The following is an excerpt from a speech given to the School Board about a change to the curriculum:
"Because the future will be dominated by technology, we must make four years of computer programming mandatory for all high school students. If our students take these classes, they’ll all be able to get high-paying programming jobs and lead fulfilling lives because software engineers and data scientists have the best job prospects and salaries. Therefore, we must educate our students so they can secure these kinds of jobs. Even if they pursue other careers, programming will still benefit them, given that all industries are becoming more technological."
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 speech given at the School Board argues that education on computer programming should be made mandatory for all high school students for a time period of four years. The argument reaches this conclusion based on its belief that software engineers and data analysts have the best job prospects and salaries. It also mentions that since technology is present in every field, computer programming will benefit students who pursue other careers. The argument makes several assumptions in order to develop its conclusion, the validity of which can only be evaluated after the following evidences are provided.
Firstly, the argument needs to makes clear on what basis it states that software engineers and data analysts will have the best job prospects and salaries. It is possible that the current job market for software is looking good, but a market crash can render the job market obsolete. Furthermore, there are other fields apart from computer software that are developing and have great job opportunities, such as biotechnology and economics; the argument does not make clear why computer programming is chosen over these fields.
Secondly, the argument needs to make clear how effective this plan would be when it comes to students who have no interest or necessary skills for the same. It is fair to assume that a student who has no interest or skill for the field of computer science will invariably do badly, and hence not get a job, leaving him/her in a desperate state. In such a case the argument is rendered invalid.
Another point the argument needs to address is to what degree, the education in computer programming will help students pursuing other careers. The argument states that since technology is used in every field, students would benefit from learning computer science. However, it is possible that the technology used in a certain field is minor and does not require four years of formal computer science education to master. In this case the student is learning subjects which have no direct benefit to his/her career. In this process, the student looses out on valuable time which he/she could have spent doing something more releveant to his/her field of interest.
In conclusion, the argument as it now stands is severly flawed due to its dependance on several unwarranted assumption. If the argument can provide the above mentioned evidences, then its would be possible to systematically evaluate the validity of the argument.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 17 15
No. of Words: 406 350
No. of Characters: 2018 1500
No. of Different Words: 190 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.489 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.97 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.58 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 146 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 119 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 90 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 39 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.882 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.579 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.529 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.358 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.58 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.13 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 32, Rule ID: TO_NON_BASE[1]
Message: The verb after "to" should be in the base form: 'make'.
Suggestion: make
...ided. Firstly, the argument needs to makes clear on what basis it states that soft...
^^^^^
Line 9, column 1, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...eveant to his/her field of interest. In conclusion, the argument as it now stan...
^^
Line 9, column 185, Rule ID: IT_IS[6]
Message: Did you mean 'it's' (='it is') instead of 'its' (possessive pronoun)?
Suggestion: it's; it is
...ide the above mentioned evidences, then its would be possible to systematically eva...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, furthermore, hence, however, if, look, second, secondly, so, then, apart from, in conclusion, such as
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 : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 33.0 28.8173652695 115% => OK
Preposition: 43.0 55.5748502994 77% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2071.0 2260.96107784 92% => OK
No of words: 402.0 441.139720559 91% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.15174129353 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.47771567384 4.56307096286 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.66260387954 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 193.0 204.123752495 95% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.480099502488 0.468620217663 102% => OK
syllable_count: 644.4 705.55239521 91% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 19.7664670659 86% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 39.2909473888 57.8364921388 68% => OK
Chars per sentence: 121.823529412 119.503703932 102% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.6470588235 23.324526521 101% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.52941176471 5.70786347227 132% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 0.0 4.67664670659 0% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.243968612349 0.218282227539 112% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0835647199967 0.0743258471296 112% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0957599895523 0.0701772020484 136% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.138133024946 0.128457276422 108% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.104939400915 0.0628817314937 167% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.7 14.3799401198 102% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.3550499002 100% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.89 12.5979740519 102% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.96 8.32208582834 96% => OK
difficult_words: 81.0 98.500998004 82% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => 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.