The sea otter is a small mammal that lives in waters along the western coast of North America from California to Alaska When some sea otter populations off the Alaskan coast started rapidly declining a few years ago it caused much concern because sea otte | TOEFL IELTS GMAT GRE SAT ACT PTE ESL

Essay topics:

The sea otter is a small mammal that lives in waters along the western coast of North America from California to Alaska.

When some sea otter populations off the Alaskan coast started rapidly declining a few years ago, it caused much concern because sea otters play an important ecological role in the coastal ecosystem. Experts started investigating the cause of the decline and quickly realized that there were two possible explanations: environmental pollution or attacks by predators.

Initially, the pollution hypothesis seemed the more likely of the two.

The first reason why pollution seemed the more likely cause was that there were known sources of it along the Alaskan coast, such as oil rigs and other sources of industrial chemical pollution. Water samples from the area revealed increased levels of chemicals that could decrease the otters' resistance to life-threatening infections and thus could indirectly cause their deaths.

Second, other sea mammals such as seals and sea lions along the Alaskan coast were also declining, indicating that whatever had endangered the otters was affecting other sea mammals as well. This fact again pointed to environmental pollution, since it usually affects the entire ecosystem rather than a single species. Only widely occurring predators, such as the orca (a large predatory whale), could have the same effect, but orcas prefer to hunt much larger prey, such as other whales.

Third, scientists believed that the pollution hypothesis could also explain the uneven pattern of otter decline: at some Alaskan locations the otter populations declined greatly, while at others they remained stable. Some experts explained these observations by suggesting that ocean currents or other environmental factors may have created uneven concentrations of pollutants along the coast.

The reading states that among two possible explanations for the decline of sea otter population, environmental pollution is more likely. The lecturer, however, finds the idea dubious and casts doubt on the reasons proposed by the reading passage.
The author argues that the samples of water from otter's habitat show the presence of oil rigs, so the pollution associated to these contaminant can be considered as a reason of otter's death. Conversely, the lecturer, brings up the idea that if the pollution is the reason of these animals' death, there should be their dead body on shores. As a result of the lack of dead body, the predation is more likely to be the reason.
Furthermore, the reading passage holds the view that the population of other sea mamals is under reduction and this proves this idea that the pollution which threatens the otters' lives, endangers these mamals' life as well. On the contrary, the professor underlines the fact that if only the orcas have the chance to survive in that environment, it strengthens this idea that other mamals population is declining because of orcas predation on them.
Finally, the reading asserts that the otter decline is not at the same rate in different locations and the experts say that this is because of uneven pollution concentration in all spots which is the result of ocean current and other environmental factors. In contrast, the speaker dismisses this issue due to the fact that this observation cofirm the claim of orcas predation. Since the orcas are large mamals, they are not capable to have access to their preys in rocky and shallow water, which results in less otter decline in that places.

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Essay Categories

Integrated TOEFL Writing

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Essay evaluations by e-grader

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 1, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...asons proposed by the reading passage. The author argues that the samples of water...
^^^
Line 2, column 127, Rule ID: THIS_NNS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'this contaminant' or 'these contaminants'?
Suggestion: this contaminant; these contaminants
...il rigs, so the pollution associated to these contaminant can be considered as a reason of otters...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 281, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'animals'' or 'animal's'?
Suggestion: animals'; animal's
...if the pollution is the reason of these animals death, there should be their dead body ...
^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 509, Rule ID: FEWER_LESS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'fewer'? The noun otter is countable.
Suggestion: fewer
...cky and shallow water, which results in less otter decline in that places.
^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
conversely, finally, furthermore, however, if, so, then, well, in contrast, as a result, on the contrary

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

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 10.4613686534 124% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 12.0772626932 124% => OK
Pronoun: 26.0 22.412803532 116% => OK
Preposition: 36.0 30.3222958057 119% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 5.01324503311 319% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1387.0 1373.03311258 101% => OK
No of words: 281.0 270.72406181 104% => OK
Chars per words: 4.9359430605 5.08290768461 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.09427095027 4.04702891845 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.60710101879 2.5805825403 101% => OK
Unique words: 146.0 145.348785872 100% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.519572953737 0.540411800872 96% => OK
syllable_count: 432.0 419.366225166 103% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 10.0 13.0662251656 77% => 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: 53.4074901114 49.2860985944 108% => OK
Chars per sentence: 138.7 110.228320801 126% => OK
Words per sentence: 28.1 21.698381199 130% => OK
Discourse Markers: 10.4 7.06452816374 147% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 4.19205298013 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 1.0 4.33554083885 23% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 4.45695364238 135% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.27373068433 70% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.132634951267 0.272083759551 49% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0523679129884 0.0996497079465 53% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0479630603609 0.0662205650399 72% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0820015841142 0.162205337803 51% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0159177069028 0.0443174109184 36% => 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: 15.9 13.3589403974 119% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 51.52 53.8541721854 96% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 11.0289183223 118% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.67 12.2367328918 95% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.73 8.42419426049 104% => OK
difficult_words: 66.0 63.6247240618 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 10.7273730684 107% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.2 10.498013245 126% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 81.6666666667 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.5 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.

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Transition Words or Phrases used:
conversely, finally, furthermore, however, if, so, then, well, in contrast, as a result, on the contrary

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