"Over the past two years, the number of shoppers in Central Plaza has been steadily decreasing while the popularity of skateboarding has increased dramatically. Many Central Plaza store owners believe that the decrease in their business is due to the number of skateboard users in the plaza. There has also been a dramatic increase in the amount of litter and vandalism throughout the plaza. Thus, we recommend that the city prohibit skateboarding in Central Plaza. If skateboarding is prohibited here, we predict that business in Central Plaza will return to its previously high levels."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation
While it may be true that if the city prohibits skateboarding in central plaza the business will return to its previously high levels, the store owners do not make a cogent case for prohibiting skateboarding based on a decreased number of shoppers at the plaza. It is easy to understand why shop owners would want to eliminate vandalism and litter, but some questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the store owner’s recommendation to prohibit skateboarding would actually lead to a return in business.
The shop owner states that over the past two years, the number of shoppers in Central Plaza has been steadily decreasing while the popularity of skateboarding has increased dramatically. It’s not clear, however, if the fact that skateboarding has increased is what caused the decrease in shoppers. Some extra information is needed in order to understand the cause and effect. For example, perhaps it is possible that there was first a decrease in shoppers that eventually led to more skateboarders aggregating at the central plaza since less people has given them more room to skate. A question the should be asked is whether or not the decrease in shoppers started before there was an increase in skateboarders, unless this evidence can be shown we cannot know if it was the influx in skateboarders that cause the decrease in shoppers or the opposite.
Additionally, the author states that there has been an been an increase in the amount of litter and vandalism throughout the plaza which is part of the reason why shoppers have stopped coming to the plaza. While a central plaza that is full of litter and vandalism would likely cut down the number of shoppers, there seems to be an assumption here that skateboarders are likely to be at fault when it comes to acts of vandalism and litter are the fault. To strengthen this argument, some additional information is needed. To identify a concrete connection between vandalism and skateboarders, questions such as whether or not the shop owners have actually seen the skateboarders vandalizing the property must be asked. If vandalism and litter is the real cause for the decrease in shoppers and it is revealed that the skateboarders are not the ones to blame for this, then prohibiting them from entering the plaza would not help bring back shoppers.
Moreover, the shop owner builds his argument by stating that the increase in skateboarders and vandalism is dramatic while the decrease in shoppers is steady. These words can be seen as vague and ambiguous. Some information regarding the actual numbers could help us understand the state of things. For example if it turns out that the steady decrease has been going on for ten years but the increase in skateboarders has only started a year ago, then it wouldn’t make sense that the presumed correlation means causation.
Skateboarders can sometime abrade the floors they skate on causing a gradual wearing down of the plaza’s stairs and floors. This on its own might be a good reason for the city to prohibit skateboarding in the plaza. However, without answering some important questions and brining to light additional information, the shop owners argument is not likely to significantly persuade the city that prohibiting skateboarding will bring an increase in shoppers.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- not OK. Need to argue against the conclusion always. For this topic it is:
Thus, we recommend that the city prohibit skateboarding in Central Plaza. If skateboarding is prohibited here, we predict that business in Central Plaza will return to its previously high levels.
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 550 350
No. of Characters: 2719 1500
No. of Different Words: 233 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.843 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.944 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.871 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 185 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 138 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 113 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 64 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 28.947 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.672 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.684 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.338 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.546 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.121 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 543, Rule ID: FEWER_LESS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'fewer'? The noun people is countable.
Suggestion: fewer
... aggregating at the central plaza since less people has given them more room to skat...
^^^^
Line 3, column 624, Rule ID: WHETHER[7]
Message: Perhaps you can shorten this phrase to just 'whether'. It is correct though if you mean 'regardless of whether'.
Suggestion: whether
...kate. A question the should be asked is whether or not the decrease in shoppers started before...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 48, Rule ID: PHRASE_REPETITION[1]
Message: This phrase is duplicated. You should probably leave only 'been an'.
Suggestion: been an
...nally, the author states that there has been an been an increase in the amount of litter and va...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 53, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'a' instead of 'an' if the following word doesn't start with a vowel sound, e.g. 'a sentence', 'a university'
Suggestion: a
..., the author states that there has been an been an increase in the amount of litte...
^^
Line 5, column 612, Rule ID: WHETHER[7]
Message: Perhaps you can shorten this phrase to just 'whether'. It is correct though if you mean 'regardless of whether'.
Suggestion: whether
...sm and skateboarders, questions such as whether or not the shop owners have actually seen the ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 6, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...a would not help bring back shoppers. Moreover, the shop owner builds his argu...
^^^
Line 9, column 460, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ing will bring an increase in shoppers.
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, first, however, if, may, moreover, regarding, so, then, while, for example, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 32.0 19.6327345309 163% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 17.0 12.9520958084 131% => OK
Conjunction : 17.0 11.1786427146 152% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 35.0 28.8173652695 121% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 69.0 55.5748502994 124% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2793.0 2260.96107784 124% => OK
No of words: 549.0 441.139720559 124% => OK
Chars per words: 5.08743169399 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.84053189512 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.98031203845 2.78398813304 107% => OK
Unique words: 236.0 204.123752495 116% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.429872495446 0.468620217663 92% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 854.1 705.55239521 121% => 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: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 28.0 22.8473053892 123% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 72.3998209392 57.8364921388 125% => OK
Chars per sentence: 147.0 119.503703932 123% => OK
Words per sentence: 28.8947368421 23.324526521 124% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.15789473684 5.70786347227 90% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 7.0 5.25449101796 133% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.35850841715 0.218282227539 164% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.124785351216 0.0743258471296 168% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.141330914525 0.0701772020484 201% => The coherence between sentences is low.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.217746433071 0.128457276422 170% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0991403236636 0.0628817314937 158% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.0 14.3799401198 118% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 43.06 48.3550499002 89% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.197005988 116% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.83 12.5979740519 102% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.87 8.32208582834 95% => OK
difficult_words: 99.0 98.500998004 101% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 19.0 12.3882235529 153% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.2 11.1389221557 119% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => 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.