"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.
The argument presents a case for prohibition of skateboarding in Central Plaza in order to compensate for the recent loss in business supposedly caused by it. However, the argument does not make a cogent, convincing case for fulfilling the recommendation presented as the information provided is rife with holes and gaps.
The first major ambiguity is regarding the actual source of the information. There is no data provided regarding the nature of the study itself, and details such as the depth of analysis or whether all shops and their statistics were indeed, correctly interpreted. There is no substantial evidence which actually correlates the decline in the number of shoppers to the popularity of skateboarding, only a “belief” by many store owners, who may be making an uninformed guess. The study on the numbers regarding the shoppers and skateboarders may not have been performed thoroughly or consistently. For example, if the study was, correctly conducted and recorded only on working days during a vacation period such as summer break, this timing could present a reason for an increase in the number of skateboarders since they majoritarily tend to be school-going kids.
The next instance of an inconsistency to be addressed in the presented argument is the correlation of the data presented. The account mentions an increase in the amount of litter and vandalism. However, there is no clear relationship between this and the number of shoppers or skateboarders. The shoppers could be contributing to this themselves, there could be a recent gang problem, or it may be due to a recent shortage in the number of cleaning staff in the Plaza- there could be multiple explanations for the litter and vandalism. Also, a ban in skateboarding could potentially reduce the number of shoppers further, since a portion of the shoppers may also be skateboarders. A recent decline in the number of shoppers may be due to the recent growth of popularity in online shopping. These external factors further weaken the argument. Since inadequate correlation between data has been provided, the clear causes and effects of the situation is not known.
In conclusion, while the city could take some measures to tackle the issue of declining number of shoppers in Central Plaza, banning of skateboarding in the area would not be justified based off the argument presented due to the lack of germane, substantial information to support the argument.
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: 16 15
No. of Words: 397 350
No. of Characters: 2011 1500
No. of Different Words: 186 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.464 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.065 4.6
Word Length SD: 3.018 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 151 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 115 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 91 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 57 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.812 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 11.812 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.688 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.349 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.525 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.082 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 404, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
...o the popularity of skateboarding, only a 'belief' by many store owners...
^
Line 5, column 876, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...oritarily tend to be school-going kids. The next instance of an inconsistency to...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, however, if, may, regarding, so, while, for example, in conclusion, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 2.0 13.6137724551 15% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 10.0 28.8173652695 35% => OK
Preposition: 61.0 55.5748502994 110% => OK
Nominalization: 18.0 16.3942115768 110% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2076.0 2260.96107784 92% => OK
No of words: 397.0 441.139720559 90% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.22921914358 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.46372701284 4.56307096286 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.16529385753 2.78398813304 114% => OK
Unique words: 190.0 204.123752495 93% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.478589420655 0.468620217663 102% => OK
syllable_count: 646.2 705.55239521 92% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 4.96107784431 40% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
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: 24.0 22.8473053892 105% => OK
Sentence length SD: 69.8328081474 57.8364921388 121% => OK
Chars per sentence: 129.75 119.503703932 109% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.8125 23.324526521 106% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.4375 5.70786347227 113% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.184511916937 0.218282227539 85% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0604397237057 0.0743258471296 81% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0514532091923 0.0701772020484 73% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.117961966819 0.128457276422 92% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0277650080679 0.0628817314937 44% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.6 14.3799401198 108% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 47.12 48.3550499002 97% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.197005988 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.35 12.5979740519 106% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.92 8.32208582834 107% => OK
difficult_words: 103.0 98.500998004 105% => 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: 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.