"Several recent surveys indicate that home owners are increasingly eager to conserve energy. At the same time, manufacturers are now marketing many home appliances, such as refrigerators and air conditioners, that are almost twice as energy efficient as those sold a decade ago. Also, new technologies for better home insulation and passive solar heating are readily available to reduce the energy needed for home heating. Therefore, the total demand for electricity in our area will not increase — and may decline slightly. Since our three electric generating plants in operation for the past twenty years have always met our needs, construction of new generating plants will not be necessary."
The memorandum from the planning department of an electric company states that owners are eager to conserve energy, and since new technologies bring down power consumption considerably, construction of new power generating plants won't be necessary. The argument's conclusion holds true if the following three questions are answered.
Firstly, even though the memo states that home owners are eager to conserve energy, it doesn't mention whether the demand of power has changed or is still the same. The home owners might be using new electric or electronic devices resulting in an increased power consumption. Under such circumstances, even if the owners are willing to save power, it is of no use; since consumption(because of newer devices) has exceeded saving. Before making any conclusion, the electric company has to analyse statistical data; comparing electricity saving with rise in demand because of newer technologies.
Secondly, do home insulation and passive solar heating really help in maintaining ideal home temperature, and thus reducing energy consumption. The world is certainly not the way it was twenty years ago; weather, temperature cycles might have changed considerably. Thus, a shift in temperature from 30 degree centigrade to 15 degree centigrade within a few weeks is quite possible. Home owners might need electric heaters to maintain the optimal temperature. In the situation that this is true, the argument makes an unwarranted assumption regarding the efficacy of home insulation. In order for the conclusion to hold true, some or many environmental factors like changes in temperature should analysed. The assumption holds water only when there are no significant changes in the climate of the region, and even if there are changes, home owners shouldn't be using home insulators - which consume power.
Finally, the argument compares contemporary world with that twenty years back. A lot of changes could have taken place in two decades; population in the region could have grown exponentially, newer factories, offices consuming significant amount of electricity could have been established. In such case, the electricity consumption would have increased dramatically, and in no time there could be a power outage in the area. The author should provide evidence that proves power consumption remained unaffected in these two decades.
Finally, whether the three power plants will be sufficient to provide power for the region can only be decided once the above unwarranted assumptions are answered by citing appropriate evidence as stated above.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- not OK
argument 2 -- not OK
argument 3 -- OK
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 2.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 399 350
No. of Characters: 2134 1500
No. of Different Words: 204 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.469 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.348 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.928 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 157 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 119 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 85 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 63 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.167 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.805 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.5 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.317 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.544 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.068 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 254, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'arguments'' or 'argument's'?
Suggestion: arguments'; argument's
...enerating plants wont be necessary. The arguments conclusion holds true if the following ...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 88, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...owners are eager to conserve energy, it doesnt mention whether the demand of power has...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 849, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: shouldn't
... even if there are changes, home owners shouldnt be using home insulators - which consum...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
finally, first, firstly, if, really, regarding, second, secondly, so, still, thus, as to
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.9520958084 100% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 7.0 13.6137724551 51% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 10.0 28.8173652695 35% => OK
Preposition: 47.0 55.5748502994 85% => OK
Nominalization: 18.0 16.3942115768 110% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2194.0 2260.96107784 97% => OK
No of words: 396.0 441.139720559 90% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.5404040404 5.12650576532 108% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.46091344257 4.56307096286 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.01925920069 2.78398813304 108% => OK
Unique words: 218.0 204.123752495 107% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.550505050505 0.468620217663 117% => OK
syllable_count: 704.7 705.55239521 100% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.8 1.59920159681 113% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 4.96107784431 40% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 47.7810399403 57.8364921388 83% => OK
Chars per sentence: 121.888888889 119.503703932 102% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.0 23.324526521 94% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.88888888889 5.70786347227 86% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.20758483034 134% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 6.88822355289 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
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: 0.143075997686 0.218282227539 66% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0496175730473 0.0743258471296 67% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0541866960531 0.0701772020484 77% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0724957896394 0.128457276422 56% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0551846094316 0.0628817314937 88% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.7 14.3799401198 109% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 32.22 48.3550499002 67% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.197005988 116% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.85 12.5979740519 118% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.19 8.32208582834 110% => OK
difficult_words: 112.0 98.500998004 114% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 12.3882235529 93% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 15.0 11.9071856287 126% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 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.