The following appeared as part of the Dean’s newsletter:
"The University of Wabash is considering a community service requirement for all undergraduate and graduate students. We believe that the objective of any university is to produce well-rounded and charitable members of society. The proposed graduation requirement would be to complete at least 8 hours of unpaid community service per month for a total of 9 months. The Dean’s office will maintain a list of approved local charities on its website with contact information. This is a fantastic opportunity for students to give back to the community and gain real-world working experience. Most importantly, local charities in need will receive the help that they need to continue their efforts."
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.
Producing altruistic and all-round graduates is a one of the very key objectives of a university. The Dean's proactive move to make this a reality in his university is commendable. However, he utimately assumes that the community service which every student will be mandated to partake in will make everyone charitable and properly exposed and gain working experience. Unfortunately, this is based on many assumptions that must be rectified before it is passed into law.
One of the major assumptions in this newsletter is that the students will automatically be converted to 'good people' after serving the community and would have given back to the society. It is true that there have been stories about people who felt the need to continue charity after having some experience in school. This is not always the case. Making the community service compulsory might cause it to lose its essence. People will begin to view it as a chore and will only want to 'get it out of the way'. Over time, they will start to search for loopholes to escape the service and simply resort to truancy. If this is how the community service is viewed, the argument will not stand.
Also important is the assumption that the students will gain experience which will help them in their work in the future. The university is filled with wpople who have different dreams and aspirations and will eventually end up in jobs that are discordant. The work experience needed by a doctor is different from the one which a fashion designer will require. A doctor might benefit from community service, because he is required to show compassion and empathy, but a fashion designer only has to know how to draw amazing designs and make them come alive. Hence the community service will not be beneficial to the fashion designer. The assumption here will only serve for a certain group people like health workers, but it is almost useless to people who will end up with desk jobs or even have to work from home.
Another assumption is that the local charities need hands to continue their efforts. So many people are willing to offer their time to charities without being obligated to do so. The charities may already have enough people that are volunteering their time. What if they need money instead? What is they need books for the children or medication for those in the hospital? How will these students be helpful to them? if truly, they need help, then the argument can stand. However, if this is not the case, then it may destroy the argument.
It is clear that the Dean meant well by proposing this new addition to the schedule. Nevertheless, The asumptions must be confirmed before this is effected in order to ensure that the community service is beneficial to the students and the charities.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 6 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 10 2
No. of Sentences: 26 15
No. of Words: 477 350
No. of Characters: 2248 1500
No. of Different Words: 228 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.673 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.713 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.529 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 148 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 117 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 76 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 55 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18.346 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.406 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.538 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.26 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.465 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.092 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Also,
...viewed, the argument will not stand. Also important is the assumption that the st...
^^^^
Line 5, column 558, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Hence,
...azing designs and make them come alive. Hence the community service will not be benef...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 297, Rule ID: NON3PRS_VERB[10]
Message: The pronoun is must be used with 'are'.
Suggestion: are
.... What if they need money instead? What is they need books for the children or med...
^^
Line 7, column 418, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: If
...will these students be helpful to them? if truly, they need help, then the argumen...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, hence, however, if, may, nevertheless, so, then, well, as to, it is true
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 31.0 19.6327345309 158% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 28.0 12.9520958084 216% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 15.0 11.1786427146 134% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 43.0 28.8173652695 149% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 58.0 55.5748502994 104% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 16.3942115768 79% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2302.0 2260.96107784 102% => OK
No of words: 477.0 441.139720559 108% => OK
Chars per words: 4.82599580713 5.12650576532 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.67336384929 4.56307096286 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.6031962414 2.78398813304 94% => OK
Unique words: 231.0 204.123752495 113% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.48427672956 0.468620217663 103% => OK
syllable_count: 734.4 705.55239521 104% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 27.0 19.7664670659 137% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 22.8473053892 74% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 46.0225387617 57.8364921388 80% => OK
Chars per sentence: 85.2592592593 119.503703932 71% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.6666666667 23.324526521 76% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.07407407407 5.70786347227 54% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 16.0 8.20758483034 195% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.133150819717 0.218282227539 61% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0404918333822 0.0743258471296 54% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.044208073055 0.0701772020484 63% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.088356416237 0.128457276422 69% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0457138469366 0.0628817314937 73% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.2 14.3799401198 71% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 62.68 48.3550499002 130% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.7 12.197005988 71% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.44 12.5979740519 83% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.46 8.32208582834 90% => OK
difficult_words: 90.0 98.500998004 91% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 12.3882235529 97% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 11.1389221557 79% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.