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 examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
In this letter, the author recommends a high-school-sponsored driving program in Centerville and anticipates such program could help solve with accident issues relevant with teenager driver. Quite convincing though such recommendation appears at first glance, a closer scrutiny reveals that it heavily relies on several unsubstantiated assumptions which, if prove unwarranted, will seriously deprive off the validity of his/her recommendation.
To start off, the author's recommendation heavily depends on the assumption that accidents in and around Centerville already reach such extent that a suitable measure must be taken immediately to enhance teenager drivers' skills. Based on this assumption, the author proposes a suggestion to enact a driving course program. However, this assumption might be potentially problematic because we are not informed that the exact number of accidents in Centerville. Nor do we know if teenager driver should take charge of major responsibility of accidents. Furthermore, we even don't understand if those teenager driver are local. If it turns out that those accidents are not so servere as the author assumes, or they are actually attributable to other factors, the author's recommendation could fall untenable.
Additionally, by citing that parents have either little time or strapped budget for teaching course, the author simply rules out other alternatives which could rival with the one proposed in passage. However, we have no clues that such suggestion could be the unique solution for solving this issue. It is likely that parents just take their unavailability for excuses to eschew with teaching. It is of equal probability that parents with financial quandary just occupy a small proportion out of total population. Moreover, a government sponsored program could also serve as an alternative method. If any of above cases turn out true, we should question the uniqueness of the author's solution and the author's recommendation would lose its weight; on the contrary, we are inclined to believe that the author's high-school-sponsored driving program actually have its feasibility and applicable advantage.
Last but not least, granted all of aforementioned assumptions stay valid, the author's recommendation might be still unnecessary due to the assumption of efficiency of such driving program. It is unreasonable to assume that parents, especially those who are willing to teach children personally, could agreeably accept with such mandatory program. And the author hastily comes to a conclusion that high school should afford such program, but not discuss with whether they are capable of doing so financially. Furthermore, even if such recommendation could be applied, we are also not sure that decrease of driving accidents in Centerville could occur definitely. If this compulsory course would incur the great repulse from parents or high schools in Centerville can't afford the relevant cost, this mandatory driving source still can not be enacted successfully and the author's recommendation should be in great doubt.
In summary, whether we implement the author's recommendation actually depends on the validity of assumptions mentioned above. If any assumptions that the author take for his/her reasoning actually fall into groundless, the author's recommendation seems to become little more than his/her wistful thinking and we should resort to other solution to solve with the driving problem in and around Centerville.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 529 350
No. of Characters: 2905 1500
No. of Different Words: 255 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.796 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.491 4.6
Word Length SD: 3.165 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 227 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 177 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 121 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 80 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.19 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.112 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.667 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.337 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.524 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.182 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 19, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
... recommendation. To start off, the authors recommendation heavily depends on the a...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 572, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...lity of accidents. Furthermore, we even dont understand if those teenager driver are...
^^^^
Line 5, column 759, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...ally attributable to other factors, the authors recommendation could fall untenable. ...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 677, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...e should question the uniqueness of the authors solution and the authors recommendation...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 702, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...queness of the authors solution and the authors recommendation would lose its weight; o...
^^^^^^^
Line 13, column 79, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...rementioned assumptions stay valid, the authors recommendation might be still unnecessa...
^^^^^^^
Line 13, column 763, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
... parents or high schools in Centerville cant afford the relevant cost, this mandator...
^^^^
Line 13, column 870, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...can not be enacted successfully and the authors recommendation should be in great doubt...
^^^^^^^
Line 17, column 38, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
... In summary, whether we implement the authors recommendation actually depends on the ...
^^^^^^^
Line 17, column 223, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...ning actually fall into groundless, the authors recommendation seems to become little m...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, furthermore, however, if, moreover, so, still, in summary, on the contrary
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 19.6327345309 92% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 20.0 12.9520958084 154% => OK
Conjunction : 14.0 11.1786427146 125% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 13.6137724551 125% => OK
Pronoun: 48.0 28.8173652695 167% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 63.0 55.5748502994 113% => OK
Nominalization: 25.0 16.3942115768 152% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2972.0 2260.96107784 131% => OK
No of words: 525.0 441.139720559 119% => OK
Chars per words: 5.66095238095 5.12650576532 110% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.78673985869 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.22282111879 2.78398813304 116% => OK
Unique words: 261.0 204.123752495 128% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.497142857143 0.468620217663 106% => OK
syllable_count: 913.5 705.55239521 129% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 4.96107784431 202% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
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: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 22.8473053892 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 66.971141448 57.8364921388 116% => OK
Chars per sentence: 141.523809524 119.503703932 118% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.0 23.324526521 107% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.85714285714 5.70786347227 85% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 10.0 5.25449101796 190% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.147479465754 0.218282227539 68% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0492425228314 0.0743258471296 66% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0432652578822 0.0701772020484 62% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0958981754333 0.128457276422 75% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0409532672657 0.0628817314937 65% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.7 14.3799401198 123% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 37.64 48.3550499002 78% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.197005988 116% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 15.84 12.5979740519 126% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.91 8.32208582834 107% => OK
difficult_words: 134.0 98.500998004 136% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 15.5 12.3882235529 125% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.1389221557 108% => OK
text_standard: 16.0 11.9071856287 134% => 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.