Reading:In an effort to encourage ecologically sustainable forestry practices, an international organizationstarted issuing certifications to wood companies that meet high ecological standards by conservingresources and recycling materials. Companies that

Essay topics:

Reading:
In an effort to encourage ecologically sustainable forestry practices, an international organization
started issuing certifications to wood companies that meet high ecological standards by conserving
resources and recycling materials. Companies that receive this certification can attract customers
by advertising their products as “ecocertified.” Around the world, many wood companies have
adopted new, ecologically friendly practices in order to receive ecocertification. However, it is
unlikely that wood companies in the United States will do the same, for several reasons.
First, American consumers are exposed to so much advertising that they would not value or
even pay attention to the ecocertification label. Because so many mediocre products are labeled
“new” or “improved,” American consumers do not place much trust in advertising claims in general.
Second, ecocertified wood will be more expensive than uncertified wood because in order to
earn ecocertification, a wood company must pay to have its business examined by a certification
agency. This additional cost gets passed on to consumers. American consumers tend to be
strongly motivated by price, and therefore they are likely to choose cheaper uncertified wood
products. Accordingly, American wood companies will prefer to keep their prices low rather than
obtain ecocertification.
Third, although some people claim that it always makes good business sense for American
companies to keep up with the developments in the rest of the world, this argument is not
convincing. Pursuing certification would make sense for American wood companies only if they
marketed most of their products abroad. But that is not the case—American wood businesses sell
most of their products in the United States, catering to a very large customer base that is satisfied
with the merchandise.
Listening:
Professor Well, despite what many people say,
there’s good reason to think that
many American wood companies will
eventually seek ecocertification for their
wood products. First off, consumers in
the United States don’t treat all advertising the same. They distinguish between
advertising claims that companies make about their own products and claims
made by independent certification agencies. Americans have a lot of confidence in
independent consumer agencies. Thus, ecologically minded Americans are likely
to react very favorably to wood products ecologically certified by an independent
organization with an international reputation for trustworthiness.
Second point—of course it’s true that American consumers care a lot about price—
who doesn’t? But studies of how consumers make decisions show that price alone
determines consumers’ decisions only when the price of one competing product
is much higher or lower than another. When the price difference between two
products is small—say, less than five percent, as is the case with certified wood—
Americans often do choose on factors other than price. And Americans are becoming
increasingly convinced of the value of preserving and protecting the environment.
And third, U.S. wood companies should definitely pay attention to what’s going
on in the wood business internationally, not because of foreign consumers, but
because of foreign competition. As I just told you, there’s a good chance that many
American consumers will be interested in ecocertified products. And guess what,
if American companies are slow capturing those customers, you can be sure that
foreign companies will soon start crowding into the American market, offering
ecocertified wood that domestic companies don’t
Give yourself 20 minutes to plan and write your response. Your response is judged on the quality of
the writing and on how well it presents the points in the lecture and their relationship to the reading
passage. Typically, an effective response will be 150 to 225 words. You may view the reading
passage while you respond.
Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they cast doubt on
specific points made in the reading passage.

The essay primarily states that its not useful for american wood companies to get their products ecocertified.Whereas the lecture contradicts that and says that it should be done for various reasons.

Firstly, the essay says that among the vast amount of advertisements americans are exposed to everyrday, people will not differentiate ecocertified products. On the other hand, the lecturer says that americans can differetiate between claims made by companies bragging about products versus consumer agencies giving out announcements and they have belief in consumer agencies and will value the ecocertification.

Secondly, the emphasis is placed on price of the wood which will be costlier because of money needs to be paid for the certifications. this is stated in the essay. While the lecturer agrees that price will be increased and people will prefer less costlier wood than higher ones, he says that if there less than five percent change between woods, people will definitely consider and prefer the more healthier and eco-friendly wood.

Third reason given in the essay is that since american companies are only doing business domestically, they need not worry about adopting the practise the other countries are following and they need not worry about their business. Whereas the lecturer points out that there would be a chance of foreign company using this opportunity to sell their ecocertified wood and might cause downfall of domestic markets.

Votes
Average: 0.3 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 111, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: Whereas
...nies to get their products ecocertified.Whereas the lecture contradicts that and says t...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 136, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: This
...eeds to be paid for the certifications. this is stated in the essay. While the lectu...
^^^^
Line 7, column 243, Rule ID: LESS_COMPARATIVE[1]
Message: Non-standard use of the comparative or superlative. Did you mean 'less costly'?
Suggestion: less costly
...ill be increased and people will prefer less costlier wood than higher ones, he says that if ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 394, Rule ID: MOST_COMPARATIVE[2]
Message: Use only 'healthier' (without 'more') when you use the comparative.
Suggestion: healthier
...will definitely consider and prefer the more healthier and eco-friendly wood. Third reaso...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
first, firstly, if, second, secondly, so, third, whereas, while, on the other hand

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 11.0 10.4613686534 105% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 5.04856512141 238% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 8.0 7.30242825607 110% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 12.0772626932 83% => OK
Pronoun: 20.0 22.412803532 89% => OK
Preposition: 24.0 30.3222958057 79% => OK
Nominalization: 1.0 5.01324503311 20% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1245.0 1373.03311258 91% => OK
No of words: 229.0 270.72406181 85% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.43668122271 5.08290768461 107% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.89008302616 4.04702891845 96% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.9334969181 2.5805825403 114% => OK
Unique words: 132.0 145.348785872 91% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.576419213974 0.540411800872 107% => OK
syllable_count: 378.9 419.366225166 90% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.55342163355 109% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 4.0 8.23620309051 49% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 8.0 13.0662251656 61% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 28.0 21.2450331126 132% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 72.0017360902 49.2860985944 146% => OK
Chars per sentence: 155.625 110.228320801 141% => OK
Words per sentence: 28.625 21.698381199 132% => OK
Discourse Markers: 10.25 7.06452816374 145% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 4.19205298013 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 4.45695364238 45% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.27373068433 47% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.0673563421549 0.272083759551 25% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0299724822356 0.0996497079465 30% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.022209510217 0.0662205650399 34% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0449626425849 0.162205337803 28% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0168036528108 0.0443174109184 38% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 18.5 13.3589403974 138% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 34.6 53.8541721854 64% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 5.55761589404 202% => Smog_index is high.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.4 11.0289183223 140% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.86 12.2367328918 121% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.02 8.42419426049 107% => OK
difficult_words: 58.0 63.6247240618 91% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 15.5 10.7273730684 144% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.2 10.498013245 126% => OK
text_standard: 16.0 11.2008830022 143% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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It is not exactly right on the topic in the view of e-grader. Maybe there is a wrong essay topic.

Rates: 3.33333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 1.0 Out of 30
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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.