The following appeared as a recommendation by a committee planning a ten-year budget for the city of Calatrava.
"The birthrate in our city is declining: in fact, last year's birthrate was only one-half that of five years ago. Thus the number of students enrolled in our public schools will soon decrease dramatically, and we can safely reduce the funds budgeted for education during the next decade. At the same time, we can reduce funding for athletic playing fields and other recreational facilities. As a result, we will have sufficient money to fund city facilities and programs used primarily by adults, since we can expect the adult population of the city to increase."
1. 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.
________________________________________
In this argument, the author assumes that due to the declining birth rate of the Calatrava city, the enrollment of the students in the public school will be decreased, therefore the funds for education, athletics, and other recreational facilities can be safely reduced. He also assumes that by doing this there will be sufficient funds for the city facilities and programs and this will help to increase the adult population of the city. So he/she should observe thoroughly before doing this and making his argument valid.
Firstly, he assumes that because of this declining birth rate, the enrollment of the children in public schools will be decreased. He fails to correlate the relation between declining birth rates and children's enrollment in public schools. If the public schools have the poor education quality then there will surely decrease the number of enrollment in the public schools. But it is not due to the declining birth rates. So the author should examine clearly about these things. The second thing is that He thinks that the funds for the education and athletics and other recreational activities can be reduced. Before doing this he/she should find out what amount of the total budget is funded for the education and athletics field. If a small amount of budget is for that then it is not necessary to reduce the budget from the education fund.
Secondly, he assumes that if the fund for the city facilities and programs is increased then the number of the adult population will definitely increase. If already the funds for the city programs and facilities are more then it is not necessary to provide further fundings. Another question is that do the adults present in the city are interested in these programs? What portion of the adult population exists in the city? If less number of adult population is in the city then the authors assumption is invalid.
In sum, the argument is rife with holes and many things about the argument are missing. So the author should do meticulous analysis before reaching into the conclusion
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final 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: 347 350
No. of Characters: 1679 1500
No. of Different Words: 137 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.316 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.839 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.513 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 123 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 88 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 62 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 43 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.278 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.985 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.722 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.35 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.35 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.217 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 241, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...childrens enrollment in public schools. If the public schools have the poor educat...
^^
Line 3, column 221, Rule ID: COMP_THAN[2]
Message: Comparison requires 'than', not 'then' nor 'as'.
Suggestion: than
...e city programs and facilities are more then it is not necessary to provide further ...
^^^^
Line 3, column 425, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...he adult population exists in the city? If less number of adult population is in t...
^^
Line 3, column 484, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...dult population is in the city then the authors assumption is invalid. In sum, the arg...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, if, second, secondly, so, then, therefore
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 19.0 19.6327345309 97% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 8.0 13.6137724551 59% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 29.0 28.8173652695 101% => OK
Preposition: 38.0 55.5748502994 68% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1716.0 2260.96107784 76% => OK
No of words: 345.0 441.139720559 78% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.97391304348 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.3097767484 4.56307096286 94% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.56506836544 2.78398813304 92% => OK
Unique words: 145.0 204.123752495 71% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.420289855072 0.468620217663 90% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 533.7 705.55239521 76% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 49.9271382697 57.8364921388 86% => OK
Chars per sentence: 95.3333333333 119.503703932 80% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.1666666667 23.324526521 82% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.77777777778 5.70786347227 66% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
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: 0.115451512719 0.218282227539 53% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0455145848703 0.0743258471296 61% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0297253206069 0.0701772020484 42% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0678211098443 0.128457276422 53% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0434808214274 0.0628817314937 69% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.6 14.3799401198 81% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 60.65 48.3550499002 125% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.5 12.197005988 78% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.55 12.5979740519 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.6 8.32208582834 91% => OK
difficult_words: 66.0 98.500998004 67% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => 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.