While the Department of Education in the state of Attra recommends that high school students be assigned homework every day, the data from a recent statewide survey of high school math and science teachers give us reason to question the usefulness of daily homework. In the district of Sanlee, 86 percent of the teachers reported assigning homework three to five times a week, whereas in the district of Marlee, less than 25 percent of the teachers reported assigning homework three to five times a week. Yet the students in Marlee earn better grades overall and are less likely to be required to repeat a year of school than are the students in Sanlee. Therefore, all teachers in our high schools should assign homework no more than twice a week.
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.
The originator of the argument avers that all teachers in Attra's high schools ought to assign homework no more than twice a week. This statement is based on evidence which is connected with the conclusion by several assumptions which ought to be carefully scrutinized in order to give a comprehensive estimation the soundness of the argument.
To begin with, the writer compares two high schools with each other but this comparison is rightful only in case those schools are equal to each other in all aspects. if it were the case, the only possible explanation of the results would be frequency of assigning homework. However, if those schools are not equal to each other, some unstated factors may cause the results, for instance, Marlee may have better financial support and thus it possesses better studying facilities and equipment, moreover, it may hire teachers who more qualified or motivated to teach the students. In other words, there is no guarantee that homework only is the reason of the results.
Furthermore, even if we accept that both schools were equal to each other, we still should not extrapolate those results on all state's schools owing to the fact that we have inadequately small sample –two schools. Perhaps, this extrapolation is unreasonable because those two schools may be rather exemptions than rule. For instance, Marlee's high school may be the best high school at the country; by contrast, Sanlee’s school may be the worst school at the state. Consequently, generalization of those results on all schools of the region is highly questionable.
What is more, even if we accept the results of the research for granted, we still have a problem due to the act that the survey was conducted with math and science teachers only but the results of the research are extrapolated on all teachers. It seems that author assumes that all subjects are equal to each other. However, it is not true, in fact, many humanitarian subjects such as literature, history and philosophy require from students to read a lot of material before this material may be discussed with a teacher. By contrast, studying math does not require from students to absorb a lot of material on their own. Therefore, the recommendation is not accurate.
In conclusion, it is said that amount of homework assignments ought to be reduced to two per week; at the same time, the supportive evidence is weak and does not create strong argument, in fact, the results of the survey may be caused by the third unstated force, moreover, even if homework is the factor which leads to the results, the extrapolation of those results on all schools and subjects is unreasonable as well.
Comments
Furthermore, even if we
Furthermore, even if we accept that both schools were equal to each other, we still should not extrapolate those results on all state's schools owing to the fact that we have adequate small sample –two schools. Perhaps, this extrapolation is unreasonable due to the possibility that those two schools cannot possible represent the whole, for instance, the state of Attra may have 500 schools which are attended by hundreds of thousands of students, probably, some of those school may be for gifted children and other with children with learning disability etc. Consequently, extrapolation of results which were acquired in two schools on all schools of the region is highly questionable.
1) Is it correct?
2) may you give me a link on a good essay which, perhaps, is based on similar arguments? I wonder how I can improve my analysis but searching of essays which were written on this them gave me little result.
Thank you.
p.s. it is off topic but I would like to know who check TOEFL essays. Do you have a special person/ people for this task or it is your liability as well. I ask because I am going to begin preparation for TOEFL in the next month. I actually hope that the same people will do it because you are awesome.
Thank you again.
1) it is OK now.
1) it is OK now.
2) the sample of this essay:
http://www.testbig.com/gmatgre-essays/department-education-state-attra-…
3)There are different supporters for different exams. But they will provide same qualities.
it may hire teachers who more qualified
it may hire teachers who are more qualified
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argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- not exactly. first you told: 'even if we accept that both schools were equal to each other', then you said: 'Marlee's high school may be the best high school at the country; by contrast, Sanlee’s school may be the worst school at the state'.
you may say: suppose it is due to the homework, the samples (two schools) are not big enough.
argument 3 -- OK
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Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 1 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 15 15
No. of Words: 449 350
No. of Characters: 2169 1500
No. of Different Words: 197 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.603 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.831 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.707 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 151 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 124 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 84 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 43 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 29.933 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 17.552 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.733 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.361 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.599 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.123 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5