The following appeared as a letter to the editor from a Central Plaza store owner.
"Over the past two years, the number of shoppers in Central Plaza has been steadily decreasing while the popularity of skateboarding has increased dramatically. Many Central Plaza store owners believe that the decrease in their business is due to the number of skateboard users in the plaza. There has also been a dramatic increase in the amount of litter and vandalism throughout the plaza. Thus, we recommend that the city prohibit skateboarding in Central Plaza. If skateboarding is prohibited here, we predict that business in Central Plaza will return to its previously high levels."
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, prohibiting skateboarding in Central Plaza will previous high levels of business in Central Plaza. The author provides support for the recommendation showing evidence of steadily declining number of shoppers in Central Plaza while the popularity of skateboarding has exalted dramatically and a huge increase in the amount of litter and vandalism throughout the plaza. However, the argument is seriously flawed and these following three questions need to be answered first before deciding whether the recommendation will yield the predicted result.
First of all, has the number of skateboard users in the plaza increased due to increasing popularity of the skateboards? It is possible that regular customers are avoiding Central Plaza for other reasons like business quality. It is quite likely that quality of products in Central Plaza is deteriorating day by day. New customers who like skateboarding are gathering in Central Plaza and they are not sure about the quality of the products sold in Central Plaza and so they are not interested to buy things. If it is the case, then answer to the stated question will help to evaluate the recommendation.
Secondly, are only the skateboarders responsible for increased amount of litter and vandalism throughout the plaza? Perhaps, the skateboarders are not involved in such crimes. They are very good human beings and are not involved in any type of criminal activities. A portion of non skateboarders is responsible for the increasing crimes in this case most probably. If answer to this question is not answered, then the conclusion will be seriously flawed.
Last but not least, can only prohibiting skateboarding help to return previous high levels of business in Central Plaza? It is very possible that security system in the plaza has fallen down. It has grown very weak and as a result, the Plaza has become a good place for pick-pocketing and other kinds of thefts. As a result, customers are avoiding the Plaza as none want to lose their important belongings while they are in shopping. If answer to the question can’t be answered, then the argument will not hold water.
In conclusion, the argument, as it stands, is seriously flawed as it has considered the three questions stated above. If the author can provide logical answers to these questions, then evaluation of the recommendation is possible otherwise the argument will remain seriously weakened.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 5.0 out of 6
Category: Very Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 395 350
No. of Characters: 2019 1500
No. of Different Words: 169 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.458 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.111 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.939 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 151 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 114 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 91 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 54 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.75 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.956 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.65 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.327 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.544 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.101 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, if, second, secondly, so, then, while, in conclusion, as a result, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 23.0 19.6327345309 117% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.9520958084 77% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 4.0 13.6137724551 29% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 19.0 28.8173652695 66% => OK
Preposition: 51.0 55.5748502994 92% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2073.0 2260.96107784 92% => OK
No of words: 395.0 441.139720559 90% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.24810126582 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.45809453852 4.56307096286 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.0037097183 2.78398813304 108% => OK
Unique words: 174.0 204.123752495 85% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.440506329114 0.468620217663 94% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 646.2 705.55239521 92% => 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: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 47.1386253512 57.8364921388 82% => OK
Chars per sentence: 103.65 119.503703932 87% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.75 23.324526521 85% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.0 5.70786347227 88% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => 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: 0.305676580045 0.218282227539 140% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0979301313191 0.0743258471296 132% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.10349408422 0.0701772020484 147% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.175297893354 0.128457276422 136% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.130491402089 0.0628817314937 208% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.2 14.3799401198 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 52.19 48.3550499002 108% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.17 12.5979740519 105% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.06 8.32208582834 97% => OK
difficult_words: 87.0 98.500998004 88% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.9071856287 84% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.