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.
In the letter the author made multiple claims. The author first attributes the decline of the number of shoppers in Central Plaza to the increasing popularity of skateboarding. Then he argues that the business in Central Plaza will recover if skateboarding is banned in the area. Close scrutiny reveals a number of flaws in the arguments.
The first question the author needs to answer is that is there a direct connection between skateboarding, which is a form of exercise and entertainment, with the business condition in Central Plaza (should I use comma or question mark here? thanks!). The correlation between the two is not conspicuous, nor does the author provide one. It is even possible that the increasing popularity of skateboarding could promote the business in Central Plaza. For example, an increasing number of skateboarders in the plaza could add to the exuberant atmosphere, and thus attracting more visitors or shoppers.
The author then abruptly starts to mention an increased amount of litter and vandalism, without indicating the cause. He could be implying that the skateboarders are to blame, but the correlation is not explicit either. So the question the author needs to investigate is the real cause of the litter and vandalism. Though it could be because of the skateboarders, other factors could also result in more litter and vandalism. For instance, the Plaza may be simply not as well-maintained as before. Or it could be that a group of customers who like to throw trash everywhere have frequented the plaza.
Based on the assumption that the popularity of skateboarding leads to the decline in the number of customers in Central Plaza, the author suggests prohibiting skateboarding in the area will help the business back to its previous high levels. However, even if skateboarding is a cause of the problem, there could more other reasons that have caused the decline. The author needs to find out and evaluate all the reasons, and determine which are the primary ones. If some popular stores move out from the plaza, for example, that would also wreak havoc to the business. Alternatively, it could be that the local economy is undergoing a doldrum. People just have less spare money to spend in the plaza. Therefore, if there are the major issues that have caused the business recession in Central Plaza, banning skateboarding will be futile.
Conclusively, before persuading the city to forbid skateboarding, the author needs to carry out further investigation and know what the connection between skateboarding and business is, what has induced more litter and vandalism, and what the other factors are that also have an impact on the business in Central Plaza.
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Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- OK
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Q: should I use comma or question mark here?
A: We think it is fine to use comma here since it is a very long sentence.
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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: 22 15
No. of Words: 442 350
No. of Characters: 2206 1500
No. of Different Words: 192 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.585 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.991 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.87 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 155 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 113 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 78 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 53 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.091 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.104 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.591 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.34 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.515 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.091 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 281, Rule ID: CLOSE_SCRUTINY[1]
Message: Use simply 'scrutiny'.
Suggestion: Scrutiny
...if skateboarding is banned in the area. Close scrutiny reveals a number of flaws in the argume...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 241, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Thanks
...ould I use comma or question mark here? thanks!. The correlation between the two is no...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, may, so, then, therefore, thus, well, for example
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 19.0 28.8173652695 66% => OK
Preposition: 57.0 55.5748502994 103% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 16.3942115768 73% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2261.0 2260.96107784 100% => OK
No of words: 442.0 441.139720559 100% => OK
Chars per words: 5.11538461538 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.58517132086 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.97165981644 2.78398813304 107% => OK
Unique words: 196.0 204.123752495 96% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.443438914027 0.468620217663 95% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 704.7 705.55239521 100% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Interrogative: 1.0 0.471057884232 212% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 6.0 1.67365269461 358% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 22.0 19.7664670659 111% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 64.4465952271 57.8364921388 111% => OK
Chars per sentence: 102.772727273 119.503703932 86% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.0909090909 23.324526521 86% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.63636363636 5.70786347227 64% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.67664670659 171% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.257760537654 0.218282227539 118% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0862256403626 0.0743258471296 116% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0863512002225 0.0701772020484 123% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.171560062023 0.128457276422 134% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0884668930529 0.0628817314937 141% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.7 14.3799401198 88% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.42 12.5979740519 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.06 8.32208582834 97% => OK
difficult_words: 96.0 98.500998004 97% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 12.3882235529 69% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6 -- The score is based on the average performance of 20,000 argument essays. This e-grader is not smart enough to check on arguments.
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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.