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 department of education in the state of Attra recommends that high school students be assigned homework every day. However, based on the results of statewide survey conducted, the department changed its decision to not assign more than homework more than twice a week. The author came to the conclusion based on data presented by the district of Marlee where students are getting better grades due to less homework. Whereas in the district of Sanlee, the assignment of homework did not produce good grades. However, before this recommendation is properly evaluated, three assumption has to be cleared.
First of all, the author assumes that the education system of the two districts Sanlee and Marlee are comparable. In other words, the author is assuming that the two states have similar curriculum. It is possible that the curriculum of the two districts are totally different and are not comparable by any means. It is possible that the curriculum of Marlee district demands students to complete the work in the school itself thus providing no chance for the teachers to assign more homework. If the education system of the two districts are not comparable then the argument has no credibility.
Secondly, the author made the conclusion based on the survey conducted only on the math and science teachers, which seems to be biased. There is a possibility that the science and math teachers demand more homework for the students than other teachers. This means that the schools with a greater number of science and math faculty tend to support the recommendation that more homework is to be imposed on the students. A proper survey has to be conducted including all kinds of the faculty in a school in order to come to the conclusion.
Moreover, the author made conclusion based on the report that only 25 percent of teachers at the district of Marlee are assigning homework three to five times a week. There is a possibility that more than 25 percent of the teachers at Marlee are assigning the homework three to five times a week but they never showed interest in participating the survey, making the results of the survey inaccurate. The statewide survey is the core of the argument thus ineffectiveness of the survey hampers the argument.
In conclusion, the argument as it stands now, is considerably flawed due to its reliance on several unwarranted assumptions. If author is able to provide the evidence to the above three assumptions then it is possible to evaluate the viability of assigning homework no more than twice a week.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 426 350
No. of Characters: 2081 1500
No. of Different Words: 164 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.543 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.885 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.732 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 161 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 118 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 91 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 48 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.421 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.691 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.684 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.348 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.591 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.136 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 578, Rule ID: CD_NN[1]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun 'assumption' seems to be countable, so consider using: 'assumptions'.
Suggestion: assumptions
...mmendation is properly evaluated, three assumption has to be cleared. First of all, the...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 494, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “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.
...r the teachers to assign more homework. If the education system of the two distric...
^^
Line 9, column 126, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “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.
...nce on several unwarranted assumptions. If author is able to provide the evidence ...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, if, moreover, second, secondly, then, thus, whereas, as to, in conclusion, first of all, in other words
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 23.0 19.6327345309 117% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 0.0 12.9520958084 0% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 11.1786427146 54% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 20.0 28.8173652695 69% => OK
Preposition: 60.0 55.5748502994 108% => OK
Nominalization: 18.0 16.3942115768 110% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2131.0 2260.96107784 94% => OK
No of words: 426.0 441.139720559 97% => OK
Chars per words: 5.00234741784 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.54310108192 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.80690028199 2.78398813304 101% => OK
Unique words: 176.0 204.123752495 86% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.413145539906 0.468620217663 88% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 673.2 705.55239521 95% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 36.4290377617 57.8364921388 63% => OK
Chars per sentence: 112.157894737 119.503703932 94% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.4210526316 23.324526521 96% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.52631578947 5.70786347227 114% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.289767797211 0.218282227539 133% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.101362091383 0.0743258471296 136% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.12560679422 0.0701772020484 179% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.158160875085 0.128457276422 123% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.105858172201 0.0628817314937 168% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.3 14.3799401198 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
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: 12.02 12.5979740519 95% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.88 8.32208582834 95% => OK
difficult_words: 85.0 98.500998004 86% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.9071856287 67% => The average readability is low. Need to imporve the language.
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.