In surveys Mason City residents rank water sports (swimming, boating, and fishing)
among their favorite recreational activities. The Mason River flowing through the city
is rarely used for these pursuits, however, and the city park department devotes little
of its budget to maintaining riverside recreational facilities. For years there have been
complaints from residents about the quality of the river’s water and the river’s smell. In
response, the state has recently announced plans to clean up Mason River. Use of the
river for water sports is, therefore, sure to increase. The city government should for that
reason devote more money in this year’s budget to riverside recreational facilities.
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the
argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on the assumptions and what
the implications are if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
The writer contends that the city government should devote more money to riverside recreational facilities because the use of the river is sure to increase. To support the argument, the writer provides the following evidence; 1) In surveys, Mason City residents rank water sports among their favorite recreational activities. 2) There have been many complaints about the quality of water and the smell of the river and the use of the riverside recreational facilities will increase if the issues are addressed. It might appear to be credible at first glance that the city government should increase their budget to the facilities; however, closer scrutiny reveals that it lacks substantiated evidence and is therefore implausible as it stands.
First, the writer assumes that the use of the facilities is to increase if the city government increases its budget to it because the citizens in the city like water sports more than other sports. However, the writers reasoning looks subject to the error of hasty generalization. From the surveys, it is certain that the people in the city prefer water sports. Unfortunately, nothing other than this is certain based on the surveys. Even though the people like water sports, they might like a sort of water sports that they cannot enjoy on Mason river in the city so that they have to go to the beaches. Unless the writer provides information about what water sports exactly the citizens like, the argument would be undermined.
Moreover, the writer concludes that the facilities will be sought after if the city government addresses the complaints from citizens. However, the writer deals with this issue with insufficient data. Simply thinking, the use of facilities is expected to increase after the complaints about the river are solved. However, we have to focus on what the complaints are mainly about. It is possible that the people who complained were not interested in water sports at all and they would never like the water sports. Also, it can be assumed that the quality and smell of the river complained by citizens was so endurable to water sports enthusiasts that it could not prevent them from enjoying the sports. Therefore, the writer should provide data showing the opinion and thoughts of citizens who like the water sports to better support this argument.
In sum, the writer’s claim is not well supported. The writer should provide more sufficient evidence that will eliminate all the above doubts and questions. To better assess the assertion, the writer has to provide further evidence such as data about what water sports exactly the citizens like and water sports fans’ opinion on the quality and smell of the river.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
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: 20 15
No. of Words: 443 350
No. of Characters: 2200 1500
No. of Different Words: 177 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.588 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.966 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.519 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 160 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 110 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 77 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 46 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.15 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.216 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.6 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.372 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.516 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.126 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, however, if, look, moreover, so, therefore, thus, well, as to, sort of, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 19.6327345309 92% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 11.1786427146 81% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 32.0 28.8173652695 111% => OK
Preposition: 61.0 55.5748502994 110% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2266.0 2260.96107784 100% => OK
No of words: 443.0 441.139720559 100% => OK
Chars per words: 5.1151241535 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.58776254615 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.64883583738 2.78398813304 95% => OK
Unique words: 183.0 204.123752495 90% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.41309255079 0.468620217663 88% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 702.0 705.55239521 99% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 52.2726266797 57.8364921388 90% => OK
Chars per sentence: 113.3 119.503703932 95% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.15 23.324526521 95% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.6 5.70786347227 81% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.67664670659 21% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.227552888344 0.218282227539 104% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0773326378746 0.0743258471296 104% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0779548177547 0.0701772020484 111% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.158764529544 0.128457276422 124% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0889064240222 0.0628817314937 141% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.8 14.3799401198 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 49.15 48.3550499002 102% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.42 12.5979740519 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.79 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 86.0 98.500998004 87% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.