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 following memorandum is from the business manager of Happy Pancake House restaurants.
"Recently, butter has been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southwestern United States. This change, however, has had little impact on our customers. In fact, only about 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. Furthermore, many servers have reported that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. Clearly, either these customers do not distinguish butter from margarine or they use the term 'butter' to refer to either butter or margarine."
The business manager of happy pancake house restaurants claims that customers do not distinguish butter from margarine. To buttress his/her argument, the manager cites the following evidences: first, only about 2 percent of customers complained after replacing butter by margarine; second, many servers have reported that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. Tough the issue has its own merit, due to lack of convincing evidences and unaddressed assumptions, the conclusion is unsubstantiated and flawed.
To begin with, the manager indicates that only about 2 percent of customers have complained, meaning 98 out of 100 people are happy with the change. The credibility of data and result is questionable, however. How many customers are studied in total? Which cities do these customers come from? what are the age, gender, and eating habits of those people? without detailed description of the study, the result is invalid. it is plausible that not many people are involved in this research, so that the sample size might not be large enough and not representative. if some cities in southern united states perfer margarin, while citizens in other cities do not, it is oversimple to draw a uniform conclusion regarding these two types of behaviors. we are also not given the content of complaints. it is likely that many people complain other aspects of the restaurant, such as service, price, environment and so on.
Furthermore, the author refers to the report from servers, suggesting that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine. what is the exact number meant by "a number of"? For some serves, they might think only 5 or 10, whereas for others, 100 is not a big amount. Thus, without the correct number of complaints, no grounded conclusion can be deduced. serves might not remeber well enough to report the precise amount of complains or just miscalculated. some who are worried about potential punishment from the manager, do not dare to report the number as large as the truth. In addition, that people do not complain does not mean they are happy with the change. what if they forgot to complain but was unsatisfied with the change? what if they are too lazy to make any suggestions? Therefore, the conclusion is questionable bacause we are not given the validity of the report.
Last but not least, the author assumes that the small number of complaints means that either these customers do not distinguish butter from margarine or they use the term "butter" to refer to either butter or margarine. The assumption perhaps seems reasonable at first glance; after further investigation, it is disputable. it is possible that after trying margarine, they are surprised that margarine taste better butter, so that they are unwilling to make change again. Accepting margarine this way does not necessarily mean that they cannot recognize either. Or margarine is not common in southwestern united states, so that people do not expect it to be appeared in the happy pancake house restaurants, and they like to try new things once they get the opportunity to do so.
To sum up, as it stands, the conclusion made by the manager of happy pancake house restaurants is relied on several problematic assumptions that curtail its credibility. To further strengthen his/her argument, the author is suggested to provide the evidence as follows: first, the specific number of complains from every customers in every region; second, whether the report from the servers are credible enough to lead to the final conclusion; finally, whether people are equipped with the ability to distinguish butter from margarine.
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Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- not exactly
argument 2 -- not exactly
argument 3 -- not exactly
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 612 350
No. of Characters: 3021 1500
No. of Different Words: 259 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.974 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.936 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.686 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 229 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 151 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 108 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 83 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 32.211 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 18.461 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.789 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.327 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.533 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.1 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 295, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: What
...ch cities do these customers come from? what are the age, gender, and eating habits ...
^^^^
Line 3, column 356, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Without
...der, and eating habits of those people? without detailed description of the study, the ...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 422, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: It
...on of the study, the result is invalid. it is plausible that not many people are i...
^^
Line 3, column 564, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: If
...be large enough and not representative. if some cities in southern united states p...
^^
Line 3, column 747, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: We
...regarding these two types of behaviors. we are also not given the content of compl...
^^
Line 3, column 796, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: It
...so not given the content of complaints. it is likely that many people complain oth...
^^
Line 3, column 915, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... service, price, environment and so on. Furthermore, the author refers to the re...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 164, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: What
...complain when they are given margarine. what is the exact number meant by 'a nu...
^^^^
Line 5, column 403, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Serves
... no grounded conclusion can be deduced. serves might not remeber well enough to report...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 505, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Some
...unt of complains or just miscalculated. some who are worried about potential punishm...
^^^^
Line 5, column 714, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: What
...ot mean they are happy with the change. what if they forgot to complain but was unsa...
^^^^
Line 5, column 783, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: What
...in but was unsatisfied with the change? what if they are too lazy to make any sugges...
^^^^
Line 5, column 834, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...y are too lazy to make any suggestions? Therefore, the conclusion is questionabl...
^^
Line 9, column 335, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: It
...urther investigation, it is disputable. it is possible that after trying margarine...
^^
Line 9, column 790, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...once they get the opportunity to do so. To sum up, as it stands, the conclusion ...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, furthermore, however, if, regarding, second, so, then, therefore, thus, well, whereas, while, as for, in addition, such as, to begin with, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 33.0 19.6327345309 168% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 12.9520958084 39% => OK
Conjunction : 14.0 11.1786427146 125% => OK
Relative clauses : 22.0 13.6137724551 162% => OK
Pronoun: 49.0 28.8173652695 170% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 79.0 55.5748502994 142% => OK
Nominalization: 9.0 16.3942115768 55% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3144.0 2260.96107784 139% => OK
No of words: 610.0 441.139720559 138% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.15409836066 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.96972615649 4.56307096286 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.85079846145 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 285.0 204.123752495 140% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.467213114754 0.468620217663 100% => OK
syllable_count: 977.4 705.55239521 139% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 9.0 4.96107784431 181% => OK
Article: 14.0 8.76447105788 160% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 9.0 4.22255489022 213% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 30.0 19.7664670659 152% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 74.8138133413 57.8364921388 129% => OK
Chars per sentence: 104.8 119.503703932 88% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.3333333333 23.324526521 87% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.83333333333 5.70786347227 102% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 15.0 5.25449101796 285% => Less language errors wanted.
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.20758483034 134% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 12.0 6.88822355289 174% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.0781966247204 0.218282227539 36% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0213618434327 0.0743258471296 29% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0233479547155 0.0701772020484 33% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.047052552719 0.128457276422 37% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0125443023685 0.0628817314937 20% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.0 14.3799401198 90% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.59 12.5979740519 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.17 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 137.0 98.500998004 139% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
It is not exactly right on the topic in the view of e-grader. Maybe there is a wrong essay topic.
Rates: 16.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 1.0 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.