The following is a memorandum from the office of Mayor Harrison Smith Jones.
"In order to relieve Briggsville’s notorious traffic congestion, Mayor Harrison Smith Jones plans to build a multi-million dollar subway system. The subway will run through the major downtown areas, a part of the town where buses serve as the only form of public transportation. For years, residents have been complaining both about inconsistent buses, and the general lack of safety while riding the buses. Additionally, the subway will be running twenty-four hours a day. Since motorists will spend less time in traffic, Mayor Harrison Smith Jones expects to see an immediate increase in worker productivity, which will improve the economy of Briggsville."
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.
We learn that the Mayor of Briggsville plans to build a multi million dollar subway system to combat the traffic congestion which he believes will benefit the economy since people will spend less time in traffic and be more productive. The Mayor's conclusion has some evidence to back his claim but does fall short of sufficient evidence in order to justify that a multi million dollar subway system will be effective.
The first false assumption Mayor Harrison makes is to believe without further proof that the majority if not all will use the subway system. People commuting to work in Briggsville may prefer to use their own cars depending on their work location because using the subway may involve some amount of additional travel to get to their workplace. If this is the case, private seems to be the more convenient option. This serves to undermine the Mayor's conclusion. If he wants to prove his assumptions warranted, the Mayor will have to conduct a widespread survey to determine the success of the subway system before splurging millions of dollars on a project which may or may not take off.
Next, just because the downtown residents are disgruntled with the sub-par bus network, doesn't mean they don't prefer taking the bus. If the residents prefer the bus network to be improved and made safer rather than building a subway system, Harrison's conclusion can be called into question. Therefore Mayor Harrison should take this into account before implementing the plan.
And finally, the biggest assumption Mayor Harrison makes is that the subway system will be a success and he can recover the enormous amount of money spent on the project. But will it? There are a couple of key factors to be considered to fully evaluate the conclusion. Is it really necessary to keep the subway running twenty four hours? Will people actually use it that late in the night or early in the morning? What will be the costs of running it round the clock? Will the revenue generated be enough to keep the subway system operational throughout? If not, Mayor Harrison Smith's assumptions prove unwarranted.
Although the Mayor has come with a plan to resolve the traffic issue, his conclusion lacks sufficient evidence to warrant his assumptions. If the Mayor can confirm that there is demand for the subway system, people will prefer this over other means of transport and most importantly, use it after work hours and the revenue generated can be used to recover the money spent, then the assumptions will not only hold true but also be convincing.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 433 350
No. of Characters: 2082 1500
No. of Different Words: 211 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.562 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.808 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.481 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 150 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 104 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 63 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 44 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.65 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.928 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.65 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.299 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.501 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.072 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 89, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...sgruntled with the sub-par bus network, doesnt mean they dont prefer taking the bus. I...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 106, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...e sub-par bus network, doesnt mean they dont prefer taking the bus. If the residents...
^^^^
Line 5, column 292, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Therefore,
...conclusion can be called into question. Therefore Mayor Harrison should take this into ac...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 320, Rule ID: EN_COMPOUNDS
Message: This word is normally spelled with hyphen.
Suggestion: twenty-four
...ly necessary to keep the subway running twenty four hours? Will people actually use it that...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 298, Rule ID: IT_VBZ[1]
Message: Did you mean 'works'?
Suggestion: works
...port and most importantly, use it after work hours and the revenue generated can be ...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, finally, first, if, may, really, so, then, therefore
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 19.6327345309 92% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 21.0 12.9520958084 162% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 8.0 13.6137724551 59% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 27.0 28.8173652695 94% => OK
Preposition: 52.0 55.5748502994 94% => OK
Nominalization: 8.0 16.3942115768 49% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2125.0 2260.96107784 94% => OK
No of words: 431.0 441.139720559 98% => OK
Chars per words: 4.93039443155 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.55637350225 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.53563488814 2.78398813304 91% => OK
Unique words: 213.0 204.123752495 104% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.494199535963 0.468620217663 105% => OK
syllable_count: 641.7 705.55239521 91% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 4.0 8.76447105788 46% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 0.0 4.22255489022 0% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 73.6423791033 57.8364921388 127% => OK
Chars per sentence: 106.25 119.503703932 89% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.55 23.324526521 92% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.65 5.70786347227 64% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 1.0 6.88822355289 15% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 12.0 4.67664670659 257% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.320819359132 0.218282227539 147% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.107423227398 0.0743258471296 145% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0737024619184 0.0701772020484 105% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.19285773708 0.128457276422 150% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0699834819339 0.0628817314937 111% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.6 14.3799401198 88% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 58.62 48.3550499002 121% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 12.197005988 84% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.31 12.5979740519 90% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.87 8.32208582834 95% => OK
difficult_words: 87.0 98.500998004 88% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 12.3882235529 105% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.