The data from a survey of high school math and science teachers show that in the district of Sanlee many of these teachers reported assigning daily homework whereas in the district of Marlee most science and math teachers reported assigning homework no mo

Essay topics:

The data from a survey of high school math and science teachers show that in the district of Sanlee many of these teachers reported assigning daily homework, whereas in the district of Marlee, most science and math teachers reported assigning homework no more than two or three days per week. Despite receiving less frequent homework assignments, Marlee students earn better grades overall and are less likely to be required to repeat a year of school than are students in Sanlee. These results call into question the usefulness of frequent homework assignments. Most likely the Marlee students have more time to concentrate on individual assignments than do the Sanlee students who have homework every day. Therefore teachers in our high schools should assign homework no more than twice a week.
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument

The author of piece argues that students who are assigned homework less frequently generally perform better than students who are assigned homework more frequently. The author reports that data from a survey of high school math and science teachers demonstrates that students from Sanlee district receive worse grades and are more likely to repeat a year of school because they are given homework 5 days a week, unlike students from Marlee district that only receive homework 2-3 days a week. This statement, rests on the three assumptions, that if not substantiated, drastically weaken the persuasiveness of the author’s argument.

Firstly, the author presumes that Marlee and Sanlee district high schools are similar schools, hence, his argument that the reasoning for the discrepancy in performance is due to homework load. However, there is no evidence of this being the case. The author claims that Marlee students earn better grades and have a higher retention rate. Perhaps Marlee is a college perp high school meant for high-achieving students who are striving to attend Ivy League universities upon graduation. It could also be the case that the Marlee school is located in a very affluent neighborhood, affording the students a plethora of opportunities that students in an impoverished area would not otherwise have. Therefore, the difference in performance among students would not be because of the amount of homework, rather, the effort and advantagesof Marlee students. Given these two examples, the argument made by the author becomes significantly weakened.

Secondly, the author uses very vague language that does not provide the reader with any concrete statistics. For example, the lack of standardization of the number of assignments given per day by either schools gives a misleading representation of the amount of work is expected of the students. The passage states that Sanlee students are given homework every day, but it does not specify how much homework. Perhaps Sanlee students are given one hour worth of homework every single day while Marlee students are being drowned in 6 hours’ worth of assignments every 2-3 days. Additionally, the reporting of data seems to invoke some confusion. The author claims that Marlee students receive better grades and are less likely of remediating the year. Perhaps this could be a fluke from one year, or the number of students could be insignificant and coincidental. Until details regarding these two issues can be provided, the author’s argument does not hold water.

Finally, the author asserts that assigning homework less frequently to the students would allow them to concentrate on one assignment at a time. However, this may not be the case. There is no guarantee that students who receive less homework are spending more time on each assignment. Students who only receive assignments 2 out of the 5 days may spend the other three days not touching schoolwork at all. In fact, less homework may allow them to spend more time participating in sports, watching TV, or playing games. Again, there is little evidence that the time outside of school is being spent efficiently. Students will not simply concentrate more because of a smaller load. Therefore, it cannot be ascertained with confidence that the students from Marlee put more effort or concentration into their assignments than students from Sanlee.

In summary, the argument relies on three unfounded assumptions that renders its conclusion very weak. Thus, until the author can address the weaknesses in his assertions, it is not possible to accurately judge the validity of the argument.

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Average: 6.6 (2 votes)
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Essay Categories

Comments

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, firstly, hence, however, if, may, regarding, second, secondly, so, therefore, thus, while, for example, in fact, in summary

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 30.0 19.6327345309 153% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.9520958084 100% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 23.0 13.6137724551 169% => OK
Pronoun: 35.0 28.8173652695 121% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 63.0 55.5748502994 113% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3065.0 2260.96107784 136% => OK
No of words: 579.0 441.139720559 131% => OK
Chars per words: 5.29360967185 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.90534594407 4.56307096286 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.86454104136 2.78398813304 103% => OK
Unique words: 264.0 204.123752495 129% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.455958549223 0.468620217663 97% => OK
syllable_count: 929.7 705.55239521 132% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 15.0 8.76447105788 171% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 28.0 19.7664670659 142% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 56.3847931446 57.8364921388 97% => OK
Chars per sentence: 109.464285714 119.503703932 92% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.6785714286 23.324526521 89% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.35714285714 5.70786347227 94% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 14.0 6.88822355289 203% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.234679473225 0.218282227539 108% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.059266480509 0.0743258471296 80% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.073727187938 0.0701772020484 105% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.137280304307 0.128457276422 107% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.109511019145 0.0628817314937 174% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.8 14.3799401198 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.4 12.5979740519 106% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.9 8.32208582834 95% => OK
difficult_words: 120.0 98.500998004 122% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 18.5 12.3882235529 149% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?

---------------------

Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, firstly, hence, however, if, may, regarding, second, secondly, so, therefore, thus, while, for example, in fact, in summary

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 30.0 19.6327345309 153% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.9520958084 100% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 23.0 13.6137724551 169% => OK
Pronoun: 35.0 28.8173652695 121% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 63.0 55.5748502994 113% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3065.0 2260.96107784 136% => OK
No of words: 579.0 441.139720559 131% => OK
Chars per words: 5.29360967185 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.90534594407 4.56307096286 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.86454104136 2.78398813304 103% => OK
Unique words: 264.0 204.123752495 129% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.455958549223 0.468620217663 97% => OK
syllable_count: 929.7 705.55239521 132% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 15.0 8.76447105788 171% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 28.0 19.7664670659 142% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 56.3847931446 57.8364921388 97% => OK
Chars per sentence: 109.464285714 119.503703932 92% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.6785714286 23.324526521 89% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.35714285714 5.70786347227 94% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 14.0 6.88822355289 203% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.234679473225 0.218282227539 108% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.059266480509 0.0743258471296 80% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.073727187938 0.0701772020484 105% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.137280304307 0.128457276422 107% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.109511019145 0.0628817314937 174% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.8 14.3799401198 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.4 12.5979740519 106% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.9 8.32208582834 95% => OK
difficult_words: 120.0 98.500998004 122% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 18.5 12.3882235529 149% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?

---------------------

Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.