The following appeared in a letter to the school board in the town of Centerville.
"All students should be required to take the driver's education course at Centerville High School. In the past two years, several accidents in and around Centerville have involved teenage drivers. Since a number of parents in Centerville have complained that they are too busy to teach their teenagers to drive, some other instruction is necessary to ensure that these teenagers are safe drivers. Although there are two driving schools in Centerville, parents on a tight budget cannot afford to pay for driving instruction. Therefore an effective and mandatory program sponsored by the high school is the only solution to this serious problem."
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.
In the letter to the school board, the author concludes that an effective solution to the problem caused by accidents involving teenage drives is to create an effective and mandatory driver's education course in the Centerville High School. However, to evaluate the argument presented by the author three pieces of evidence need to be provided.
First of all, evidence is needed for the claim that a driver's education course can make the students better drivers. The author assumes that, taking driver's education courses will make the teenage students better drivers, and thus reduce the aforementioned accidents. However, that may not be true. It is possible, that the students attending the course will only learn the rudimentary of driving and will not develop the skilles found in an experienced driver. Their condition may not improve at all because of the nature of driving as a skill. If the above is true, the author's argument becomes invalid, and so, we need evidence regarding this issue.
Secondly, evidence is needed to support author's assumption that the teenagers involved in the accidents are in fact students of Centerville High School. Perhaps, those teenagers are not students of Centerville High School but some other school in the town. Furthermore, those teenagers may not live in Centerville at all, they might have visited Centerville for some other reasons like staying at relatives' houses during vacation. If either has merit, then the author's conclusion becomes faulty at best and at worst specious. So, we need evidence regarding the studentship of the teenagers involved in the accidents mentioned.
Finally, the author is assuming that the accidents occurred because of the lack of skills of the teenagers. But this assumption needs to be substantiated by evidence. It is entirely possible that the involved teenagers were not at fault. May be the car had some mechanical problem. May be some other incompetent parties were involved. Without knowing about the nature and the parties involved in those accidents, it is not possible to say without doubt that the teenagers were the reasons. So, evidence is needed to evaluate if the teenagers involved were, in fact, at fault.
In conclusion, it is entirely possible that, the creating an effective and mandatory programs will resolve the problems of accidents involving teenagers in Centerville. But, the author's argument, as it stands now, needs evidence in three fronts to support its claim that render the conclusion of the author unpersuasive at best and specious at worst. Thus, the author needs to provide evidence for the following three claims: driver's education course makes better drivers, teenagers involved in the accidents were students of the Centerville High School, and the teenagers involved were the reasons for the accidents.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
two arguments missed:
1. Since a number of parents in Centerville have complained that they are too busy to teach their teenagers to drive, some other instruction is necessary to ensure that these teenagers are safe drivers.
2. Although there are two driving schools in Centerville, parents on a tight budget cannot afford to pay for driving instruction.
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 451 350
No. of Characters: 2322 1500
No. of Different Words: 171 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.608 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.149 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.696 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 192 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 151 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 114 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 61 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.609 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.761 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.826 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.338 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.52 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.12 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 184, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'drivers'' or 'driver's'?
Suggestion: drivers'; driver's
...is to create an effective and mandatory drivers education course in the Centerville Hig...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 55, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'drivers'' or 'driver's'?
Suggestion: drivers'; driver's
...evidence is needed for the claim that a drivers education course can make the students ...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 150, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'drivers'' or 'driver's'?
Suggestion: drivers'; driver's
...rivers. The author assumes that, taking drivers education courses will make the teenage...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 573, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...g as a skill. If the above is true, the authors argument becomes invalid, and so, we ne...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 41, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...Secondly, evidence is needed to support authors assumption that the teenagers involved ...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 462, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...vacation. If either has merit, then the authors conclusion becomes faulty at best and a...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 243, Rule ID: HE_VERB_AGR[8]
Message: The proper name in singular (May) must be used with a third-person verb: 'is'.
Suggestion: is
...volved teenagers were not at fault. May be the car had some mechanical problem. Ma...
^^
Line 7, column 287, Rule ID: HE_VERB_AGR[8]
Message: The proper name in singular (May) must be used with a third-person verb: 'is'.
Suggestion: is
...he car had some mechanical problem. May be some other incompetent parties were inv...
^^
Line 9, column 179, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...ving teenagers in Centerville. But, the authors argument, as it stands now, needs evide...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, first, furthermore, however, if, may, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, thus, in conclusion, in fact, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 23.0 19.6327345309 117% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 26.0 28.8173652695 90% => OK
Preposition: 60.0 55.5748502994 108% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2383.0 2260.96107784 105% => OK
No of words: 451.0 441.139720559 102% => OK
Chars per words: 5.28381374723 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.60833598836 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.74333954673 2.78398813304 99% => OK
Unique words: 184.0 204.123752495 90% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.407982261641 0.468620217663 87% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 736.2 705.55239521 104% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 12.0 4.96107784431 242% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 58.5059414041 57.8364921388 101% => OK
Chars per sentence: 103.608695652 119.503703932 87% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.6086956522 23.324526521 84% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.78260869565 5.70786347227 101% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 9.0 5.25449101796 171% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.20758483034 134% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.225174704824 0.218282227539 103% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0744827959787 0.0743258471296 100% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0715407517599 0.0701772020484 102% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.152245604809 0.128457276422 119% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0578830294258 0.0628817314937 92% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.2 14.3799401198 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 52.19 48.3550499002 108% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.34 12.5979740519 106% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.69 8.32208582834 92% => OK
difficult_words: 89.0 98.500998004 90% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.