Fifteen years ago, Omega University implemented a new procedure that encouraged students to evaluate the teaching effectiveness of all their professors. Since that time, Omega professors have begun to assign higher grades in their classes, and overall student grade averages at Omega have risen by 30 percent. Potential employers, looking at this dramatic rise in grades, believe that grades at Omega are inflated and do not accurately reflect student achievement; as a result, Omega graduates have not been as successful at getting jobs as have graduates from nearby Alpha University. To enable its graduates to secure better jobs, Omega University should terminate student evaluation of professors.
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
The author concludes that Omega University should terminate student evaluation of the professors in order to enable the graduates to get better jobs. He provides example of nearby Alpha University to provide support for his conclusion stating that graduates from Alpha University have succeeded at getting jobs more than graduates from Omega University. However, before evaluating the argument, these following three specific evidences must be provided.
First of all, it is important to evaluate whether the Omega professors have begun to assign higher grades in their classes due to the teaching effectiveness evaluation procedure performed by the students. The author, without any evidence, assumes that this evaluation process has forced the professors to act in a deceitful manner and assign more grades than the real grade obtained by the students. However, this may not be the case. It is possible that performance of the students has exiled and they are now more attentive in their studies, work hard than previous years and thus perform very well in the exams. The argument fails to address this case and so it is seriously flawed.
Secondly, it is very important to evaluate whether this overall increase in grades by 30 percent is a significant one. The author prematurely assumes that overall student grade averages has increased by a huge amount. However, in reality, this may not be true. It is very possible that their total grade increased by a very little amount. For example, if one got a grade of 40 out of 100 in a particular exam, then 30 percent increase means he would get only 52. His grade increased by only 12 points which may not be regarded as of significant value and thus improve his overall grade in a great extent. If this has merit, then the argument will not hold water.
Finally, it is necessary to evaluate whether there is direct relation between the students’ obtained grade and the possibility of getting jobs. The author, without providing necessary evidences, assumes that the students’ obtained grade are reflections of the necessary skills required for getting better jobs. In reality, this may not happen. It is very likely that the students study on advanced topics related to sophisticated research and findings which have a very little correlation with the requirements of the jobs. They are very adroit in topics which are out of the scope of the existing jobs. If this is so, then the students’ grade will not reflect their great inherent deftness and the argument will be seriously weakened.
In conclusion, the argument, as it stands, is seriously flawed as it relies on unwarranted assumptions which may turn out to be invalid. If the author is able to provide necessary evidences for the stated three cases and thus conduct research in a more scientific way, then it will be possible to evaluate the argument properly and accept the conclusion regarding termination of the teaching effectiveness evaluation of the students, otherwise the argument will not hold its ground as it is on surface.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 503 350
No. of Characters: 2490 1500
No. of Different Words: 211 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.736 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.95 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.674 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 190 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 150 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 108 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 60 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.87 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 11.43 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.652 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.312 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.505 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.083 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 310, Rule ID: IN_A_X_MANNER[1]
Message: Consider replacing "in a deceitful manner" with adverb for "deceitful"; eg, "in a hasty manner" with "hastily".
...rocess has forced the professors to act in a deceitful manner and assign more grades than the real gr...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
finally, first, however, if, may, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, thus, well, as for, for example, in conclusion, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.9520958084 100% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 40.0 28.8173652695 139% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 60.0 55.5748502994 108% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 16.3942115768 98% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2563.0 2260.96107784 113% => OK
No of words: 503.0 441.139720559 114% => OK
Chars per words: 5.09542743539 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.73578520332 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.75587596909 2.78398813304 99% => OK
Unique words: 217.0 204.123752495 106% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.431411530815 0.468620217663 92% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 813.6 705.55239521 115% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 13.0 4.96107784431 262% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 72.2771655355 57.8364921388 125% => OK
Chars per sentence: 111.434782609 119.503703932 93% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.8695652174 23.324526521 94% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.78260869565 5.70786347227 101% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 8.20758483034 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.260561143858 0.218282227539 119% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0752539236197 0.0743258471296 101% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0993797442437 0.0701772020484 142% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.148741286208 0.128457276422 116% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0916998935578 0.0628817314937 146% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.5 14.3799401198 94% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.3 12.5979740519 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.16 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 111.0 98.500998004 113% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 15.0 12.3882235529 121% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.