“When Stanley Park first opened, it was the largest, most heavily used public park in town.
It is still the largest park, but it is no longer heavily used. Video cameras mounted in the park's parking lots last month revealed the park's drop in popularity: the recordings showed an average of only 50 cars per day. In contrast, tiny Carlton Park in the heart of the business district is visited by more than 150 people on a typical weekday. An obvious difference is that Carlton Park, unlike Stanley Park, provides ample seating. Thus, if Stanley Park is ever to be as popular with our citizens as Carlton Park, the town will obviously need to provide more benches, thereby converting some of the unused open areas into spaces suitable for socializing.”
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 these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
Stanley Park is seemingly visited by the fewer people. To increase the visits, the author of the statement believes that equipping Stanley Park with more benches would be the only solution. This conclusion is based on the premise that such a strategy have worked in Carton Park so it would Work in Stanley Park either. To reach the conclusion, the author made several unsupported assumptions.
First, the author assumes that the average 50 cars per day, shows a drastic decline of Stanley Park visitors. As there is no evidence showing that before last month what number of cars placed in the Park’s parking lot, we cannot be certain that any notable decline happened. It is possible that the cars were 51 cars per day and in last month it is 50. Even if there are significantly fewer cars it might be due to other reasons. Another parking lot might offer space for the cars that people place their cars in there rather than using the Park’s parking. If this is the case, there is no decrease to worry about in the first place.
Secondly, assuming that the decline happened, the author assumes that as more than 150 people visit Carlton Park in the heart of business district per day, it shows the success of the park in attracting the people to come to the park. It is possible that as Carlton Park is located in the center of the business district, people merely use the park as a passage way to go to the other parts of the district. It is also possible that the concentration of the population in that district is far more than the population of the people around the Stanley Park that Carlton Park has more visitors.
Finally, even if the benches were the reason why more people go to the Carlton Park it might not work the allocation of more benches might not be efficient for the Stanley Park, as the author wrongly assumes otherwise. We do not know the numbers of the benches, they might be sufficient and there are other reasons why people do not go the Stanley Park. The water ponds may stick. There may be a shortage of the playground for children. The guards might not be polite with the people and so on. If these are the case, with or without benches visitors decline will continue.
In short, the author made a weak argument since it is replete with ambiguous points. As discussed, the answers to the enumerated questions would illustrate the argument. As long as the questions are left unaddressed, the conclusion which is based on such an unclear argument cannot be tenable.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 3 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 3 2
No. of Sentences: 22 15
No. of Words: 444 350
No. of Characters: 2005 1500
No. of Different Words: 186 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.59 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.516 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.319 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 135 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 101 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 53 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 25 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.182 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.843 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.545 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.31 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.535 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.131 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 354, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[2]
Message: “Even if” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...ars per day and in last month it is 50. Even if there are significantly fewer cars it m...
^^^^^^^
Line 6, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...to worry about in the first place. Secondly, assuming that the decline happ...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, first, if, may, second, secondly, so, in short, in the first place
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 27.0 19.6327345309 138% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 11.1786427146 36% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 29.0 28.8173652695 101% => OK
Preposition: 46.0 55.5748502994 83% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 16.3942115768 61% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2068.0 2260.96107784 91% => OK
No of words: 444.0 441.139720559 101% => OK
Chars per words: 4.65765765766 5.12650576532 91% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.5903493882 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.41493540164 2.78398813304 87% => OK
Unique words: 191.0 204.123752495 94% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.43018018018 0.468620217663 92% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 629.1 705.55239521 89% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.4 1.59920159681 88% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 4.96107784431 161% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 8.0 2.70958083832 295% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 22.0 19.7664670659 111% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 54.1564919454 57.8364921388 94% => OK
Chars per sentence: 94.0 119.503703932 79% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.1818181818 23.324526521 87% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.68181818182 5.70786347227 65% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 8.20758483034 24% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 12.0 4.67664670659 257% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.334711478755 0.218282227539 153% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.10417278355 0.0743258471296 140% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.102822363554 0.0701772020484 147% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.188779261034 0.128457276422 147% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.11043621296 0.0628817314937 176% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.6 14.3799401198 74% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 68.1 48.3550499002 141% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.7 12.197005988 71% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 9.75 12.5979740519 77% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.44 8.32208582834 89% => OK
difficult_words: 79.0 98.500998004 80% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 7.5 12.3882235529 61% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.9071856287 84% => 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.