The following appeared in an editorial in a local newspaper.
“Commuters complain that increased rush-hour traffic on Blue Highway between the suburbs and the city center has doubled their commuting time. The favored proposal of the motorists’ lobby is to widen the highway,adding an additional lane of traffic. Opponents note that last year’s addition of a lane to the nearby Green Highway was followed by a worsening of traffic jams on it. Their suggested alternative proposal is adding a bicycle lane would encourage them to use bicycles to commute, it is argued, thereby reducing rush-hour traffic”
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation 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 recommendation.
In the editorial front he local newspaper, it is stated that opponents of the motorists’ lobbies’ plan to add another lane to Blue Highway have instead advocated that a bicycle lane be constructed in order to alleviate the highway’s traffic issues. The opponents have come to this conclusion based on the issues faced by Green Highway last year as well as the keen interest in bicycling of the area’s local residents. However, before this recommendation can be properly evaluated, three questions must be answered.
First of all, are Green Highway and Blue Highway roughly comparable? In other words, can circumstances from one highway be used to make generalizations and predictions about the other? It is possible that Green Highway and Blue Highway are not similar at all -- perhaps Green Highway runs through residential neighborhoods, whereas Blue Highway is located mostly in rural, unpopulated sections of the city. Further, there is a possibility that the quality of the highways is markedly different, with Green Highway’s roads falling apart and Blue highway’s in pristine condition. If either of these scenarios has merit, then the conclusion drawn in the original argument is significantly weakened.
Secondly, do a majority of the area residents interested in biking live within biking distance of their places of employment? The opponents in the argument prematurely assume that many of the residents in the town will bike to work in the morning rather than drive their cars.However, this might not be the case. Perhaps the average distance from home to work is over 15 kms, and that's why many of the residents are essentially obliged to take the highway -- even if they dont want to. In an ideal world, they might choose to bike to work, but if the reality is such that they cannot due to the logistics of their situations, then only one form of transportation (the car via the highway) is possible. If the above is true, then the argument does not hold water.
Finally, does adding bicycle lanes to the highway ensure that there will be no accidents? Instead of reducing the commute time, the accidents would result in more traffic delays than the current situation. It might happen that the people who tend to drive rashly would take the bicycle lanes in order to travel faster, which in turn would cause severe accidents causing traffic jams. Also, bicycle riders have very few safety measures -- mostly just helmets and knee pads -- which compromises their lives on the highway. This would again weaken the argument significantly.
In conclusion, the argument, as it stands now, is considerably flawed due to its reliance on several unwanted assumptions. If the author is able to answer the three questions above and offer more evidence (perhaps in the form of a systematic research study), then it will be possible to fully evaluate the viability of the proposed recommendation to add a bike lane to Blue Highway.
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Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 3 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 486 350
No. of Characters: 2382 1500
No. of Different Words: 251 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.695 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.901 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.657 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 165 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 131 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 83 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 54 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.3 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.822 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.75 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.306 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.54 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.077 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ted, three questions must be answered. First of all, are Green Highway and Blue...
^^^
Line 3, column 90, Rule ID: DID_BASEFORM[2]
Message: The verb 'can' requires the base form of the verb: 'circumstance'
Suggestion: circumstance
...roughly comparable? In other words, can circumstances from one highway be used to make genera...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 277, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: However
...he morning rather than drive their cars.However, this might not be the case. Perhaps th...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 381, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: that's
...e from home to work is over 15 kms, and thats why many of the residents are essential...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 473, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...ged to take the highway -- even if they dont want to. In an ideal world, they might ...
^^^^
Line 7, column 111, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...ll be no accidents? Instead of reducing the commute time, the accidents would result in mor...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, however, if, second, secondly, so, then, well, whereas, in conclusion, as well as, first of all, in other words
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 22.0 19.6327345309 112% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 27.0 28.8173652695 94% => OK
Preposition: 68.0 55.5748502994 122% => OK
Nominalization: 15.0 16.3942115768 91% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2468.0 2260.96107784 109% => OK
No of words: 485.0 441.139720559 110% => OK
Chars per words: 5.08865979381 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.69283662038 4.56307096286 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.8088260253 2.78398813304 101% => OK
Unique words: 255.0 204.123752495 125% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.525773195876 0.468620217663 112% => OK
syllable_count: 760.5 705.55239521 108% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 4.0 8.76447105788 46% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 22.8473053892 105% => OK
Sentence length SD: 59.5104192558 57.8364921388 103% => OK
Chars per sentence: 123.4 119.503703932 103% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.25 23.324526521 104% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.9 5.70786347227 121% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
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: 0.158868275522 0.218282227539 73% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0458918098738 0.0743258471296 62% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0449850795788 0.0701772020484 64% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.081960528897 0.128457276422 64% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0299713175392 0.0628817314937 48% => 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: 14.7 14.3799401198 102% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 47.12 48.3550499002 97% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.197005988 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.54 12.5979740519 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.77 8.32208582834 105% => OK
difficult_words: 121.0 98.500998004 123% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 11.1389221557 104% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 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.