The following appeared in a memo from the director of student housing at Buckingham College.
"To serve the housing needs of our students, Buckingham College should build a number of new dormitories. Buckingham's enrollment is growing and, based on current trends, will double over the next 50 years, thus making existing dormitory space inadequate. Moreover, the average rent for an apartment in our town has risen in recent years. Consequently, students will find it increasingly difficult to afford off-campus housing. Finally, attractive new dormitories would make prospective students more likely to enroll at Buckingham."
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
In this article, the author claims that Buckingham College should build a new dormitories to accommodate more enrolling students. To support this argument, the author points out that the student’s number will increase to double in the next 50 years and that the housing rent has risen in recent years. While the author's argument may seem convincing in the first glance, it lacks sufficient evidence which are essential for evaluating the conclusion.
To begin with, the author predict that the enrollment will double in the next 50 years. However, article gives no information about this prediction. Also, the enrollment number is hard to predict because it is influenced by many uncontrolled factors. If there is any data or charts point out that the enrollment of Buckingham College has been
steadily grow in the past few years, it can be more convincing that the enrollment will double in the next 50 years.
Furthermore, the author argues that the increasing rent of the apartment in the town cause student hard to afford the housing rent. Nevertheless, this assertion does not receive any support and could be possibly wrong. There is no evidence about the new dormitories will provide lower cost for students. Maybe the new dormitories have fancy decorations and only supply one person room, which usually need higher rent. Also, we don't know the economic capability of student in this college, which is hard to assert that the students couldn't afford the high rent.
Finally, the article assumes that the new dormitories will attract more students to enroll at Buckingham. Still, the author gives no information regarding what factors will influence an individual to select their school. If new discoveries indicate that the students choose the Buckingham due to it's attractive dormitories, than the author's assumption can be strongly supported. If, on the other hand, the students want to go to Buckingham because of it's extraordinary faculties and course, the author's assumption will be weakened.
To sum up, Buckingham should build new dormitories for increasing enrollment is not a conclusion that can be derives from the information available. Consequently, we need additional evidence to better evaluate of the author's claim.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 2 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 361 350
No. of Characters: 1844 1500
No. of Different Words: 175 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.359 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.108 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.78 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 134 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 103 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 77 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 54 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.056 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.215 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.778 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.348 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.57 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.091 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 79, Rule ID: A_PLURAL[2]
Message: Don't use indefinite articles with plural words. Did you mean 'dormitory'?
Suggestion: dormitory
...t Buckingham College should build a new dormitories to accommodate more enrolling students....
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 313, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...nt has risen in recent years. While the authors argument may seem convincing in the fir...
^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 10, Rule ID: BEEN_PART_AGREEMENT[2]
Message: Consider using a past participle here: 'grown'.
Suggestion: grown
...f Buckingham College has been steadily grow in the past few years, it can be more c...
^^^^
Line 6, column 428, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...hich usually need higher rent. Also, we dont know the economic capability of student...
^^^^
Line 6, column 532, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: couldn't
...ich is hard to assert that the students couldnt afford the high rent. Finally, the ...
^^^^^^^
Line 8, column 325, Rule ID: COMMA_THAN[1]
Message: Did you mean 'then'?
Suggestion: then
...gham due to its attractive dormitories, than the authors assumption can be strongly ...
^^^^
Line 8, column 334, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...to its attractive dormitories, than the authors assumption can be strongly supported. I...
^^^^^^^
Line 8, column 496, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...extraordinary faculties and course, the authors assumption will be weakened. To sum ...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, consequently, finally, first, furthermore, however, if, may, nevertheless, regarding, so, still, while, to begin with, to sum up, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 19.6327345309 66% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 16.0 12.9520958084 124% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 11.1786427146 45% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 28.8173652695 83% => OK
Preposition: 40.0 55.5748502994 72% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1898.0 2260.96107784 84% => OK
No of words: 359.0 441.139720559 81% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.28690807799 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.35284910392 4.56307096286 95% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.84600613721 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 182.0 204.123752495 89% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.506963788301 0.468620217663 108% => OK
syllable_count: 559.8 705.55239521 79% => 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: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 36.8012680941 57.8364921388 64% => OK
Chars per sentence: 105.444444444 119.503703932 88% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.9444444444 23.324526521 86% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.5 5.70786347227 149% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 8.0 5.25449101796 152% => 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: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.281313413036 0.218282227539 129% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0914793723112 0.0743258471296 123% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0860967146152 0.0701772020484 123% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.145688122173 0.128457276422 113% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0575332010182 0.0628817314937 91% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.5 14.3799401198 94% => 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: 13.4 12.5979740519 106% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.1 8.32208582834 97% => OK
difficult_words: 80.0 98.500998004 81% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => 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.