The following appeared in the editorial section of a local newspaper:
"This past winter, 200 students from Waymarsh State College traveled to the state capitol building to protest against proposed cuts in funding for various state college programs. The other 12,000 Waymarsh students evidently weren't so concerned about their education: they either stayed on campus or left for winter break. Since the group who did not protest is far more numerous, it is more representative of the state's college students than are the protesters. Therefore the state legislature need not heed the appeals of the protesting students."
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.
This argument claims that the 200 protesting students from Waymarsh state college, who protested against proposed cuts in funding for some college programs in past winter, should not brought any attention from the state legislature. The author drew the conclusion based on the fact that the number of the students who did protest was much larger than that of who did. I think this argument is not sound, however, as it fails to take some other important factors into consideration.
Firstly, the author fails to consider some other possibilities that prevent the remaining students from traveling to the state capitol building even if they opposed against the state’s proposal. The protest happened in the time of winter break, it’s very likely that most of the non-local students were not in town and they couldn’t travel back in a short time to support the protest. On the other hand, if there were too many protesting students traveled to the state capitol building, the local transportation would not be able to handle the traffic. So the group of protesting students must keep tight and organized.
Secondly, the author drew a wrong assumption that presence at the protest is the only channel for the students to express their opinions. There are some other channels for the students to express their opinion other than protesting at the street, for example, writing email/letter to the corresponding authority or posting article on some particular websites, etc. Apparently, the author overlooks all those channels and only keep the eyes on the group of students protesting on the street.
Finally, the local newspaper has no right to represent all the other 12,000 students without taking any action to investigate furtherly. If the author really need to figure out the true voice from each student, only having all the students to participate on a vote or survey (no matter online or offline) can let the truth coming out.
In sum, I think this argument is not convincing enough because it omitted a lot of factors that should be addressed. If the author can consider the possibilities that prevent the students from protesting on street, investigate furtherly on other channels and take an action to survey the real opinion of the students who did not protest, this argument will be more compelling.
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Comments
Essay evaluation report
Sentence: Finally, the local newspaper has no right to represent all the other 12,000 students without taking any action to investigate furtherly.
Error: furtherly Suggestion: No alternate word
Sentence: If the author can consider the possibilities that prevent the students from protesting on street, investigate furtherly on other channels and take an action to survey the real opinion of the students who did not protest, this argument will be more compelling.
Error: furtherly Suggestion: No alternate word
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argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- not OK. other reasons like: maybe the day is rainy/snowing; maybe students have to work; and some students in 200 students are representatives of group students; maybe some students in 12,000 Waymarsh students are new, and no ideas about the programs; etc;
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 2 2
No. of Sentences: 13 15
No. of Words: 384 350
No. of Characters: 1888 1500
No. of Different Words: 189 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.427 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.917 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.557 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 141 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 107 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 69 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 35 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 29.538 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 11.236 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.769 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.393 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.647 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.078 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 184, Rule ID: DID_BASEFORM[1]
Message: The verb 'should' requires the base form of the verb: 'bring'
Suggestion: bring
...ege programs in past winter, should not brought any attention from the state legislatur...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 365, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...rticle on some particular websites, etc. Apparently, the author overlooks all tho...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
apparently, finally, first, firstly, however, if, look, really, second, secondly, so, for example, i think, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 19.6327345309 51% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 21.0 28.8173652695 73% => OK
Preposition: 50.0 55.5748502994 90% => OK
Nominalization: 9.0 16.3942115768 55% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1958.0 2260.96107784 87% => OK
No of words: 382.0 441.139720559 87% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.12565445026 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.42095241839 4.56307096286 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.72194416126 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 190.0 204.123752495 93% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.497382198953 0.468620217663 106% => OK
syllable_count: 582.3 705.55239521 83% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 14.0 19.7664670659 71% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 27.0 22.8473053892 118% => OK
Sentence length SD: 53.0171323869 57.8364921388 92% => OK
Chars per sentence: 139.857142857 119.503703932 117% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.2857142857 23.324526521 117% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.92857142857 5.70786347227 156% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 8.20758483034 24% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 12.0 6.88822355289 174% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 0.0 4.67664670659 0% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.287878906411 0.218282227539 132% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.104331489773 0.0743258471296 140% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.115620653334 0.0701772020484 165% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.154930704181 0.128457276422 121% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.109849465203 0.0628817314937 175% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.4 14.3799401198 114% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 52.53 48.3550499002 109% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.6 12.197005988 103% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.77 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.08 8.32208582834 97% => OK
difficult_words: 75.0 98.500998004 76% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.8 11.1389221557 115% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.