SEA OTTERS
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 passage and the lecture both talk about the reason for depreciation in the population of sea otters off the Alaskan coast. The author of the text asserts that the decline in population is caused by environmental pollution. The professor, on the other hand, is not convinced with the resoning presented in the text. She think predation is a better theory to explain the population decline. She casts doubts on the reasoning presented in the text.
First of all, the author points out that if the sea otters are dying because of the environmental pollution, it can not explain no dead bodies being found washed up on the beach. The professor posits, the animals are being killed by the predators and that can explain the absence of dead bodies.
Secondly, she notes that whales in the Alaskan cost area are being hunted by humans which has resulted in their population decline. The passage put forth that orca prefer larger pray such as whales, however, she argues that they probably changed their hunting habits in response to the hunting of whales by humans and are now hunting sea otters and other small mammals as sea otters. Consequently, this can also describe the population decline of other mammals such as seals and the sea lions.
Finally, she says that even the trend of uneven population decrease in different areas can be better explained by the predation theory. She says that the population of sea otters is declining perticularly in area which are accessible to the orcas. Orcas being massive in size cannot access the shallow areas so, the population of sea otters in those areas has remained mostly constant.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 228, 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.
...n is caused by environmental pollution. The professor, on the other hand, is not co...
^^^
Line 1, column 324, Rule ID: HE_VERB_AGR[1]
Message: The pronoun 'She' must be used with a third-person verb: 'thinks'.
Suggestion: thinks
...the resoning presented in the text. She think predation is a better theory to explain...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 261, Rule ID: ADJECTIVE_IN_ATTRIBUTE[1]
Message: A more concise phrase may lose no meaning and sound more powerful.
Suggestion: massive
...re accessible to the orcas. Orcas being massive in size cannot access the shallow areas so, the...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, consequently, finally, first, however, if, second, secondly, so, such as, first of all, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 10.4613686534 134% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 5.04856512141 99% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 12.0772626932 83% => OK
Pronoun: 20.0 22.412803532 89% => OK
Preposition: 37.0 30.3222958057 122% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 5.01324503311 279% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1361.0 1373.03311258 99% => OK
No of words: 277.0 270.72406181 102% => OK
Chars per words: 4.91335740072 5.08290768461 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.07962216107 4.04702891845 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.52018658673 2.5805825403 98% => OK
Unique words: 140.0 145.348785872 96% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.505415162455 0.540411800872 94% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 417.6 419.366225166 100% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 3.25607064018 246% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
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: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 21.2450331126 99% => OK
Sentence length SD: 47.0555507042 49.2860985944 95% => OK
Chars per sentence: 104.692307692 110.228320801 95% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.3076923077 21.698381199 98% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.53846153846 7.06452816374 121% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 4.19205298013 72% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => 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: 0.204560646109 0.272083759551 75% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0778515462208 0.0996497079465 78% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0726313841938 0.0662205650399 110% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.121250293889 0.162205337803 75% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0386596251008 0.0443174109184 87% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.4 13.3589403974 93% => Automated_readability_index is low.
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: 11.2 12.2367328918 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.33 8.42419426049 99% => OK
difficult_words: 64.0 63.6247240618 101% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 10.7273730684 79% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 10.498013245 99% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 85.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 25.5 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.