.