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.
A letter submitted by a civilian to the Parson City’s local newpaper shined light on a particular fiscal matter regarding the funding for public education. Blue City and Parson City are cities within the Trillura region and they spend a proportionate amount of their tax revenue on city-run public schools. Based on the notion that both cities have the same amount residents, the writer believes that Parson City cares more about their public education because twice as much tax revenue is spent on school funding. Though justifiable to some, there are factual evidence lacking in this letter’s argument.
First off, who wrote and submitted the letter to the Parson City’s local newspaper? It is safe to assume that it was written by a Parson City resident based on their bias standing. However, it also could have been written by a disgruntled resident of Blue City who believes that not enough money is spent towards their city’s public education. In order to truly stand with their argument, the letter would need to be written by someone who is from neither city.
The letter states that both cities have the same number of residents and Blue City should spend just as much as Parson city on public education. Nevertheless, the equal number of residents does not equate to the proportional amount of public school students. Parson city’s population can be made up of 50% public school students and Blue City can have only 25% public school students. In this scenario, it would make sense that Blue City spends half of what Parson City spends. Based on the amount tax revenue spent and number of students, each city is spending equal amounts of money on each student. There is also no reference to how much money was collected through taxes; Parson City could have been accumulating more revenue because their tax rates are higher than Blue City. Because of the lack of certainty in the number of residents and students, there is little validity in the argument that Parson City cares more about their students.
The tax revenue is mostly spent towards public education, though where is the money all going? In order to decipher if the argument is true, an itemized spending document should be disclosed by the city. This will allow residents to understand if money is going towards books, buildings, infrastructure, more teachers, better lunches, or increasing the wages of the principal. What is Parson City is an older town and all of their schools are outdated, lack of air conditioning, contain worn out books? Blue City is newer and all their schools have been built within the past decade. All classrooms have central air, a computer lab, and up to date books. It would make sense that Parson City is spending more money than Blue City. Without knowing exactly where the funds are directed to, there is no justification that one city cares more about public education than the other.
The resident brings up several points, but all were extremely vague and without confirmation. The argumentative letter provides no substantial facts as to how much money they gave to public schools, exactly where the taxes where spent, and what proportion of residents were public school students? Other than from a bias and limited standpoint, there is not enough facts and details to confirm the veracity of the statement.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 473, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...en by someone who is from neither city. The letter states that both cities have ...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, nevertheless, regarding, so, as to
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 32.0 19.6327345309 163% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 28.8173652695 97% => OK
Preposition: 69.0 55.5748502994 124% => OK
Nominalization: 18.0 16.3942115768 110% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2804.0 2260.96107784 124% => OK
No of words: 559.0 441.139720559 127% => OK
Chars per words: 5.01610017889 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.86242540663 4.56307096286 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.53515450458 2.78398813304 91% => OK
Unique words: 233.0 204.123752495 114% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.416815742397 0.468620217663 89% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 855.9 705.55239521 121% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 26.0 19.7664670659 132% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 38.1910682268 57.8364921388 66% => OK
Chars per sentence: 107.846153846 119.503703932 90% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.5 23.324526521 92% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.5 5.70786347227 44% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.20758483034 134% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
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: 0.411193326664 0.218282227539 188% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.133324065063 0.0743258471296 179% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0938823978333 0.0701772020484 134% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.260291531082 0.128457276422 203% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.103314477633 0.0628817314937 164% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.0 14.3799401198 90% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 58.62 48.3550499002 121% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 12.197005988 84% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.84 12.5979740519 94% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.79 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 110.0 98.500998004 112% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.9071856287 84% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.