The following is a letter to the editor of the Waymarsh Times.
"Traffic here in Waymarsh is becoming a problem. Although just three years ago a state traffic survey showed that the typical driving commuter took 20 minutes to get to work, the commute now takes closer to 40 minutes, according to the survey just completed. Members of the town council already have suggested more road building to address the problem, but as well as being expensive, the new construction will surely disrupt some of our residential neighborhoods. It would be better to follow the example of the nearby city of Garville. Last year Garville implemented a policy that rewards people who share rides to work, giving them coupons for free gas. Pollution levels in Garville have dropped since the policy was implemented, and people from Garville tell me that commuting times have fallen considerably. There is no reason why a policy like Garville's shouldn't work equally well in Waymarsh."
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 Garville’s efforts in decreasing the traffic seem well-made and thorough. The impact which mentioned by the residents of Garville show a promising result that could be adopted by Waymarsh. However, the author forgets to ask the detail of the account from the people from Garville that are asked about the policy. No countable and quantifiable data is provided by the source, and the real result in Garville might be far from author’s expectation. Without sufficient calculable data, the authority of Waymarsh can not possibly create the right decision to combat traffics in the city. Also, the differences in the character of people in Waymarsh may be contrast compared to people of Waymarsh; thus, rashly applying the same measure would be ineffective and the author’s must first identify the discrepancy of the data before making the conclusion.
The people from Garville say that the traffic is declining after the activation of the ride sharing initiative in the city. The effort may give the positive effect toward the overall effort, yet the author must analyze further whether other measures are also implemented in Garville. Perhaps, this city is also expanding the roads and constructing more of them in the city to accommodate the commuters who use personal vehicles to their workplaces. Moreover, the city council might find the cheap construction method from years of civil works innovation in the city so they can effectively add the road networks in the city without paying too much in funding. The account of those people from Garville also does not mention the actual number of the traffic decline in the city. What if the rate of decline is not that significant? Also, they do not mention when the policy of ride sharing is implemented and when the city takes the evaluation on the policy. It is plausible that they measure the impact after the policy is implemented in the days when most of the people are out of works or in vacation days that rarely people go to work. Another possibility is, as in this pandemic era, the companies there might be implementing more work-from-home policy for their workers; hence, the commuters are decreasing in number so the commuting time will logically decrease also.
Getting deeply into ride-sharing policy alone, the author can make great mistake when we consider the people themselves as the users of the policy. People from Garville might have different overall personality that may ease the implementation of the policy in the city. For example, people in Garville are more friendly and welcoming compared to people from Waymarsh who are more reserved and shy. Differences in jobs, environment, racial structure can affect the overall social culture of the people. If the author insists that this policy must be implemented, then, with the difference in social condition, few people will adhere to the policy and the traffic will be the same as before.
Another questionable side about author’s arguments is there is not enough deep analysis on the roads and riding experience condition in Waymarsh. The author must first investigate the overall factors affecting the traffic rate in relation to the road quality, the commuting method of the people, and the capacity of the roads in Waymarsh. It is possible that most of the roads in Waymarsh are damaged while the capacity of the roads is adequate for all commuting methods in the city. Bad quality roads will reduce the speed of commuting, and it is a logical consequence of the situation that can greatly affect the traffic. Many people in Waymarsh might also already use the busses as a mean for commuting, so if the city fix the roads instead this way will be much better than giving gas coupon to the people using ride-sharing policy. The author must find the fact behind the condition of the roads before making the claim mentioned.
Many good policies are possible to ameliorate traffics in any city, yet each city has its own unique condition and personality. Before making the right decision, the author must first find enough data. The best solution is the one that matches the city true needs.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 9 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 29 15
No. of Words: 688 350
No. of Characters: 3373 1500
No. of Different Words: 284 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.121 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.903 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.568 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 253 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 175 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 125 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 72 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.724 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.279 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.552 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.323 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.493 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.111 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 1369, Rule ID: ALSO_SENT_END[1]
Message: 'Also' is not used at the end of the sentence. Use 'as well' instead.
Suggestion: as well
... commuting time will logically decrease also. Getting deeply into ride-sharing po...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, hence, however, if, may, moreover, so, then, thus, well, while, for example
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 30.0 19.6327345309 153% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 26.0 12.9520958084 201% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 18.0 13.6137724551 132% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 28.8173652695 97% => OK
Preposition: 91.0 55.5748502994 164% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3455.0 2260.96107784 153% => OK
No of words: 688.0 441.139720559 156% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.02180232558 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.12149920406 4.56307096286 112% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.65041322979 2.78398813304 95% => OK
Unique words: 298.0 204.123752495 146% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.433139534884 0.468620217663 92% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1091.7 705.55239521 155% => 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: 17.0 8.76447105788 194% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 5.0 1.67365269461 299% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 29.0 19.7664670659 147% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 49.1146829457 57.8364921388 85% => OK
Chars per sentence: 119.137931034 119.503703932 100% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.724137931 23.324526521 102% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.03448275862 5.70786347227 53% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => 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: 9.0 4.67664670659 192% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.124767489709 0.218282227539 57% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0382208317215 0.0743258471296 51% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0349747688696 0.0701772020484 50% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0720371472297 0.128457276422 56% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0315489318415 0.0628817314937 50% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.1 14.3799401198 98% => 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: 12.13 12.5979740519 96% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.56 8.32208582834 103% => OK
difficult_words: 165.0 98.500998004 168% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
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.