The council of Maple County, concerned about the county's becoming overdeveloped, is debating a proposed measure that would prevent the development of existing farmland in the county. But the council is also concerned that such a restriction, by limiting the supply of new housing, could lead to significant increases in the price of housing in the county. Proponents of the measure note that Chestnut County established a similar measure ten years ago, and its housing prices have increased only modestly since. However, opponents of the measure note that Pine County adopted restrictions on the development of new residential housing fifteen years ago, and its housing prices have since more than doubled. The council currently predicts that the proposed measure, if passed, will result in a significant increase in housing prices in Maple County.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the prediction and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the prediction.
The council’s prediction on passing its proposed measure is based on certain unwarranted assumptions and is flawed for numerous reasons. The argument fails to develop a cogent case in establishing a strong logical conclusion between the proposed methods and its likely outcome.
Expressing concerns about the Maple country becoming over-developed, the council debates on a proposed measure. It is, however, unclear in the first place what the council signifies as being over-developed. Is it the present economic boom or the increase in gross domestic product? Or does it signify the over increase of industrial growth, trade practices and other aspects? The argument fails to provide any strong evidence of the growth of the nation which assesses it as being over-developed. Hence, statistical surveys or opinions from leading economists of the country would have strengthened the argument.
The argument also clearly fails to provide any logical link in restricting over-development by curbing development of existing farmland and checking the supply of new housing. It may be true that new housing will mean an increase in population in Maple country, but how will this possibly signify over-development? The council’s measure to check over-development may be wisely implemented if it concentrates on the reduction of industrial growth by limiting production, increasing tax rates and diminishing trade relations with other countries for a stipulated time.
Moreover, the council extrapolated the possible outcomes of its proposed nature basing on the results of similar measures in Pine and Chestnut countries, assuming the economy to remain significantly unchanged over the period of last fifteen years. It is highly probable that economic conditions, the house rates, land costs and development charges, which prevailed in different countries in the last ten-fifteen years, were quite different from that existing now in Maple. Nevertheless, the geography, the climate and the culture could have had a direct significance in doubling effect on the house costs in Pine on contrary to the modest increase in that of Chestnut. Instead of entirely basing the prediction on the past outcomes, the council should focus on future models of estimation of costs by analysts and economists and if study if similar measures were taken by other countries in recent times, which can provide a significantly clearer picture whether the housing costs will plunge or boom. Curbing housing developments will indirectly take a toll on its population, which might lead people to look for better places to reside, thus harming the Maple society in general, instead of significantly curbing over-development.
Examining all the factors above, the city council’s measured proposal in curbing over-development, if passed, may generate different outcomes than what was predicted. A deeper analysis and a scientific scrutiny is necessary before passing such a measurement.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 5.0 out of 6
Category: Very Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 4 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 450 350
No. of Characters: 2459 1500
No. of Different Words: 234 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.606 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.464 4.6
Word Length SD: 3.084 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 203 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 171 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 112 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 65 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.661 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.556 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.316 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.558 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.088 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 7, column 839, Rule ID: IF_IS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'is'?
Suggestion: is
...by analysts and economists and if study if similar measures were taken by other co...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, hence, however, if, look, may, moreover, nevertheless, so, then, thus, in general, in the first place
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 19.6327345309 66% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 8.0 13.6137724551 59% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 16.0 28.8173652695 56% => OK
Preposition: 71.0 55.5748502994 128% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2526.0 2260.96107784 112% => OK
No of words: 450.0 441.139720559 102% => OK
Chars per words: 5.61333333333 5.12650576532 109% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.6057793516 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.19456637448 2.78398813304 115% => OK
Unique words: 245.0 204.123752495 120% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.544444444444 0.468620217663 116% => OK
syllable_count: 786.6 705.55239521 111% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.76447105788 148% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 22.8473053892 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 68.524574307 57.8364921388 118% => OK
Chars per sentence: 140.333333333 119.503703932 117% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.0 23.324526521 107% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.61111111111 5.70786347227 116% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => 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: 0.187224177191 0.218282227539 86% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0616126067958 0.0743258471296 83% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0693489926015 0.0701772020484 99% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.105721001496 0.128457276422 82% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0234886126242 0.0628817314937 37% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.5 14.3799401198 122% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 37.64 48.3550499002 78% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.197005988 116% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 15.55 12.5979740519 123% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.96 8.32208582834 120% => OK
difficult_words: 145.0 98.500998004 147% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.1389221557 108% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 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.