A recent sales study indicates that consumption of seafood dishes in Bay City restaurants has increased by 30 percent during the past five years. Yet there are no currently operating city restaurants whose specialty is seafood. Moreover, the majority of families in Bay City are two-income families, and a nationwide study has shown that such families eat significantly fewer home-cooked meals than they did a decade ago but at the same time express more concern about healthful eating. Therefore, the new Captain Seafood restaurant that specializes in seafood should be quite popular and profitable.
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 in the passage concludes that the new restaurant in the Bay City area, Captain Seafood, whose specialty is seafood would be really popular and profitable. The author has based his/her conclusion on three assumptions, which if not substantiated, would significantly weaken the conclusion derived.
Firstly, the author has presumed that the people living in the Bay City area prefer eating at restaurants where the intended cuisine is their speciality. It might be possible that the people prefer eating at popular multi-cuisine restaurants which have been established since long, and people trust their food quality and cleanliness. It might be the case that the customers relish seafood along with other cuisines, such as Chinese and Italian, and not solely seafood, which the new Captain Seafood restaurant would serve. It is also possible that some members of the family enjoy seafood, while others enjoy some other kind of food, which might be available in the existing Bay City restaurants. If any of these scenarios is true, then the author’s conclusion that a new seafood-special restaurant would easily get popular and earn profits does not hold water.
Secondly, the author has assumed that the families who prefer fewer home-cooked meals would go out to eat seafood only. There is no evidence that the two-income families as mentioned in the passage prefer seafood over home-cooked meals. It might be possible that these families may go for an entirely different cuisine while going out for a meal. It is also not clear how many families participated in the nationwide survey mentioned in the passage. It is possible that maybe the survey was filled only by those families who did not prefer home-cooked meals, and generalizing this opinion for all the families would be misleading. Thus, if any of these possibilities exist, then the author’s claim for success of the new Captain Seafood restaurant would be significantly weakened.
Finally, it has been wrongly presumed that seafood is the healthier alternative while eating at restaurants. There is no evidence stating that seafood comes under the healthy eating preferred by the Bay City area families. It might be possible that seafood might have high content of virulent food components, which might affect the well-being of the people. It might cause some allergic reactions to the skin and/or diseases. It is also possible that the families who prefer fewer home-cooked meals and prefer healthy eating might be including salads and fruits as part of their diet, thus not ‘cooking’ their food but simply gathering and eating. The author’s conclusion about the new seafood-special restaurant becomes unwarranted and unjustified in this case.
In conclusion, it might be possible that the new Captain Seafood restaurant would become popular and earn profits in the Bay City Area. But, as it stands now, the author’s conclusion relies on three unwarranted assumptions, which leaves it unpersuasive at best. Thus, the author needs to provide additional evidence on the breakdown of seafood sales coming from non-specialised restaurants, the preference of families while eating out at restaurants, and the health analysis of seafood and whether or not families agree with the same.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 8 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 10 2
No. of Sentences: 22 15
No. of Words: 520 350
No. of Characters: 2680 1500
No. of Different Words: 213 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.775 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.154 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.762 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 193 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 149 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 100 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 64 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.636 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.126 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.682 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.377 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.534 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.119 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 235, Rule ID: IF_IS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'is'?
Suggestion: is
... conclusion on three assumptions, which if not substantiated, would significantly ...
^^
Line 3, column 525, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...Captain Seafood restaurant would serve. It is also possible that some members of t...
^^
Line 5, column 451, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...onwide survey mentioned in the passage. It is possible that maybe the survey was f...
^^
Line 7, column 428, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
... reactions to the skin and/or diseases. It is also possible that the families who ...
^^
Line 9, column 491, 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
... and the health analysis of seafood and whether or not families agree with the same.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, firstly, if, may, really, second, secondly, so, then, thus, well, while, in conclusion, kind of, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 19.0 12.9520958084 147% => OK
Conjunction : 18.0 11.1786427146 161% => OK
Relative clauses : 26.0 13.6137724551 191% => OK
Pronoun: 40.0 28.8173652695 139% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 44.0 55.5748502994 79% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 16.3942115768 24% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2762.0 2260.96107784 122% => OK
No of words: 518.0 441.139720559 117% => OK
Chars per words: 5.33204633205 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.77070365392 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.87117757185 2.78398813304 103% => OK
Unique words: 222.0 204.123752495 109% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.428571428571 0.468620217663 91% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 828.9 705.55239521 117% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 11.0 4.96107784431 222% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 22.0 19.7664670659 111% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 44.1939751326 57.8364921388 76% => OK
Chars per sentence: 125.545454545 119.503703932 105% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.5454545455 23.324526521 101% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.95454545455 5.70786347227 104% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.178306848779 0.218282227539 82% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0715907586246 0.0743258471296 96% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0704282108414 0.0701772020484 100% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.132897716909 0.128457276422 103% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0437610178482 0.0628817314937 70% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.4 14.3799401198 107% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.3550499002 100% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.93 12.5979740519 111% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.22 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 113.0 98.500998004 115% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => 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.