The following recommendation appeared in a memo from the mayor of the town of Hopewell.
"Two years ago, the nearby town of Ocean View built a new municipal golf course and resort hotel. During the past two years, tourism in Ocean View has increased, new businesses have opened there, and Ocean View's tax revenues have risen by 30 percent. Therefore, the best way to improve Hopewell's economy—and generate additional tax revenues—is to build a golf course and resort hotel similar to those in Ocean View."
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, the mayor of the town of Hopewell recommends that, the best possible way to improve overall Hopewell’s economy and taxes is to build a golf course and a resort. The mayor has recommended this, by the implementation of same things in the neighbouring town of Ocean View two years ago. However, before this recommendation is properly evaluated, two specific pieces of evidence must be collected and analysed.
To begin with, are Hopewell and Ocean View towns roughly comparable? In other words, can the circumstances from one town be used to make generalizations and predictions about the other one? It may be possible, that the geographic location of Ocean View town is fantastic like it may consist of a beach, or surrounded by mountains and maybe it also has one of the best sunrise and sunset points in the country. Moreover, Ocean View’s land might be flat which is suitable to play golf whereas Hopewell’s isn’t, or it is not in pristine condition. If either of the above scenarios hold water, then the conclusion drawn from the original argument is significantly weakened.
Secondly, is the rise in tax revenues and establishment of new businesses in Ocean View town is only because of golf course and resort hotel? The mayor prematurely assumes that, since the construction and opening of golf course and resort hotel tax revenues has surged by 30 percent and numerous businesses have set up. However, this might not be the case. Perhaps, the people are well educated and qualified to work in businesses and also there might be an increase in school and university fees, which directly boosts the town’s economy. If the either of the above cases are true, then the recommendation stated in the argument does not hold water.
In conclusion, the argument, as it stands now, is considerably flawed due to its reliance on several unwarranted assumptions. If the author is able to answer the two questions above and provide more evidence (perhaps in the form of systematic research study), then it will be possible to fully evaluate the viability of the proposed recommendation to construct a golf course and a resort hotel.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 15 15
No. of Words: 361 350
No. of Characters: 1736 1500
No. of Different Words: 186 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.359 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.809 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.833 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 114 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 88 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 69 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 39 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.067 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.99 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.8 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.322 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.525 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.053 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 7, column 394, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...truct a golf course and a resort hotel.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, however, if, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, then, well, whereas, in conclusion, in other words, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 19.0 11.1786427146 170% => OK
Relative clauses : 5.0 13.6137724551 37% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 13.0 28.8173652695 45% => OK
Preposition: 52.0 55.5748502994 94% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1798.0 2260.96107784 80% => OK
No of words: 360.0 441.139720559 82% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.99444444444 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.35587717469 4.56307096286 95% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.92084885345 2.78398813304 105% => OK
Unique words: 192.0 204.123752495 94% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.533333333333 0.468620217663 114% => OK
syllable_count: 566.1 705.55239521 80% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 19.7664670659 76% => 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: 24.0 22.8473053892 105% => OK
Sentence length SD: 54.7849938903 57.8364921388 95% => OK
Chars per sentence: 119.866666667 119.503703932 100% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.0 23.324526521 103% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.06666666667 5.70786347227 141% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 6.88822355289 29% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.369761033369 0.218282227539 169% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.119130195639 0.0743258471296 160% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.110755613096 0.0701772020484 158% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.212163295111 0.128457276422 165% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0949137531018 0.0628817314937 151% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.1 14.3799401198 98% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 47.12 48.3550499002 97% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.197005988 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.96 12.5979740519 95% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.64 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 87.0 98.500998004 88% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 12.3882235529 97% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 11.1389221557 104% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.