The following is a letter to the editor of the Waymarsh Times."Traffic here in Waymarsh is becoming a problem. Although just three years ago a state traffic survey showed that the typical driving commuter took 20 minutes to get to work, the commute now ta

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The following is a letter to the editor of the Waymarsh Times.

"Traffic here in Waymarsh is becoming a problem. Although just three years ago a state traffic survey showed that the typical driving commuter took 20 minutes to get to work, the commute now takes closer to 40 minutes, according to the survey just completed. Members of the town council already have suggested more road building to address the problem, but as well as being expensive, the new construction will surely disrupt some of our residential neighborhoods. It would be better to follow the example of the nearby city of Garville. Last year Garville implemented a policy that rewards people who share rides to work, giving them coupons for free gas. Pollution levels in Garville have dropped since the policy was implemented, and people from Garville tell me that commuting times have fallen considerably. There is no reason why a policy like Garville's shouldn't work equally well in Waymarsh."

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 writer of the letter to the editor of local newspaper recommends following the example of the neighboring city which implemented policy which stimulate share rides to work. Supposedly this step will inevitably tackle Waymarsh traffic problems. This conclusion is buttressed by evidence which should be carefully scrutinized in order to give a comprehensive estimation of the soundness of the argument.

To begin with, it is said that the commuting times for an average driver to get to work has doubled from 20 to 40 minutes since the first research took place in the town three year ago. Despite the fact that writer believes that it is a sign of traffic problems, three-years span is an appreciable period, perhaps some other factors may lead to this result. For example, the quality of road and highway surface may deteriorate dramatically and thus drivers have to move slower than used to be.

Moreover, probably local businesses which used to be located in the heart of the town may move on the outskirts of the Waymarsh in attempt to reduce their expenditures. In other words, many factors may cause this alteration.
The second evidence which is given to us is the neighboring city has implemented policy which led to reduction of pollution and time-spent in commute. However, the arguer's belief that this positive results are caused by the policy seems to be dubious. Perhaps Garville's committee took some actions which affect the result. For example, the council may dramatically improve public transport and stimulate usage of bicycles. They may better town's infrastructure and pass new laws which discourage residents to use or possess a personal car. Thus the crucial role of the policy in this enhancements is questionable.

Finally, the argument claims that there is no reason why a policy which has worked well in Garville should not bring similar result to Waymarsh. However, the writer does not manage to prove the pivotal role of the policy in Garvill but even if we accept this data for granted, perhaps these towns and the roots of their problems may not be similar. For example, the likeliness exists that Garvill has several big mills and plants were a majority of the town work. In this case, it is reasonable to share a car with your neighbor who works at the same place. But perhaps Waymarsh has a highly diversify business which offices are located in different parts of town or majority of residents are part-time workers who drive to work irregularly. In this case, the fulfillment of the policy in Waymarsh may not be reasonable.

In conclusion, the argument states that repetition of Garville policy should work equally well in Warmarsh; however, we have demonstrated that this statement is unwarranted and thus policy may not work properly in Waymarsh.

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Average: 7 (2 votes)
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Comments

argument 1 -- OK

argument 2 -- part of it duplicated to argument 1

argument 3 -- OK
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Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 464 350
No. of Characters: 2284 1500
No. of Different Words: 233 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.641 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.922 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.679 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 169 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 128 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 83 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 53 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.095 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.695 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.762 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.308 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.496 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.071 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5