The following appeared in a letter to the school board in the town of Centerville.
"All students should be required to take the driver's education course at Centerville High School. In the past two years, several accidents in and around Centerville have involved teenage drivers. Since a number of parents in Centerville have complained that they are too busy to teach their teenagers to drive, some other instruction is necessary to ensure that these teenagers are safe drivers. Although there are two driving schools in Centerville, parents on a tight budget cannot afford to pay for driving instruction. Therefore, an effective and mandatory program sponsored by the high school is the only solution to this serious problem."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
The author claims that education course for drivers that Centerville High School provides is the only solution to accidents involving teenage drivers. He or she offers an interesting argument, but it suffers from some logical flaws and gaps in evidence. While connections suggested are reasonable, there are other possible scenarios that should discourage the authors claiming that the program is the only solution.
To begin with, the author assumes that education for teenage drivers will be effective to reduce accidents because several accidents had involved teenage drivers. Yet there is no reason to believe that decrease in accidents will be entailed by education. Usually, Education itself can not change much. We can see many smokers attending to quit-smoke programs but rarely see corresponding quit smokers. Likewise what we need to lower the accident rate are teenager's conscience and his/her ardor for being careful driver, not mandatory education. What is more, the author assumes that teenagers are culprits of the accidents. However, teenagers might be victim actually. There are many other factors that can cause the accidents. For instance, careless pedestrians, complex traffic, high-density of cars, etc may be reasons of accidents. Therefore we cannot conclude that decrease in accidents would be followed by providing education to teenagers.
Secondly, the author assumes that involved teenagers are residence in Centerville. Yet we cannot take it for granted that teenagers who are relating to accidents are living in Centerville just because accidents were happened at Centerville. They might live in other cities and just drive cars to Centerville. If most of the teenagers indeed are citizens of other neighboring cities, the education sponsored by the high school can not be effective and teenagers would be reluctant to attend the program.
Thirdly, the author assumes that the trend of accident occurred during last two years will last long. The author misses the possibility of change in driving environment or ratio of accidents that involved teenage drivers during last two years. For two years, the city might have better driving environment by constructing new traffic light and replacing the old roads. Or teenage drivers might be more circumspect than before because they noticed high ratio of accidents. Therefore we cannot rule out the possibility that the serious problem had been already solved.
Finally the author assumes that parents in the city are too busy to teach their teenagers because a number of parents have complained. However it is too hasty to generalize the parents as too busy people just because some of them have said so. Indeed, most of parents might have willingness to spare their time to make their child safe driver. Therefore we need more thorough information about parents in the city before concluding that all of them cannot spend time for providing an education.
To sum, the author's assumption that the serious problems could be solved only by program that is sponsored by local high school is logically flawed based on the above mentioned reasons. To strengthen his or her claim, the author should closely examine all the conditions and possible factors. In conclusion, the author's argument reflects unsupported claims without clear reasons or evidence.
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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: 9 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 29 15
No. of Words: 524 350
No. of Characters: 2751 1500
No. of Different Words: 245 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.784 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.25 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.63 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 223 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 176 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 115 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 79 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18.069 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.192 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.586 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.281 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.506 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.138 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 403, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Likewise,
... rarely see corresponding quit smokers. Likewise what we need to lower the accident rate...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 837, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Therefore,
... cars, etc may be reasons of accidents. Therefore we cannot conclude that decrease in acc...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 473, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Therefore,
...e they noticed high ratio of accidents. Therefore we cannot rule out the possibility that...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 1, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Finally,
...ous problem had been already solved. Finally the author assumes that parents in the ...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 136, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: However,
...se a number of parents have complained. However it is too hasty to generalize the paren...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 345, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Therefore,
...r time to make their child safe driver. Therefore we need more thorough information about...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 11, column 13, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
... providing an education. To sum, the authors assumption that the serious problems co...
^^^^^^^
Line 11, column 313, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...nd possible factors. In conclusion, the authors argument reflects unsupported claims wi...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, finally, however, if, likewise, may, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, third, thirdly, while, as to, for instance, in conclusion, to begin with, what is more
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 29.0 19.6327345309 148% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 24.0 12.9520958084 185% => OK
Conjunction : 15.0 11.1786427146 134% => OK
Relative clauses : 19.0 13.6137724551 140% => OK
Pronoun: 41.0 28.8173652695 142% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 57.0 55.5748502994 103% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2817.0 2260.96107784 125% => OK
No of words: 523.0 441.139720559 119% => OK
Chars per words: 5.3862332696 5.12650576532 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.78217453174 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.70707076136 2.78398813304 97% => OK
Unique words: 252.0 204.123752495 123% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.481835564054 0.468620217663 103% => OK
syllable_count: 878.4 705.55239521 124% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 29.0 19.7664670659 147% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 22.8473053892 79% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 37.9142596136 57.8364921388 66% => OK
Chars per sentence: 97.1379310345 119.503703932 81% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.0344827586 23.324526521 77% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.10344827586 5.70786347227 107% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 8.0 5.25449101796 152% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 8.20758483034 37% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 19.0 6.88822355289 276% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.199146154321 0.218282227539 91% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0520654735648 0.0743258471296 70% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0577525661172 0.0701772020484 82% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.106151755116 0.128457276422 83% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0395103350495 0.0628817314937 63% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.0 14.3799401198 90% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 44.75 48.3550499002 93% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.69 12.5979740519 109% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.21 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 122.0 98.500998004 124% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.1389221557 83% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => 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.