The following is a recommendation from the personnel director to the president of Acme Publishing Company.
"Many other companies have recently stated that having their employees take the Easy Read Speed-Reading Course has greatly improved productivity. One graduate of the course was able to read a 500-page report in only two hours; another graduate rose from an assistant manager to vice president of the company in under a year. Obviously, the faster you can read, the more information you can absorb in a single workday. Moreover, Easy Read would cost Acme only $500 per employee—a small price to pay when you consider the benefits. Included in this fee is a three-week seminar in Spruce City and a lifelong subscription to the Easy Read newsletter. Clearly, Acme would benefit greatly by requiring all of our employees to take the Easy Read course."
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 is making his or her argument that by participating in Easy Read Speed Reading Course, hereby the Course, will be beneficial to the Acme Publishing Company, as there are positive aspects that were discovered from other companies. Thus, the author is arguing that Acme also has to provide their employees the Course in order to get similar benefits. While the argument is tempting at first glance, there are unwarranted assumptions that the author is giving without any reasons that makes the author’s argument unwarranted.
First, the author is stating that the improved reading speed will also increase the information that oneself can absorb as mentioned in the recommendation. There are some example to back up this argument; a single employer could read 500 page material within two hours after attending the Course. However, we cannot guarantee that improved reading seed alone will increase in the information absorbing. While that person had read that material within faster speed, we at this point that that person has absorbed entire information. It is possible that that person had only read the pages by skipping while earning nothing from it. We have to evaluate, while the author did make a assumption that reading alone will absorb the information, whether that person has adequately absorbed the information. We cannot guarantee that just a faster reading speed will bring the wanted results from the author.
Second, while the author is arguing that improvement in reading skills, with the effect of attending the Course, as one person had promotion within shorter time. We do not know that whether that company is similar to Acme, and that company itself is reliable source. If size or other aspects are not similar, then Acme would not have similar effect Moreover if that company is so small that there are only few people in that company, it could be relatively easier for that person to promote. Even that person had some improvement in reading skills by attending the course, we do not know whether that person’s other abilities have helped in promotion. The author does not mention any of these aspects and simply assume that the Course and the improved reading skills will bring the expected results. Different industry could differ the results.
Last but not least, the author is arguing that attending the Course will be quite simple because they are located in Spruce City and it is only three week course. However, we do not know at this point that whether that city is approachable with Acme. While the author is assuming that the two locations are close enough for employees to attend the course, it might not be the case. Acme could be too far away from that city. Moreover, we do not know that three week class is a viable option for the Acme. If that course requires full day, then workers will have to loose that weeks, they will not be able to work. While the author is making an assumption that the course will be short enough and is close enough for Acme, there is no evidence at this moment to conclude as the author did.
In conclusion, the author is arguing with unwarranted assumptions so that the conclusion that the author is making is unjustified with his supports. These unstated assumptions without any warrants, will not yield the result that the author is hoping for. We need more explanations and supports to follow the author’s argument as a whole.
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Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- not OK
argument 2 -- not OK
argument 3 -- partly correct
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Let's analyze the structure of the statement and argue accordingly:
condition 1:
One graduate of the course was able to read a 500-page report in only two hours; another graduate rose from an assistant manager to vice president of the company in under a year. Obviously, the faster you can read, the more information you can absorb in a single workday.
condition 2:
Moreover, Easy Read would cost Acme only $500 per employee—a small price to pay when you consider the benefits. Included in this fee is a three-week seminar in Spruce City and a lifelong subscription to the Easy Read newsletter.
conclusion:
Clearly, Acme would benefit greatly by requiring all of our employees to take the Easy Read course.
then here goes the argument:
argument 1:
the sample size is too small. only two graduates.
argument 2:
suppose the company has 500 employees, it is still a big money: 500 x $500 = $250,000. a three-week seminar in Spruce City and a lifelong subscription to the Easy Read newsletter may not be helpful.
argument 3:
maybe only some of them need the course.
------------------
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 2.0 out of 6
Category: Poor Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 26 15
No. of Words: 577 350
No. of Characters: 2776 1500
No. of Different Words: 227 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.901 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.811 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.372 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 206 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 128 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 80 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 43 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.192 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.864 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.615 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.34 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.521 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.181 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 678, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
... to evaluate, while the author did make a assumption that reading alone will abso...
^
Line 4, column 565, Rule ID: LOOSE_LOSE[3]
Message: Did you mean 'lose' (= miss, waste, suffer the loss etc.)?
Suggestion: lose
...res full day, then workers will have to loose that weeks, they will not be able to wo...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, moreover, second, so, then, thus, while, as to, in conclusion, in short
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 37.0 19.6327345309 188% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 21.0 12.9520958084 162% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 11.1786427146 81% => OK
Relative clauses : 40.0 13.6137724551 294% => Less relative clauses wanted (maybe 'which' is over used).
Pronoun: 68.0 28.8173652695 236% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 46.0 55.5748502994 83% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2854.0 2260.96107784 126% => OK
No of words: 577.0 441.139720559 131% => OK
Chars per words: 4.94627383016 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.90110439584 4.56307096286 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.51101098737 2.78398813304 90% => OK
Unique words: 235.0 204.123752495 115% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.407279029463 0.468620217663 87% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 877.5 705.55239521 124% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 14.0 4.96107784431 282% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 10.0 2.70958083832 369% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 26.0 19.7664670659 132% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 46.8517901119 57.8364921388 81% => OK
Chars per sentence: 109.769230769 119.503703932 92% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.1923076923 23.324526521 95% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.92307692308 5.70786347227 69% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.67664670659 192% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.209279278959 0.218282227539 96% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0655048321681 0.0743258471296 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0528762859629 0.0701772020484 75% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.124046481984 0.128457276422 97% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0703357656049 0.0628817314937 112% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.0 14.3799401198 90% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 57.61 48.3550499002 119% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.43 12.5979740519 91% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.63 8.32208582834 92% => OK
difficult_words: 106.0 98.500998004 108% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => 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.