The following appeared in a letter to the editor of the Balmer Island Gazette.
"On Balmer Island, where mopeds serve as a popular form of transportation, the population increases to 100,000 during the summer months. To reduce the number of accidents involving mopeds and pedestrians, the town council of Balmer Island should limit the number of mopeds rented by the island's moped rental companies from 50 per day to 25 per day during the summer season. By limiting the number of rentals, the town council will attain the 50 percent annual reduction in moped accidents that was achieved last year on the neighboring island of Seaville, when Seaville's town council enforced similar limits on moped rentals."
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.
The author of the letter recommends limiting the number of mopeds, a popular form of transportation on Balmer Island, rented by the moped rental companies of the island from 50 per day to 25 per day during the summer season. The author provides support for the recommendation providing the example of the neighboring island Seaville, where 50 percent annual reduction in moped accidents was attained as Seaville’s town council enacted similar limits on moped rentals. However, the argument on which the recommendation is based is seriously flawed and it can be evaluated properly if the author can provide answers to these following three questions.
First of all, will the population at Balmer Island increase to 100000 during the summer season every year? The author prematurely assumes that this population increase at Balmer Island is representative of all the upcoming summer seasons. However, this may not be true. It is very likely that population increase in the upcoming days at Balmer Island will be significantly low, reducing the number of probable moped accidents. The argument fails to address this issue and so it is seriously weakened.
Secondly, will reducing the number of moped rentals by half result in a reduction of the number of accidents by exactly half? The author assumes that there exists a linear relationship between the number of moped rentals and the number of annual accidents. Perhaps, this may not be the case. The number of accidents may be reduced in a very small proportion and thus won’t follow the prescribed linear relationship. It is very much possible that reduction in annual accidents fall by only 1 percent. The argument fails to provide answer for this question and so is seriously flawed.
Last, but not least, is the condition of Balmer Island is very similar to the neighboring island of Seaville? The author assumes that there exists a great similarity between the town councils of Balmer Island and Seaville. This may not be true. Perhaps, the town council at Seaville is very much adamant in rules of moped rentals, thus they have succeeded to reduce the number of accidents. The town council of Balmer Island may be very much apathetic to the rules of limiting the number of moped rentals and so they will not be successful to reduce the number of moped accidents in Balmer Island. The argument fails to consider this and as a result it does not hold water.
In conclusion, the argument, as it stands is seriously flawed due to reliance on unwarranted assumptions. If the author is able to provide answer for the stated three questions and thus provide more evidence, then the recommendation for limiting the number of moped rentals can be properly evaluated.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 22 15
No. of Words: 453 350
No. of Characters: 2221 1500
No. of Different Words: 164 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.613 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.903 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.673 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 186 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 116 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 80 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 48 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.591 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.471 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.682 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.345 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.524 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.097 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 207, Rule ID: THE_FALL_SEASON[1]
Message: Use simply 'summer'.
Suggestion: summer
...nd from 50 per day to 25 per day during the summer season. The author provides support for the re...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 78, Rule ID: THE_FALL_SEASON[1]
Message: Use simply 'summer'.
Suggestion: summer
...Balmer Island increase to 100000 during the summer season every year? The author prematurely assu...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 16, Rule ID: DID_BASEFORM[1]
Message: The verb 'will' requires the base form of the verb: 'reduce'
Suggestion: reduce
...s seriously weakened. Secondly, will reducing the number of moped rentals by half res...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, thus, in conclusion, as a result, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 22.0 19.6327345309 112% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 7.0 13.6137724551 51% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 21.0 28.8173652695 73% => OK
Preposition: 61.0 55.5748502994 110% => OK
Nominalization: 20.0 16.3942115768 122% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2279.0 2260.96107784 101% => OK
No of words: 452.0 441.139720559 102% => OK
Chars per words: 5.04203539823 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.61088837703 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.75993690915 2.78398813304 99% => OK
Unique words: 176.0 204.123752495 86% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.389380530973 0.468620217663 83% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 706.5 705.55239521 100% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 14.0 8.76447105788 160% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 22.0 19.7664670659 111% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 59.4706851877 57.8364921388 103% => OK
Chars per sentence: 103.590909091 119.503703932 87% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.5454545455 23.324526521 88% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.72727272727 5.70786347227 83% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 13.0 6.88822355289 189% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.321099649786 0.218282227539 147% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0999490041305 0.0743258471296 134% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.101062849753 0.0701772020484 144% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.18510731842 0.128457276422 144% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0914799228527 0.0628817314937 145% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.6 14.3799401198 88% => Automated_readability_index is low.
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: 11.95 12.5979740519 95% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.84 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 92.0 98.500998004 93% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 18.0 12.3882235529 145% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.