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 above argument claims that the various cities in the region of Trillura place different values on providing good education in public schools. The author supports the above argument by stating that Parson city has spent almost twice as much amount as the Blue City for its public schools despite the fact that both the cities have about the same number of residents. Thus according to the author Parson City gives higher budgetary priority to good education in public schools than Blue City. However, the argument does not make sense because it does not provide specific evidence which will help strengthen the argument and validate its claims.
First, there is no specific evidence that both the cities collect the same amount of tax per year despite the population of both the cities is almost the same. The amount of tax collected by a city depends on the income of its residents. A person with a low income pays less tax than the person who is earning more. It is nowhere specified in the argument that the income of the residents in the Parson city is the same as that of residents in Blue City. Moreover, the amount of tax collected also depends on the number of tax paying residents. The number of taxpaying residents can directly affect the amount of tax collected as a city with more taxpaying residents might have a better collection of tax than the one with a lower number of tax paying residents. So, having almost the same population does not mean that the number of tax paying residents in both the cities is also the same. Thus, the above two factors contribute to the fact that it is not necessary that the tax collected by both the cities is the same. As mentioned by the author, the tax collected by the government is the source of the majority of money spent on public schools. So, it is incorrect to say that the one city values good education in public schools less as compared to other as the metric for judging the value is the tax collected which in itself might be different for both the cities.
Second, there is no specific evidence that the issues that both the cities face are also the same. It may be the fact that one city has an issue of greater concern than that of good education in public schools and thus has to allocate a higher budgetary priority to that concern. For example, if a city is facing a health crisis due to lack of proper health care facilities ,then it needs to allocate more resources in order to improve these facilities like hospitals ,chemist shops etc . which might be the sole reason that the city is not able to spend more on education in public schools. So, having an issue that needs more attention than education in public schools does not mean that the city attaches less importance to it. Moreover, it is also mentioned in the argument that the Parson city spent more on education only recently but it is nowhere stated that it has a history of doing the same which might have reflected that it actually places greater importance than the Blue City.
Third, there is no specific evidence that Blue City does not have a good education system in public schools already. It might be the case that Blue City spent a low amount of money only because it already has the available resources which make up for a good education system. On the contrary, it is possible that Parson City doesn't have a good education system, unlike the Blue City which can be the reason that it spends almost twice than Blue City. So, judging the importance that one city places over the other only on the basis of money spent in the recent year is fundamentally flawed. It might be the case that Blue City had already invested a lot on education in the previous years and thus it has come to a stage where it doesn't have to spend more now.
Thus, we cannot agree with the author's argument because it does not provide specific evidence of the amount of tax collected, the issues faced as well as the quality of education system already present in both the cities which could have helped us better understand and evaluate the merit of the argument in its entirety.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 25 15
No. of Words: 741 350
No. of Characters: 3328 1500
No. of Different Words: 220 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.217 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.491 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.267 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 231 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 142 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 100 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 60 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 29.64 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 11.217 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.68 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.387 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.56 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.174 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 1242, Rule ID: COMP_THAN[1]
Message: Comparison requires 'than', not 'then' nor 'as'.
Suggestion: than
...s good education in public schools less as compared to other as the metric for jud...
^^
Line 5, column 374, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma, but not before the comma
Suggestion: ,
...to lack of proper health care facilities ,then it needs to allocate more resources...
^^
Line 5, column 468, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma, but not before the comma
Suggestion: ,
... improve these facilities like hospitals ,chemist shops etc . which might be the s...
^^
Line 5, column 487, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Don't put a space before the full stop
Suggestion: .
...lities like hospitals ,chemist shops etc . which might be the sole reason that the...
^^
Line 5, column 490, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Which
...ies like hospitals ,chemist shops etc . which might be the sole reason that the city ...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 490, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “which” 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.
...ies like hospitals ,chemist shops etc . which might be the sole reason that the city ...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 326, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...ntrary, it is possible that Parson City doesnt have a good education system, unlike th...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 731, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...nd thus it has come to a stage where it doesnt have to spend more now. Thus, we can...
^^^^^^
Line 9, column 32, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
... now. Thus, we cannot agree with the authors argument because it does not provide sp...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, however, if, may, moreover, second, so, then, third, thus, well, as to, for example, as well as, on the contrary
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.6327345309 132% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 11.1786427146 45% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 36.0 13.6137724551 264% => Less relative clauses wanted (maybe 'which' is over used).
Pronoun: 54.0 28.8173652695 187% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 88.0 55.5748502994 158% => OK
Nominalization: 33.0 16.3942115768 201% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3388.0 2260.96107784 150% => OK
No of words: 739.0 441.139720559 168% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.58457374831 5.12650576532 89% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.21388093824 4.56307096286 114% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.30470031358 2.78398813304 83% => OK
Unique words: 227.0 204.123752495 111% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.307171853857 0.468620217663 66% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1085.4 705.55239521 154% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 4.96107784431 161% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 26.0 19.7664670659 132% => OK
Sentence length: 28.0 22.8473053892 123% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 56.7143261698 57.8364921388 98% => OK
Chars per sentence: 130.307692308 119.503703932 109% => OK
Words per sentence: 28.4230769231 23.324526521 122% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.38461538462 5.70786347227 94% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 9.0 5.25449101796 171% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 15.0 8.20758483034 183% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => 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: 0.224798428914 0.218282227539 103% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0921948663519 0.0743258471296 124% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0502495585066 0.0701772020484 72% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.149063113473 0.128457276422 116% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0601505902046 0.0628817314937 96% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.4 14.3799401198 100% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 51.52 48.3550499002 107% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 9.58 12.5979740519 76% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 6.95 8.32208582834 84% => OK
difficult_words: 90.0 98.500998004 91% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.2 11.1389221557 119% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 30 minutes.
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.