The following appeared in a memo from the director of student housing at Buckingham College.
“To serve the housing needs of our students, Buckingham College should build a number of new dormitories. Buckingham’s enrollment is growing and, based on current trends, will double over the next 50 years, thus making existing dormitory space inadequate. Moreover, the average rent for an apartment in our town has risen in recent years. Consequently, students will find it increasingly difficult to afford off-campus housing. Finally, attractive new dormitories would make prospective students more likely to enroll at Buckingham. “
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 writer of the argument recommends that constructing a number of new dormitories, regarding students’ need for a house, is necessary at Buckingham College. However, this recommendation cannot be accepted as it is in that it rests on a number of premises, all of which can be challenged in one way or another.
The first problem with the argument is that the writer assumes that existing dormitory space will not be adequate for the reason that the number of enrollment is increasing and will double over the next 50 years. However, there is no evidence to prove that all students who enroll at Buckingham College will need the dormitory. For example, maybe this increase of enrollment is related to students who are resident in the city of College or somewhere near of College, and thus they do not need the dormitory. Or, maybe the growth of enrollment is because of students who choose online courses in which students do not need to presence in classes and habitation in dormitories. Thus, although the number of enrollment is growing, maybe the demand for the dormitory will not be increased.
Additionally, the writer assumes that things remain the same over years. However, in most cases this not true. Maybe in next 50 years, the number of people who has demand for renting a house will decrease, and as a result, the rent will decline as well. Moreover, during these 50 years, maybe the construction of the house will increase and this will affect rent of a house. In addition, there is no evidence to prove that the increase of rent is how much and includes what kind of house, as well as which parts of the city. For instance, maybe this growth of rent is relevant to apartments located in parts of the city with enormous facilities.
Last but not least, the writer implies that the attraction of new dormitories will encourage students to enroll at Buckingham College. If College wants to build a dormitory which is attractive for students, it should ask their opinion. However, there is no evidence to prove that College will build dormitories based on students’ idea. Also, the argument does not show that how beautiful these dormitories will be from students’ perspective or which facilities they will have. For example, maybe these dormitories have such a small rooms that are not appropriate for all students. Or maybe students need facilities which are not provided in these dormitories.
In the final analysis, the writer’s recommendation cannot be taken to be correct because, as it was shown in the body paragraphs above, it depends on a number of assumptions, each of which is questionable. The recommendation can only be accepted if the weaknesses already referred to are all removed.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- not OK. students may enroll a school according to other factors like: how many professors, the size of the school, reputations of the school...etc...
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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: 21 15
No. of Words: 459 350
No. of Characters: 2194 1500
No. of Different Words: 178 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.629 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.78 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.707 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 147 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 118 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 86 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 47 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.857 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.852 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.81 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.327 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.548 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.113 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...n be challenged in one way or another. The first problem with the argument is t...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, may, moreover, regarding, so, thus, well, for example, for instance, in addition, kind of, as a result, as well as, in most cases
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 27.0 19.6327345309 138% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 22.0 12.9520958084 170% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 23.0 13.6137724551 169% => OK
Pronoun: 29.0 28.8173652695 101% => OK
Preposition: 60.0 55.5748502994 108% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2285.0 2260.96107784 101% => OK
No of words: 459.0 441.139720559 104% => OK
Chars per words: 4.97821350763 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.62863751936 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.91502453829 2.78398813304 105% => OK
Unique words: 189.0 204.123752495 93% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.411764705882 0.468620217663 88% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 709.2 705.55239521 101% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 42.8159060871 57.8364921388 74% => OK
Chars per sentence: 108.80952381 119.503703932 91% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.8571428571 23.324526521 94% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.61904761905 5.70786347227 133% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => 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: 0.217036715048 0.218282227539 99% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0771139791001 0.0743258471296 104% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0811964220568 0.0701772020484 116% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.13078052797 0.128457276422 102% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0782838602449 0.0628817314937 124% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.0 14.3799401198 90% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 58.62 48.3550499002 121% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 12.197005988 84% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.6 12.5979740519 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.71 8.32208582834 93% => OK
difficult_words: 88.0 98.500998004 89% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.9071856287 84% => 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.