The following is a petition to the city council of Centerville:
"Over the past three years, there has been a marked increase in cases of 'sidewalk rage,' similar to the irrational anger drivers experience on the road, but instead among sidewalk walkers. The result is an increase in assaults, property damage, and disruptions of normal pedestrian traffic. In order to address this growing problem, the council must ban cell phone use on sidewalks. Not only do people texting or using their phones slow down pedestrian traffic, but they are also more likely to walk into the road or bump into other walkers. Children are especially vulnerable because they are too short to be easily seen. Middletown passed such a ban and not only have they heard no complaints, but the reported incidents of sidewalk crime has gone down significantly."
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 author states that there has been an increase in the cases of sidewalk rage, which can be controlled by banning the use of a cellphone while walking. However, this argument is rather convincing, given there are some flaws in the logic behind the ban of the cellphone.
Firstly, the author states the ban had worked in the city of Middletown, where they saw the decline in the reporting of the sidewalk incidents. Here, the author did not mention any number that could show a significant decrease in the cases. This assumption of ban working is based on any data, which could not be trusted. For example, Middletown was receiving sidewalk cases in a single-digit number and after the ban of cellphone cases reduced by 3-4 in numbers. As a result, there is a significant decrease in the number of sidewalk rage cases.
Secondly, the writer said about the increase in assaults, property damage and disruption of pedestrian traffic but did not mention that using the cellphone on the sidewalk is the only reason for the increase in such activities. There might some other reasons because of which the number of cases increased in the first place. For example, there might be less space for pedestrian for walking on the sidewalk because of which people collide with each other which led to increasing in the sidewalk rage cases.
Last but not the least, the author considered the situation in Centerville is to the same as the situation in Middletown. He forgot about the difference between the two cities or the people living in them. For Instance, the average age of the populace in Middletown is much older as compared to the population of Centreville because of that they might not be connected to the internet or their phones all the time. Therefore, the cellphone ban was not a problem for the resident of Middletown. Whereas, the younger population is much more connected to their personal device and cellphone ban could chaos in Centerville.
In conclusion, the argument mentioned by the author falls short to explain the reason for considering Middletown tantamount to Centreville or is cellphone is the only reason behind the increase in the number of cases.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 5 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 3 2
No. of Sentences: 16 15
No. of Words: 368 350
No. of Characters: 1764 1500
No. of Different Words: 161 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.38 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.793 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.619 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 124 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 95 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 69 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 45 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.992 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.812 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.356 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.591 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.093 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 7, column 281, Rule ID: COMP_THAN[3]
Message: Comparison requires 'than', not 'then' nor 'as'.
Suggestion: than
...he populace in Middletown is much older as compared to the population of Centrevil...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, firstly, however, if, second, secondly, so, therefore, whereas, while, for example, for instance, in conclusion, as a result, in the first place
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 19.6327345309 87% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.9520958084 54% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 12.0 28.8173652695 42% => OK
Preposition: 57.0 55.5748502994 103% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 16.3942115768 73% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1815.0 2260.96107784 80% => OK
No of words: 368.0 441.139720559 83% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.93206521739 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.37987740619 4.56307096286 96% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.71167741659 2.78398813304 97% => OK
Unique words: 162.0 204.123752495 79% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.440217391304 0.468620217663 94% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 568.8 705.55239521 81% => 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: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 19.7664670659 81% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 49.0034676707 57.8364921388 85% => OK
Chars per sentence: 113.4375 119.503703932 95% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.0 23.324526521 99% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.75 5.70786347227 171% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 8.20758483034 37% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.134227829241 0.218282227539 61% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0503650883157 0.0743258471296 68% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0518714012433 0.0701772020484 74% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0792421744887 0.128457276422 62% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0479472499616 0.0628817314937 76% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.3 14.3799401198 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 56.59 48.3550499002 117% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.61 12.5979740519 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.0 8.32208582834 96% => OK
difficult_words: 75.0 98.500998004 76% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 12.3882235529 73% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => 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.