The following is an excerpt from a letter sent by the principal of Greenwood School to the parents of all incoming kindergartners.
"We have decided to institute a policy of all-day kindergarten, instead of half-day kindergarten, for all students at Greenwood School. All-day kindergarten will help all our students achieve at their highest levels. The classes will be 'tracked'; so that average students are together, but high-achieving and low-achieving students will be put together in classes. In this way, the high-achieving students will be able to help pull the low-achieving students up to their level, so that no student falls behind. The all-day kindergarten classes will cover the same material previously covered in the half-day kindergarten classes, but will go at a slower speed to accommodate learning differences. In addition, the students will receive extra instruction in music, art, and physical education. One of the greatest benefits of the plan, however, is that students will be in a structured environment for longer hours, reducing the numbers of hours that otherwise would be wasted at home or in day care."
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.
In the memo from Greenwood school, the principal concludes to increase the working hours of kindergarten students from half-day to all-day because this move would reduce the free time of students which are wasted. The author argues that the classes will be tracked based on the student’s acumen and intellectual capability which will allow in accommodating learning differences due to the slower pace of teaching which is a direct consequence of extended working hours. However, while the conclusion drawn by the principal might hold water, it rests upon several unwarranted assumptions that, if not substantiated dramatically weaken the argument. Thus, the following three presuppositions must hold good for proper evaluation of the argument.
First of all, the argument assumes that the students are futile in their free time which is completely unsubstantiated. It is possible that some of the students are spending their free time doing extra-curricular activities, such students value their free time and it’s not in their best interest to increase the working hours of schooling. If the author had provided evidence in the form of quantifiable numbers on how the students spend their free time, then the conclusion as implied in the argument can be fortified. However, the argument as of now due to its unwarranted assumptions doesn’t hold water.
A second reason that the argument is flawed is due to the assumption that making the classes ‘tracked’ will be in the benefit of every student. However, it is possible that this recommendation allows no scope of improvement for certain students. Perhaps, the average students track do not allow average students to improve as they don’t have any high-achieving peers to look upto. It is also possible due to the slower speed of teaching, the high-achieving students are not faced with challenging tasks and hence, are not able to learn up to their level. The argument could have been much clearer if the author had substantiated on how the classes track will help every student. However, If either one of the above mentioned scenarios hold true, the conclusion drawn by the author is significantly weakened.
Finally, the author assumes that school will be able to provide the best resources and instructions for music, art and physical education. Perhaps, the forte of teachers in Greenwood school do not match with the subjects of art and/or music but they are forced to take up these subjects due to an inherent lack of teachers specializing in art and/or music at the school. It is also possible that the school does not have the necessary facilities such as musical instruments, structural utilities (swimming pool, playground, etc). If the author had given evidence for the facilities present in the school and for the competence of the teachers in art and music, the credibility of the argument would have been strengthened significantly. However, the argument as of now due to its unwarranted assumptions doesn’t hold water.
In conclusion, the argument makes a number of unstated assumptions that seriously undermine its validity. If the principal is able to provide proper evidence for the aforementioned assumptions then, the proposed recommendation of changing half-day kindergarten to all-day kindergarten can be fully evaluated and adopted successfully.
Comments
Essay evaluation 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: 20 15
No. of Words: 534 350
No. of Characters: 2735 1500
No. of Different Words: 226 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.807 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.122 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.999 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 189 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 158 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 121 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 70 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 26.7 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 11.122 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.85 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.34 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.538 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.108 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 141, Rule ID: SOME_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'some'.
Suggestion: some
...ly unsubstantiated. It is possible that some of the students are spending their free time d...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 17, column 335, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...lly evaluated and adopted successfully.
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, hence, however, if, look, second, so, then, thus, while, in conclusion, such as, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 23.0 19.6327345309 117% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 30.0 28.8173652695 104% => OK
Preposition: 65.0 55.5748502994 117% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2849.0 2260.96107784 126% => OK
No of words: 529.0 441.139720559 120% => OK
Chars per words: 5.38563327032 5.12650576532 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.79583152331 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.16400386962 2.78398813304 114% => OK
Unique words: 234.0 204.123752495 115% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.442344045369 0.468620217663 94% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 862.2 705.55239521 122% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 16.0 8.76447105788 183% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 22.8473053892 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 51.070979019 57.8364921388 88% => OK
Chars per sentence: 135.666666667 119.503703932 114% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.1904761905 23.324526521 108% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.71428571429 5.70786347227 100% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 13.0 8.20758483034 158% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.67664670659 21% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.192033570001 0.218282227539 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0585858668571 0.0743258471296 79% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0846037124579 0.0701772020484 121% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.125341746901 0.128457276422 98% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0738294341397 0.0628817314937 117% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.6 14.3799401198 115% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 46.1 48.3550499002 95% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.28 12.5979740519 113% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.31 8.32208582834 100% => OK
difficult_words: 115.0 98.500998004 117% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 20.0 12.3882235529 161% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.1389221557 108% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.