Identifying and Examining Reason Three
As mentioned previously, we might paraphrase the writer's third
reason in the following way: Maintaining the traditional lawn is unnecessary, since
varieties of grass that are more appropriate to the West are readily available. Although
she directly addresses the "availability" question only toward the end of her essay
(in paragraphs 10-13), she refers to alternative
varieties of grasses in several areas
of the essay. For example,
In Paragraph 5: "Varieties of grass that are more
resistant to pests, disease, and weeds and
better suited to the West make this risk unnecessary."
In Paragraph 6: "Choosing a variety that requires
little or no watering also saves Fort Collins
homeowners money."
In Paragraph 7: "More appropriate species of grass
would save time and money by making
fertilizers and amendments obsolete."
In Paragraph 10: "Since the cost of maintaining
an alternative lawn is so
low, lawn care experts have no stake in keeping us informed about more appropriate
species or in making them easy to obtain."
In paragraphs 11-13, however, the writer claims that these alternative varieties do exist and are available to Fort Collins residents, and she offers evidence to back this up.
We have identified Reason Three as (in paraphrased form) "Maintaining the traditional lawn is unnecessary, since varieties of grass that are more appropriate to the West are readily available." Our next step is to determine whether or not this reason is 1) relevant and 2) effective.