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 states that residents of Parson City place a higher value on providing a good education in public schools than those of Blue City based on the money they spend on it. However, some information is not provided to justify his claim.
First, the letter mentions that Parson City has recently spent almost twice as much per year as Blue City. Yet, the information of previous years is not provided by the author. For example, it is probably that Parson City only pay its attention to public schools these few years. Therefore, the spending increases rapidly due to the construction of the new schools. On the contrary, Blue City keeps working on improving their education environment all the time. Although it doesn't spend quite as much as Parson City recently, the average money it spends on education of a decade is much more than that of Parson City.
Second, there is no evidence showing that the actual number of students in the two cities are the same even if their have about the same number of residents. For example, sixty percent of the people in Parson City are under twenty years old. Thus, there are many people that still rely on public schools. However, only ten percent of the citizens in Blue City are still in schools because it is a cities full of factories. As a result, the difference in money spent on education merely because the actual demand is no the same.
Also, the author also claims that the more a city spends on education, the higher value it places on it. Nevertheless, the author doesn't show any evidence that the money and the priority have some correlation. There are many different ways for a government to spend money on schools, and not every way would improve the education quality directly. For example, the mayor of Parson City might possibly put a lot of attention on the look of the schools. Therefore, most of the money spent are used to repair the buildings. In contrast, the leader in Blue City focus on improving the learning experience of students, so he spends most of the money on buying new equipments and paying more to the teachers in order to encourage their enthusiasm in teaching.
To substantiate the author's argument, he needs to provide more information.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 1 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 1 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 389 350
No. of Characters: 1791 1500
No. of Different Words: 177 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.441 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.604 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.408 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 123 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 81 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 57 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 33 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.45 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.94 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.75 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.321 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.516 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.074 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 475, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...n environment all the time. Although it doesnt spend quite as much as Parson City rece...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 396, Rule ID: A_PLURAL[1]
Message: Don't use indefinite articles with plural words. Did you mean 'a city' or simply 'cities'?
Suggestion: a city; cities
...City are still in schools because it is a cities full of factories. As a result, the dif...
^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 516, Rule ID: NOW[2]
Message: Did you mean 'now' (=at this moment) instead of 'no' (negation)?
Suggestion: now
...ion merely because the actual demand is no the same. Also, the author also cla...
^^
Line 7, column 131, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
... places on it. Nevertheless, the author doesnt show any evidence that the money and th...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 221, Rule ID: NUMEROUS_DIFFERENT[1]
Message: Use simply 'many'.
Suggestion: many
...iority have some correlation. There are many different ways for a government to spend money on...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 387, Rule ID: MIGHT_PERHAPS[1]
Message: Use simply 'might', 'possibly'.
Suggestion: might; possibly
.... For example, the mayor of Parson City might possibly put a lot of attention on the look of t...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 387, Rule ID: MAY_COULD_POSSIBLY[1]
Message: Use simply 'might'.
Suggestion: might
.... For example, the mayor of Parson City might possibly put a lot of attention on the look of t...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 21, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...sm in teaching. To substantiate the authors argument, he needs to provide more info...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, however, if, look, may, nevertheless, second, so, still, therefore, thus, for example, in contrast, as a result, on the contrary
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 19.6327345309 66% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 12.9520958084 15% => OK
Conjunction : 3.0 11.1786427146 27% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 8.0 13.6137724551 59% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 25.0 28.8173652695 87% => OK
Preposition: 53.0 55.5748502994 95% => OK
Nominalization: 20.0 16.3942115768 122% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1847.0 2260.96107784 82% => OK
No of words: 387.0 441.139720559 88% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.77260981912 5.12650576532 93% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.43534841618 4.56307096286 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.50686482784 2.78398813304 90% => OK
Unique words: 180.0 204.123752495 88% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.46511627907 0.468620217663 99% => OK
syllable_count: 579.6 705.55239521 82% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 4.96107784431 40% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 42.0617403349 57.8364921388 73% => OK
Chars per sentence: 92.35 119.503703932 77% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.35 23.324526521 83% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.05 5.70786347227 124% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 8.0 5.25449101796 152% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 6.88822355289 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 11.0 4.67664670659 235% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.277493529732 0.218282227539 127% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0855548816826 0.0743258471296 115% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0681760917125 0.0701772020484 97% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.153791797529 0.128457276422 120% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.078857016189 0.0628817314937 125% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.7 14.3799401198 74% => 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: 10.39 12.5979740519 82% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.43 8.32208582834 89% => OK
difficult_words: 70.0 98.500998004 71% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.9071856287 84% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.