The following appeared in a memorandum written by the chairperson of the West Egg Town Council. "Two years ago, consultants predicted that West Egg's landfill, which is used for garbage disposal, would be completely filled within five years. During the past two years, however, the town's residents have been recycling twice as much material as they did in previous years. Next month the amount of recycled material—which includes paper, plastic, and metal—should further increase, since charges for pickup of other household garbage will double. Furthermore, over 90 percent of the respondents to a recent survey said that they would do more recycling in the future. Because of our town's strong commitment to recycling, the available space in our landfill should last for considerably longer than predicted."
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.
The available space in the landfill of West Egg town can probably be sufficient for a long time, however the author failed to create an argument which lends credence to such a probability. Although the author mentions some points_ like residents are more recycling than the past, and the implementation of new charges aiming against the garbage-making_ but there is no evidence supporting the efficiency of each point.
First, the author needs to provide an evidence attesting that during the past two years the recycling in the west Egg town is increased to an adequate number of people. The previous amount of the recycling is not known. It is possible that previously only one person was recycling materials and now there are two of them out of millions of people. Therefore the detailed number of people who are recycling are needed.
Secondly, it should be evinced that the charges on the household garbage is enough to prompt the people not to make further garbage. As we do not know the cost of charges, even with getting doubled, the charges might not suffice to prevent the making garbage. It should be attested also that people would not be indifferent to charges. It is possible that even if the charges are notable, as the people might be rich, they may still not be motivated by the financial pressure to cooperate.
Thirdly, the author needs evidence showing that 90 percent of the respondents can be generalized to 90 percent of the whole population of the West egg town. It is possible that respondents are among enlightened people who care for the future generations and do not want to bequeath piles of garbage for the future generations. If that is the case, then the general population might differ from the survey as regular people might not be aware of the advantages of recycling. Even if the percentage can be generalized to the all population, the author needs to show that people are committed to what they have said in the survey. It is possible that people’s decision is based on a whim and they would forget about what they said in the survey.
Finally, even if all the previous answers give credence to the argument, the author needs to provide evidence that there will not be any factor overshadowing the attempts for making less garbage. In all likelihood the population grows in West Egg town. Then no matter how much people are recycling, still there would be an increase of the garbage demanding more space of landfill. If that is the case the available space of the landfill may not be adequate.
In short, as discussed, the argument lacks sufficient evidence. The current state of the argument is replete with the unclear points defying any certain evaluation to take place. Therefore the conclusion cannot be tenable.
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Sentence: Even if the percentage can be generalized to the all population, the author needs to show that people are committed to what they have said in the survey.
Description: The token the is not usually followed by a determiner/pronoun, pre-quantifier
Suggestion: Refer to the and all
argument 1 -- not OK. read it again: 'however, the town's residents have been recycling twice as much material as they did in previous years', it is not for twice people.
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- OK
argument 4 -- OK
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 1 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 22 15
No. of Words: 472 350
No. of Characters: 2239 1500
No. of Different Words: 204 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.661 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.744 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.579 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 163 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 120 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 83 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 48 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.455 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.521 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.682 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.303 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.568 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.098 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5