Sea otters are a small mammal that lives in the waters along North America's west coast from California to Alaska. A few years ago some of the sea otter populations off of the Alaskan coast started to decline rapidly and raised several concerns because of their important role in the coastal ecosystem. Experts began investigating and came up with two possible explanations. One explanation was environmental pollution and the second was attacks by predators.
At first it seemed as if the pollution was the most likely cause for the population decline. One reason pollution was more likely was because of the known pollution sources along the Alaskan coast such as oil rigs. Also water samples taken in the area showed increased levels of chemicals that could decrease the otters' immune systems and indirectly result in their deaths.
Another thing that pointed to pollution as the culprit was the decline of other sea mammals such as seals in the same areas. This indicated that whatever was affecting the otters was also affecting the other sea mammals. Environmental pollution usually affects an entire ecosystem instead of just one species. Only predators that occurred in a large area, such as orcas (a large predatory whale), could cause the same effect, but they usually hunt larger prey.
Finally, scientists believed the pollution hypothesis would also explain the uneven pattern of otter decline. In some Alaskan locations the otter population declined greatly while other populations remained stable. Some experts suggested this could be explained by ocean currents, or other environmental factor, might have created uneven concentrations of pollutants along the coast.
The writing introduces the possible reasons for a decline in otter population in the Alaskan coast, which is environment pollution and attack by predators. The writer believes that pollution is the primary reason. The lecturer disagrees. She believes that the reason for this decline in otter population is attack by predators and attacks each of the claims made in the writing.
First, the author believes, since there are sources of pollution around Alaskan coast such as oil rigs and industrial chemical pollution sources; leading to increased level of chemicals in water samples from the area. She added that this leads to reduced resistance towards infections in case of otters eventually resulting in their dead,. The author feels this argument in the writing is weakened by the fact that their is not dead bodies of otters washed ashore- which would be the case if pollution was the cause of their dead. She goes on to say that the possible reason for reduced population is getting killed by predators; as that leads to immediately getting eaten so no dead body will be found which is the case with Alaskan coast.
According to the writing, as predators such as Orcas prefer to hunt bigger animals, such as whales, hence the overall decline in the population of smaller animals such as sea lions and otters can not be explained by the theory that they are getting eaten by predators. However, the author argue that due to the less availability of larger prey, Orcas have started to prey on smaller animals such as otters, which explains the declining population of combined verity of smaller animals in the Alaskan coast.
Also, the reading states that the pollution theory is valid as there is an uneven pattern in declining population of otters. The writer says, if it was not the pollution that is responsible for this population decline then the pattern would be more uniform and same in other regions as well, which is not the case. The professor rebuts the argument by saying that predators such as Orcas can not access shallow waters and rocky locations and therefore the decline is not observed in all such locations. She added that this is indeed the reason why otter population is declining in Alaskan region as this region is accessible for such predators.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 215, 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.
...s that pollution is the primary reason. The lecturer disagrees. She believes that t...
^^^
Line 3, column 338, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma
Suggestion: , .
...tters eventually resulting in their dead,. The author feels this argument in the w...
^^
Line 3, column 416, Rule ID: THEIR_IS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'there'?
Suggestion: there
...he writing is weakened by the fact that their is not dead bodies of otters washed ash...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, hence, however, if, so, then, therefore, well, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 23.0 10.4613686534 220% => Less to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 5.04856512141 99% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 7.30242825607 96% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 12.0772626932 141% => OK
Pronoun: 27.0 22.412803532 120% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 46.0 30.3222958057 152% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 5.01324503311 379% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1899.0 1373.03311258 138% => OK
No of words: 385.0 270.72406181 142% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.93246753247 5.08290768461 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.4296068528 4.04702891845 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.50415205891 2.5805825403 97% => OK
Unique words: 173.0 145.348785872 119% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.449350649351 0.540411800872 83% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 590.4 419.366225166 141% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 1.25165562914 320% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 14.0 13.0662251656 107% => OK
Sentence length: 27.0 21.2450331126 127% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 64.7361993803 49.2860985944 131% => OK
Chars per sentence: 135.642857143 110.228320801 123% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.5 21.698381199 127% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.14285714286 7.06452816374 73% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 4.19205298013 72% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 4.45695364238 135% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.173456555057 0.272083759551 64% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0653985796519 0.0996497079465 66% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0449580172963 0.0662205650399 68% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.113969675341 0.162205337803 70% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0158729463263 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: 15.5 13.3589403974 116% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 52.53 53.8541721854 98% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.6 11.0289183223 114% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.61 12.2367328918 95% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.26 8.42419426049 98% => OK
difficult_words: 80.0 63.6247240618 126% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.8 10.498013245 122% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.2008830022 116% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 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.