The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a Batavia newspaper.
"The department of agriculture in Batavia reports that the number of dairy farms throughout the country is now 25 percent greater than it was 10 years ago. During this same time period, however, the price of milk at the local Excello Food Market has increased from $1.50 to over $3.00 per gallon. To prevent farmers from continuing to receive excessive profits on an apparently increased supply of milk, the Batavia government should begin to regulate retail milk prices. Such regulation is necessary to ensure fair prices for consumers."
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 to the editor of a Batavia newspaper, the author argues that to prevent farmers from continuing to receive inflated profits, the Batavia government should begin to moderate retail milk prices. The author bases this conclusion on the increase in the number of dairy farms seen in the last decade, and subsequently the paradoxical doubling in the price of milk at the local Excello Food Market. However, while the author’s conclusion may seem to hold water, it relies on several unfounded assumptions that, if not substantiated, dramatically weaken the persuasiveness and cogency of the argument. Thus, to fully evaluate the proposed recommendation, the following three questions need to be answered.
First of all, was the report from the department of agriculture a parametric research study? That is, there may be a possibility that a decade ago, there was a high level of complacency within the members of the department. Perhaps, a recent government was installed into office that called for meticulousness in conduction such surveys. This therefore could indicate a possible flaw in the author’s logic. Additionally, there is a potential that the results were unintentionally misrepresented by the department. If any of these scenarios has merit, the author’s contention is severely weakened.
Secondly, does the observation in Excello Food Market apply to all retail stores? The author unintentionally assumes that a form of generalization can be made from a single observation. Perhaps Excello is situated in a high-end society and has to pay exorbitant prices for accommodation leading to the increase in its prices. Furthermore, it is also possible that Excello is currently facing an economic breakdown that has led to this observation. In this case, it will have to increase its prices to cope in the business world. These scenarios have nothing to do with farmers receiving excessive profits and therefore render the author’s assertion hamstrung.
Third, could there be another possible explanation for the observations cited by the author? Perhaps the technology adopted 10 years ago for farming in fairly inexpensive compared to what is used now. If the cost of maintaining an advanced machine is too high, farmers may need to increase retail prices in other to keep up with the increase in demand. If this proves true, the author’s contention will lose credibility.
Finally, even if the evidence provided proves true, will increasing the regulations on retail prices lead to a decrease in contrived inflation? There is a possibility that farmers just circumvent the entire procedure. The farmers may engage in underhand and shady sales to keep up with the ever increasing demand from the fast growing population of Bativia. There is also a possibility that the government do not have a means to sustain the regulations provided. If any of these cases proves likely, the author’s loses significant validity.
In conclusion, albeit the author’s contention has some merit regarding a regulation of prices to curb unnecessary inflation, more data (preferably in the form of an academic research study) is required for a firm conclusion to be made. Thus, to fully examine the recommendation, the author will need to provide answers to the three questions posed above.
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Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 5 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 7 2
No. of Sentences: 27 15
No. of Words: 524 350
No. of Characters: 2706 1500
No. of Different Words: 252 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.784 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.164 4.6
Word Length SD: 3.02 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 206 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 160 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 121 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 80 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.407 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.47 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.667 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.271 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.487 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.034 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 55, Rule ID: HE_VERB_AGR[8]
Message: The proper name in singular (Market) must be used with a third-person verb: 'applies'.
Suggestion: applies
... the observation in Excello Food Market apply to all retail stores? The author uninte...
^^^^^
Line 9, column 58, Rule ID: DID_BASEFORM[1]
Message: The verb 'will' requires the base form of the verb: 'increase'
Suggestion: increase
...the evidence provided proves true, will increasing the regulations on retail prices lead t...
^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, first, furthermore, however, if, may, regarding, second, secondly, so, therefore, third, thus, while, as to, in conclusion, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.9520958084 116% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 11.1786427146 45% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 28.8173652695 83% => OK
Preposition: 77.0 55.5748502994 139% => OK
Nominalization: 25.0 16.3942115768 152% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2797.0 2260.96107784 124% => OK
No of words: 524.0 441.139720559 119% => OK
Chars per words: 5.33778625954 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.7844588288 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.13230848076 2.78398813304 113% => OK
Unique words: 265.0 204.123752495 130% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.50572519084 0.468620217663 108% => OK
syllable_count: 889.2 705.55239521 126% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 27.0 19.7664670659 137% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 44.053029523 57.8364921388 76% => OK
Chars per sentence: 103.592592593 119.503703932 87% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.4074074074 23.324526521 83% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.59259259259 5.70786347227 98% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 14.0 4.67664670659 299% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.100840929488 0.218282227539 46% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0265827174427 0.0743258471296 36% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0430396251717 0.0701772020484 61% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0528391985715 0.128457276422 41% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0487708808613 0.0628817314937 78% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.4 14.3799401198 93% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 43.73 48.3550499002 90% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.69 12.5979740519 109% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.13 8.32208582834 110% => OK
difficult_words: 151.0 98.500998004 153% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.