"Several recent surveys indicate that homeowners are increasingly eager to conserve energy and
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, we anticipate that 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 20 years have always met our needs, construction of new generating plants should
not be necessary."
The argument that a new electric generating plant is unnecessary is full of detrimental assumptions. For an argument to be valid, the assumptions need to be in probable and reliable circumstances. Unfortunately, the department did not make probable assumptions.
To begin with, the department assumes that the samples for the surveys are reliable. There is no evidence that states this. The argument does not state if the survey was performed on a proper sample of people. The assumption is that the surveys were inclusive of all community members. If the surveys were performed on the wealthier people in the community, who can afford to buy these new technologies, then of course they would be able to conserve energy. On the other hand, the people who have less wealth cannot afford to buy the new energy-conserving technology. Depending on the people of the community, they may not be able to decrease the amount of energy used.
A stated assumption is that the new appliances, home insulation, and passive solar heating are readily available. Although it is available to many, not everyone can afford it or will purchase it, which leads to another assumption that everyone is enthusiastic about making changes to conserve energy. The surveys say that the homeowners are increasingly eager to conserve energy, but that could be based on a select few.
An unstated assumption made is that the community will not grow in its population. If no new people moved into the community, the three generators would be enough to supply energy to the existing population. Yet, if the population grows, the department may need a fourth generator built to be able to meet the electricity needs of the new community members. No growth in population is unlikely, therefore this assumption is unwarranted.
In conclusion, the assumption that the total demand in electricity will not increase is unwarranted. The circumstances are unlikely with the assumptions that everyone can afford new appliances, wants to conserve energy, and that the population will not increase.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 --not OK
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- OK
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 334 350
No. of Characters: 1681 1500
No. of Different Words: 154 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.275 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.033 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.971 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 123 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 92 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 79 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 54 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 17.579 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.36 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.526 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.321 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.551 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.104 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, if, may, so, then, therefore, thus, in conclusion, of course, to begin with, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.6327345309 127% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.9520958084 116% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 11.1786427146 45% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 21.0 28.8173652695 73% => OK
Preposition: 38.0 55.5748502994 68% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1737.0 2260.96107784 77% => OK
No of words: 334.0 441.139720559 76% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.2005988024 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.27500489853 4.56307096286 94% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.08939240642 2.78398813304 111% => OK
Unique words: 159.0 204.123752495 78% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.476047904192 0.468620217663 102% => OK
syllable_count: 553.5 705.55239521 78% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 4.96107784431 20% => OK
Article: 14.0 8.76447105788 160% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 22.8473053892 74% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 36.9073857738 57.8364921388 64% => OK
Chars per sentence: 91.4210526316 119.503703932 77% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.5789473684 23.324526521 75% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.21052631579 5.70786347227 91% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => 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: 0.103746091735 0.218282227539 48% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0350424095728 0.0743258471296 47% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0385660371692 0.0701772020484 55% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0589323256958 0.128457276422 46% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0436603479311 0.0628817314937 69% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.9 14.3799401198 83% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 45.76 48.3550499002 95% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.58 12.5979740519 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.98 8.32208582834 96% => OK
difficult_words: 74.0 98.500998004 75% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 6.0 12.3882235529 48% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
gunning_fog: 8.8 11.1389221557 79% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.