The following appeared in a memo from a budget planner for the city of Grandview Our citizens are well aware of the fact that while the Grandview Symphony Orchestra was struggling to succeed our city government promised annual funding to help support its | TOEFL IELTS GMAT GRE SAT ACT PTE ESL

Essay topics:

The following appeared in a memo from a budget planner for the city of Grandview. "Our citizens are well aware of the fact that while the Grandview Symphony Orchestra was struggling to succeed, our city government promised annual funding to help support its programs.

Last year, however, private contributions to the symphony increased by 200 percent, and attendance at the symphony's concerts-in-the-park series doubled. The symphony has also announced an increase in ticket prices for next year. Such developments indicate that the symphony can now succeed without funding from city government and we can eliminate that expense from next year's budget. Therefore, we recommend that the city of Grandview eliminate its funding for the Grandview Symphony from next year's budget. By doing so, we can prevent a city budget deficit without threatening the success of the symphony."

Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.

Although, at the surface the budget planner for the city of Grandview appears to have put in a cogent argument in arriving at the conclusion that the city of Grandview should eliminate its funding for the Grandview Symphony from next year’s budget. A deep dive suggests that the arguments rely on uncertain unwarranted assumptions. The author cites an increase of private contributions and attendance at the symphony concerts-in-the-park series as key indications of the symphony’s ability to cover its expenses. However, these claims rely on unproven assumptions, therefore, is hardly convincing as it stands.

First, the author cites that the 200 percent increase of private contributions to the symphony as one key indicator of financial independence yet fails to substantiate with evidence what the number of contributors were before now. It is possible that the Grandview symphony has just two private contributors and a 200 percent increase amounts to an increase to 6 individuals which may not significantly improve the inflow of cash.

Even, if we assume that Grandview has a significant number of contributors in the past, it is possible that these new group of contributors are students who are passionate in seeing that Grandview symphony succeeds but only contribute a merger sum from the stipends they get from their parents and thus may not actually translate to substantial cash inflow for Grandview symphony. In either case, the symphony would not have generated enough fund to make them independent, thus, the recommendation by the author may amount to a particularly poor advice.

Furthermore, the author relies on the false argument that an increase in attendance for a particular event is the general trend for several of Grandview symphony events. This assumption is unwarranted. Perhaps, attendance increased for the concerts-in-the-park is as a result of the management of Grandview symphony reducing the tickets fare for this event so as to encourage individuals to attend it. Moreso, it is possible that the number of previous attendees is not significant to generate a substantial amount for Grandview. The author has failed to substantiate with evidence whether an increase in the prices of tickets will lead to an increase in attendees.
It is common knowledge that prices usually affect the way consumers behave and increase in price usually lead to reduction in demand. Hence, the author must provide empirical evidence to support the assumption, otherwise, the conclusion has it stands are mere conjectures.

Finally, it is possible that the individuals in Grandview see the funding by the city government as a judicious use of their taxes and any disruption of such funds may amount to protest and unwillingness to pay taxes. Perhaps, a significant aspect of the government funding is used to organize the peer-to-peer symphony that unites families and individuals in the city thus has resulted in the peace that the city currently enjoys.

In summary, the arguments rely on the false assumption that an increase by 200 percent of contributors is equivalent to a significant increase in the amount of funds the Grandview symphony is able to generate. The author should provide details of the amount of funds Grandview as generated from contributions and compare it with the government’s budget. Furthermore, the budget planner should furnish the public with evidence that suggests an increase in prices would not discourage attendees and also generate significant funding for the symphony.

Failure to act on the above makes the conclusion particularly flawed as it relies on unwarranted assumptions.

Votes

Essay Categories

GMAT/GRE Argument Task

Comments

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 527, Rule ID: A_UNCOUNTABLE[5]
Message: Uncountable nouns are usually not used with an indefinite article. Use simply 'particularly poor advice'.
Suggestion: particularly poor advice
...ommendation by the author may amount to a particularly poor advice. Furthermore, the author relies on t...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 358, Rule ID: SO_AS_TO[1]
Message: Use simply 'to'
Suggestion: to
...educing the tickets fare for this event so as to encourage individuals to attend it. Mor...
^^^^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, finally, first, furthermore, hence, however, if, may, so, therefore, thus, as to, in summary, as a result

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 19.6327345309 87% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 13.6137724551 125% => OK
Pronoun: 36.0 28.8173652695 125% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 86.0 55.5748502994 155% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3086.0 2260.96107784 136% => OK
No of words: 574.0 441.139720559 130% => OK
Chars per words: 5.37630662021 5.12650576532 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.89472135074 4.56307096286 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.21267770888 2.78398813304 115% => OK
Unique words: 239.0 204.123752495 117% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.41637630662 0.468620217663 89% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 962.1 705.55239521 136% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.76447105788 148% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 27.0 22.8473053892 118% => OK
Sentence length SD: 70.4451669169 57.8364921388 122% => OK
Chars per sentence: 146.952380952 119.503703932 123% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.3333333333 23.324526521 117% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.0 5.70786347227 105% => OK
Paragraphs: 8.0 5.15768463074 155% => Less paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 8.20758483034 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.241343183186 0.218282227539 111% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0760854322292 0.0743258471296 102% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0818542482096 0.0701772020484 117% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.112872270389 0.128457276422 88% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0805094889995 0.0628817314937 128% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.6 14.3799401198 122% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 35.61 48.3550499002 74% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.0 12.197005988 123% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.22 12.5979740519 113% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.47 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 127.0 98.500998004 129% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.8 11.1389221557 115% => OK
text_standard: 15.0 11.9071856287 126% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Maximum six paragraphs wanted.

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.

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, finally, first, furthermore, hence, however, if, may, so, therefore, thus, as to, in summary, as a result

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments