The following editorial appeared in the Broomall County Times-Picayune:"The Gordon Act, which established a wildlife refuge in the Big Dark Swamp, is currently up for reauthorization. The act prohibits the building of roads or cutting of old growth trees

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The following editorial appeared in the Broomall County Times-Picayune:

"The Gordon Act, which established a wildlife refuge in the Big Dark Swamp, is currently up for reauthorization. The act prohibits the building of roads or cutting of old growth trees in the swamp, though it permits hunting. Many blamed logging activities for the decline of the bird population, especially that of the dappled grackle. The grackle population has continued to decline since the passage of the law, demonstrating that the Gordon Act has not been sufficient to protect the species. Another nearby refuge, the Wayne County Marsh Habitat, bans all mining, logging, and hunting. Wayne County officials have not reported a decline in the grackle population there. This proves that hunting, not logging, was responsible for the population drop in Broomall County. Thus, Broomall County should not reauthorize the Gordon Act unless it is amended to include the same provisions as those in Wayne County."

Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.

While the message the author tries to convey in his editorial is conspicuous the way he or she goes about it is flawed. At first glance the argument of the author may seem convincing but on closer inspection we can see that the argument is riddled with flaws and loopholes.

Firstly the author cites the example of Wayne County Marsh Habitat to bolster his argument , but this is not a reasonable analogy because the Swamp and the Marsh are two completely different places with different climatic and ecological conditions. For example the reason the grackle thrived in the Marsh is there might have been a plethora of other animals for the grackle to feast on in the Marsh while there may have been a paucity of them in the Swamp.

In addition author would have done well to have mention any substantiated evidence to back his argument , there is no key evidence supporting the fact that hunting was the sole or rather the major cause for the decline of the population . For example there might have been an endemic in the Big Dark Swamp in the Broomall County which could have resulted in the decline of the dappled grackle as opposed to the hunting.

Also the author fails to realize that the reauthorization of the act may produce a beneficial or an advantageous effect. The act may be amended with a lot of other provisions to help augment the numbers of the grackle. For example the budget allocated for wildlife may be increased , thus helping aid the protection of the grackle.

While the intentions of the author are pure and he tries to raise advocate against the declining numbers of the grackle , the author's argument is in fact facile and ridden with unwarranted assumptions. Hence there is no conclusive information provided in the passage to espouse the author's view that the Gordon Act must not be sent for reauthorization.

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Average: 8.8 (5 votes)
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Sentence: In addition author would have done well to have mention any substantiated evidence to back his argument , there is no key evidence supporting the fact that hunting was the sole or rather the major cause for the decline of the population .
Description: A verb 'to have', uninflected present tense, infinitive or is not usually followed by a verb, base: uninflected present, imperative or infinitive
Suggestion: Refer to have and mention
Description: The word back is not usually used as a verb, base: uninflected present, imperative or infinitive
Suggestion: Refer to back

Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 2 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 11 15
No. of Words: 319 350
No. of Characters: 1499 1500
No. of Different Words: 160 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.226 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.699 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.602 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 103 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 83 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 45 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 28 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 29 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.41 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 1 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.409 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.718 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.178 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5