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 argument presented analyzes the problem of declining customer numbers at a mall. The writer analyzes trends in number of customers, number of skateboarders, the crime statistics at the mall and attempts to define a relationship and make a suggestion based on that. The argument, while presumably noble in its intentions, and correct in its approach to the problem, does a poor job of executing that approach. The claim is unsubstantiated because of the lack of statistics within or before the last two years, the unfounded causal relationships being insinuated, and the baseless assumption built upon those "claimed" causal relationships.
The argument starts off on a weak premise because its statements of the "steady decrease" in shoppers at Central plaza, the "dramatic increase" in skateboarders, litter and vandalism are not quantified. Thus it is impossible to determine what the statistics actually are, and how these statistics were before. Since the trends are of within the last two years, we do not know what the state of business was before these last two years, how prevalent was skateboarding before, and whether the litter and vandalism problem has existed before or not. It may be the case that litter and vandalism was always a problem in the mall, possibly due to its lack of security measures? It is also possible that the business volume has always been on the lowside, maybe due to the mall's distance from neighbourhoods. To be certain of any of these trends, we would require ample statistical and quantified data about the number of shoppers before the last two years, and how the trend has changed. Statistics regarding the vandalism and litter would also be valuable since they would help analyze the growth of the problem. Same goes for data regarding the rise of skateboarders.
Besides the statistical weakness, the argument seems to insinuate two unsubstantiated cause-effect relationships. Firstly, it is stated that the rise of skateboarding has happened simultaneous to a rise in vandalism and litter. This, however, could clearly be, just a coincidence. There is nothing to suggest that it is the skateboarders who are destroying property and littering the place. There is nothing to even suggest, that there is any similarity in the rates of both the increases. Are these increases directly proportional, or connected by some other parameter? We simply don't know. It would be wrong to assume any cause-effect relationship.
The second cause-effect relationship being hinted is that it is the vandalism and litter that is driving away customers. While it is true that litter and the threat of crime does hurt business prospects since people tend to avoid risky places; There is nothing at all to suggest that the crime is the sole driving factor that is driving customers away. It may be the case that the lower quality of products at the mall is alienating customers. It is also possible that the higher prices of products in the mall are putting customers out of its range. To substantiate or rule out any of the above relationships, it is important to have data regarding the statistics of vandalism and littering, and those of decline of customer numbers, to determine any relationship between these. It is also important to consider other factors such as prices and quality of products, the mall's geographical location and any other unnoticed or uncontrolled factors which may cause any bias in the results. A good study includes data across all factors involved.
Lastly, the claim that banning skateboarding will bring the number of customers back to their original level is also unsupported. Since no causal relationships have been established between rising skateboarders, rising vandalism and litter, and declining customer numbers, and no data is given to show how these statistics were before the last two years, and nothing is quantified at all, this means that the suggestion of banning skateboarding to reboost customer levels is simply a mere idea with no basis.
As discussed, the argument attempts to analyze a problem and make a solution recommendation; however, the desired effect is not achieved because the lack of quantified period statistics, the unproven causal relationships being alluded to, and the assumed solution resting upon those unproven relationships make the premise of the argument very weak. In order to strengthen the argument, it is important to have lots of data across the timeline, regarding crime, customer presence, number of skateboarders, and other controlling factors in this situation such as the mall's geographical location, its product pricing and perceived product quality. Only then, can we substantiate or dispose of any claims made in this argument. Any logical argument, composed of a problem-solution pair, must rest its finding upon fact and substantiated causal relationships; and this is where this argument falls short.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-01-15 | savikx | 77 | view |
| 2020-01-06 | stevewang1007 | 66 | view |
| 2019-12-23 | Pranjil | 75 | view |
| 2019-12-05 | sagar2052 | 69 | view |
| 2019-12-04 | Md. Kawsar Ahmed | 46 | view |
Comments
Essay evaluation report
some duplicated arguments
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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: 33 15
No. of Words: 791 350
No. of Characters: 4038 1500
No. of Different Words: 303 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.303 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.105 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.963 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 296 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 233 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 168 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 109 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.97 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 13.121 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.576 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.265 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.459 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.104 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 270, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...ip and make a suggestion based on that. The argument, while presumably noble in its...
^^^
Line 1, column 414, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
... a poor job of executing that approach. The claim is unsubstantiated because of the...
^^^
Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...laimed' causal relationships. The argument starts off on a weak premise b...
^^^
Line 5, column 224, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Thus,
...itter and vandalism are not quantified. Thus it is impossible to determine what the ...
^^^^
Line 5, column 840, Rule ID: OF_ANY_OF[1]
Message: Consider simply using 'of' instead.
Suggestion: of
...nce from neighbourhoods. To be certain of any of these trends, we would require ample st...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 575, Rule ID: PRP_RB_NO_VB[1]
Message: Are you missing a verb?
...r connected by some other parameter? We simply dont know. It would be wrong to assume any c...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 582, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...cted by some other parameter? We simply dont know. It would be wrong to assume any c...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, besides, first, firstly, however, if, lastly, may, regarding, second, so, then, thus, while, such as, it is true
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 48.0 19.6327345309 244% => Less to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 36.0 11.1786427146 322% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 19.0 13.6137724551 140% => OK
Pronoun: 56.0 28.8173652695 194% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 112.0 55.5748502994 202% => Less preposition wanted.
Nominalization: 23.0 16.3942115768 140% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 4184.0 2260.96107784 185% => OK
No of words: 790.0 441.139720559 179% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.29620253165 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.30159774456 4.56307096286 116% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.150109807 2.78398813304 113% => OK
Unique words: 329.0 204.123752495 161% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.416455696203 0.468620217663 89% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1294.2 705.55239521 183% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 15.0 4.96107784431 302% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 16.0 8.76447105788 183% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 13.0 1.67365269461 777% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 10.0 4.22255489022 237% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 33.0 19.7664670659 167% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 84.7135832354 57.8364921388 146% => OK
Chars per sentence: 126.787878788 119.503703932 106% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.9393939394 23.324526521 103% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.87878787879 5.70786347227 68% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 7.0 5.25449101796 133% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 19.0 6.88822355289 276% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.67664670659 192% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.0863598418894 0.218282227539 40% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0216063909428 0.0743258471296 29% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0290176917656 0.0701772020484 41% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0487975386774 0.128457276422 38% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0373565284902 0.0628817314937 59% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.5 14.3799401198 108% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.3550499002 100% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.76 12.5979740519 109% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.24 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 173.0 98.500998004 176% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 15.5 12.3882235529 125% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 16.0 11.9071856287 134% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
It is not exactly right on the topic in the view of e-grader. Maybe there is a wrong essay topic.
Rates: 16.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 1.0 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.