Argue 75: The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a Batavia newspaper.
“The department of agriculture in Batavia reports that the number of dairy farms throughout the country is now 25 percent greater than it was 10 years ago. During this same time period, however, the price of milk at the local Excello Food Market has increased from $1.50 to over $3.00 per gallon. To prevent farmers from continuing to receive excessive profits on an apparently increased supply of milk, the Batavia government should begin to regulate retail milk prices. Such regulation is necessary to ensure fair prices for consumers.”
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
In this letter, the editor recommended that the Batavia government should regulate the retail milk price to ensure fair prices for consumers. This recommendation seems sound at the first glance, but the lack of answers lead me to question the validity of the argument.
First, the author needs to answer the question about the relationship between the number of dairy farms and the milk supply. Although the number of dairy farms increased 25% compared with that of 10 years ago, if the initial number of the dairy farms is minute, then the 25% may not a substantial number. For example, let assume that the initial number of the dairy farm is four. Then the increase of only one dairy farm causes the increase of 25% in total number. Additionally, the number increased is relevant to the number of dairy farms, not the amount of milk supply. Because dairy farms supply various products such as cheese, butter, and yogurt, there may be different tendency in supply of the milk itself, concerning with the number of the dairy farm.
Second, the question about the price raising should be answered for the soundness of the argument. Since the supported data is only the case about Excello Food Market, so this data cannot be considered as general result. It is possible that the price of milk from other store may lower than the Excello Food Market. Thus, the editor should provide the price detail about other stores also. In addition, the increase of price that we check is only the retail price, which may not be directly connected with the wholesale price. Therefore, it may possible that the farmers may not get any additional profits from the raising of the price.
Lastly, the author should answer whether the raise of the price is excessive, and even if it is excessive, whether the regulation from Batavia government is sound. A decade is such a long time: Some products cost triple compared with the price of that decade ago, and some products may cost half compared with the price of that decade ago. Thus, twice may not a big increase when we consider about the time. In addition, the price of milk has been regulated for 10 years by market itself. Thus, if the government regulates the price directly, then it may cause an adverse effect to the demand-supply equilibrium on the price of milk.
In brief, the author’s recommendation is not credible. In order to bolster the argument, the author should provide the answers about the aforementioned questions.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final 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: 423 350
No. of Characters: 1988 1500
No. of Different Words: 176 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.535 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.7 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.402 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 138 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 84 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 61 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 30 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.143 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.635 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.857 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.345 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.582 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.153 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 385, Rule ID: ALSO_SENT_END[1]
Message: 'Also' is not used at the end of the sentence. Use 'as well' instead.
Suggestion: as well
...ide the price detail about other stores also. In addition, the increase of price tha...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, if, lastly, may, second, so, then, therefore, thus, for example, in addition, in brief, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 19.6327345309 81% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.9520958084 116% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 11.1786427146 45% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 20.0 28.8173652695 69% => OK
Preposition: 55.0 55.5748502994 99% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2061.0 2260.96107784 91% => OK
No of words: 423.0 441.139720559 96% => OK
Chars per words: 4.87234042553 5.12650576532 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.53508145475 4.56307096286 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.50849369476 2.78398813304 90% => OK
Unique words: 183.0 204.123752495 90% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.432624113475 0.468620217663 92% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 633.6 705.55239521 90% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 37.3485148918 57.8364921388 65% => OK
Chars per sentence: 98.1428571429 119.503703932 82% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.1428571429 23.324526521 86% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.38095238095 5.70786347227 94% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.147915414547 0.218282227539 68% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0522451666938 0.0743258471296 70% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0576639209088 0.0701772020484 82% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0780207527862 0.128457276422 61% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0682447536176 0.0628817314937 109% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.6 14.3799401198 81% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 59.64 48.3550499002 123% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 12.197005988 81% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.97 12.5979740519 87% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.8 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 85.0 98.500998004 86% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.9071856287 84% => 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.