The following appeared in a magazine article about planning for retirement.
"Clearview should be a top choice for anyone seeking a place to retire, because it has spectacular natural beauty and a consistent climate. Another advantage is that housing costs in Clearview have fallen significantly during the past year, and taxes remain lower than those in neighboring towns. Moreover, Clearview's mayor promises many new programs to improve schools, streets, and public services. And best of all, retirees in Clearview can also expect excellent health care as they grow older, since the number of physicians in the area is far greater than the national average."
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.
This magazine article suggests that Clearview is the place to retire. It offers many appealing incentives such as lower taxes and housing costs, as well as excellent health care. However, it fails to provide certain evidence that affect one’s consideration of Clearview.
Firstly, the article boasts of a decrease in housing costs in Clearview in the past year. While on the surface, this claim sounds attractive, it does not reveal the housing costs of the years before. If housing costs has been rising steadily for the past twenty years, then a slight decrease in the past year would be insignificant. Furthermore, the article does not explain why the housing costs have decreased in the past year. If, for example, crime rates have increased in the past year, and for this reason, people choose to live in other cities, and in turn housing costs decrease due to the lack of demand, then Clearview would not be an ideal place to retire. In short, more evidence is required to understand the significance of the decrease in housing costs.
Secondly, Clearview is said to have lower taxes than neighbouring towns. However, the article does not reveal numerical data as evidence supporting this claim. If there is evidence suggesting that the taxes in Clearview is only about 0.01% lower than neighbouring towns, then the difference is not at all significant. Also, if the taxes of the neighbouring towns are extremely high, and the taxes in Clearview are lower, it is still possible to consider Clearview as a city with high taxes. Therefore, the article should provide numerical data showing the tax rate of Clearview and the neighbouring towns.
Lastly, the article states that the number of physicians in Clearview is far greater than the national average. The problem here is that even if there are many physicians in the city, there needs to be evidence showing that these physicians have openings in their clinic and can accept more retiring seniors. If Clearview has many physicians because of their large population, but still not enough physicians to meet the demands of the general population, then comparing the number of physicians to the national average does not matter.
In conclusion, the article needs to provide more information regarding housing costs, taxes, and the availability of physicians, to give readers a better sense of the city.
argument 1 and argument 2 should be put to one argument.
argument 3 -- OK
----------------
flaws:
There are more to argue with:
Clearview should be a top choice for anyone seeking a place to retire, because it has spectacular natural beauty and a consistent climate. //'a consistent climate' may mean too cold cross the year.
Another advantage is that housing costs in Clearview have fallen significantly during the past year, and taxes remain lower than those in neighboring towns. //your argument 1 and argument 2
Moreover, Clearview's mayor promises many new programs to improve schools, streets, and public services. //maybe they are good for young people
And best of all, retirees in Clearview can also expect excellent health care as they grow older, since the number of physicians in the area is far greater than the national average.//your argument 3
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 389 350
No. of Characters: 1919 1500
No. of Different Words: 166 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.441 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.933 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.611 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 132 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 104 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 68 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 48 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.611 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.196 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.944 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.365 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.611 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.113 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5