TPO-26 Integrated WritingThe zebra mussel, a freshwater shellfish native to Eastern Europe, has long been spreading out from its original habitats and has now reached parts of North America. There are reasons to believe that this invasion cannot be stoppe

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TPO-26 Integrated Writing

The zebra mussel, a freshwater shellfish native to Eastern Europe, has long been spreading out from its original habitats and has now reached parts of North America. There are reasons to believe that this invasion cannot be stopped and that it poses a serious threat to freshwater fish populations in all of North America.

First, the history of the zebra mussel's spread suggests that the invasion might be unstoppable. It is a prime example of thinks made possible by human transportation. From the zebra mussel,s original habitats in Eastern Europe, ships helped spread it out along new canals built to connect Europe’s waterways. The mussel can attach itself to a ship’ s bottom or can survive in the water—called "ballast water"—that the ship needs to take on to properly balance its cargo. By the early nineteenth century, the mussel had spread to the whole of Europe. It was later carried to the east coast of North America in the ballast water of ships traveling from Europe. The way ships have spread the zebra mussel inthe past strongly suggests that the species will soon colonize all of North America.

Moreover, once zebra mussels are carried to a new habitat, theycan dominate it. They are a hardy species that does well under a variety of conditions, and they have a high rate of reproduction. Most important, however, zebra mussels often have no predators in their new habitats, and species without natural predators are likely to dominate their habitats.

Finally, zebra mussels are likely to cause a decline in the overall fish population in habitats where they become dominant. The mussels are plankton eaters, which means that they compete for food with many freshwater fish species.

The reading passage argues that the spread of zebra mussels to north America poses a threat to local fish population. The author presents three arguments for this point of view. However, the speaker in the lecture casts doubt on the claims made in the article. He mentions that in fact, there are ways to control the invasion of this new species.

First and foremost, The writer holds that the zebra mussel spread through Europe in the past through attaching itself to the bottom of ships or surviving in the ballast water and it's likely that this would happen again in north America as ships coming from Europe would have the shellfish in the ballast water. Nevertheless, the lecturer indicates that there was not enough knowledge in the past to tackle this issue. Nowadays instead, there are effective methods to stop this from occurring again by, for instance, requiring the ships to empty their ballast water before arriving at destination and take in ocean water, which would kill the zebra mussels.

Secondly, the author contends that this colonizing species is a hardy species that has a high reproduction rate and also has no predators. As a result, it would be easy to dominate the new habitat. Conversely, the lecturer challenges this hypothesis. He asserts that local aquatic birds might switch their source of food to feed on the new species, especially when the birds find that there is plentiful of the shellfish. Consequently, the zebra mussels are unlikely to outgrow other species.

Lastly, the excerpt posits that the zebra mussels might compete with other freshwater fish species for food sources because they both feed on plankton. Thus, a decline in the local fish population could come about. The lecturer, on the other hand, points out that although there would be a decrease in the plankton-eating fish, there would be an increase in the bottom-eating fish since the zebra mussels releases nutrients, which are beneficial for the bottom-feeding fish.

Votes
Average: 8 (1 vote)
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Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 348, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ntrol the invasion of this new species. First and foremost, The writer holds tha...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 494, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... are unlikely to outgrow other species. Lastly, the excerpt posits that the zebr...
^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, consequently, conversely, first, however, if, lastly, nevertheless, second, secondly, so, thus, for instance, in fact, as a result, on the other hand

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

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 5.04856512141 178% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 12.0772626932 116% => OK
Pronoun: 26.0 22.412803532 116% => OK
Preposition: 45.0 30.3222958057 148% => OK
Nominalization: 5.0 5.01324503311 100% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1660.0 1373.03311258 121% => OK
No of words: 327.0 270.72406181 121% => OK
Chars per words: 5.07645259939 5.08290768461 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.25242769721 4.04702891845 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.56993567763 2.5805825403 100% => OK
Unique words: 178.0 145.348785872 122% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.544342507645 0.540411800872 101% => OK
syllable_count: 490.5 419.366225166 117% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.23620309051 134% => 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: 15.0 13.0662251656 115% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 21.2450331126 99% => OK
Sentence length SD: 78.4914998937 49.2860985944 159% => OK
Chars per sentence: 110.666666667 110.228320801 100% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.8 21.698381199 100% => OK
Discourse Markers: 10.3333333333 7.06452816374 146% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.27373068433 140% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.431054763215 0.272083759551 158% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.119392914395 0.0996497079465 120% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.100462236683 0.0662205650399 152% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.236214780865 0.162205337803 146% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0408846997824 0.0443174109184 92% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.4 13.3589403974 100% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 58.62 53.8541721854 109% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 11.0289183223 93% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.18 12.2367328918 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.69 8.42419426049 103% => OK
difficult_words: 83.0 63.6247240618 130% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 10.7273730684 98% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 10.498013245 99% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.2008830022 98% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 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.