The following appeared in a memo from the president of Bower Builders, a company that constructs new homes.
"A nationwide survey reveals that the two most-desired home features are a large family room and a large, well-appointed kitchen. A number of homes in our area built by our competitor Domus Construction have such features and have sold much faster and at significantly higher prices than the national average. To boost sales and profits, we should increase the size of the family rooms and kitchens in all the homes we build and should make state-of-the-art kitchens a standard feature. Moreover, our larger family rooms and kitchens can come at the expense of the dining room, since many of our recent buyers say they do not need a separate dining room for family meals."
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 president of Bower Builders advocates to increase the size of the family rooms and kitchen, at the expense of dining rooms, in their homes in order to increase the sales and profits of the construction company based on the fast-selling, high price homes sold by Domer Construction and recent buyers saying they do not need a separate dining room. Although this suggestion may be plausible, the conclusion rests on several unfounded assumption that, if not substantiated, severely hamper the argument.
First, the president assumes that the nationwide survey was conducted scientifically to produce accurate results. However, this may not be the case. If the survey was a phone survey, then the sample population could have been skewed toward older individuals or families, since the younger population is less likely to have a home phone. If this is the case, the nationwide survey excludes a large demographic of home buyers: young, single with roommates, or newly married. Additionally, the survey may have been only been made available to people in certain areas. For example, if this survey was only conducted in suburban areas, it is not representative of individuals who live in cities or the countryside. If the population sample of the national survey does not match Bower Builders' primary demographic, then the survey's results would not be helpful. Thus, if either of these cases is true, is significantly undermines the president's argument.
Secondly, the president bases his conclusion on the assumption that Bower Builders and Domer Construction target the same demographic. If for example, Domer Construction homes sell primarily to those with high income, while Bower Builders sell to those with low income, then it is unlikely that they desire the same attributes. People with money may be willing to splurge on a larger area with better accommodations, those who are more frugal are less likely to treat themselves with these luxuries. Additionally, Domer Construction may be targeting families, while Bower Builders targets college students. Again, families may be in the market to buy larger, more spacious homes, instead of the smaller, cheaper homes that college students desire. If these assumptions about each company's target demographic hold true, then the president's conclusion is severely weakened.
Thirdly, the argument assumes that the large family room and kitchen are the only features resulting in Domer Construction's high prices and fast selling homes. However, this may not be entirely true. Domer Construction houses may include a pool, which appeals to many people and increases the prices of a house. Additionally, Domer Construction may build neighborhoods that facilitate a sense of community amongst its residents. They may build their neighborhoods near convenience centers, or even include one inside their neighborhoods. As such, the prices of the homes would increase and they would sell more quickly, due to the convivence associated with living in a neighborhood built by Domer Construction. If either of the situations proves true, then the president's argument that enlarging the kitchen and family room will lead to increased sales does not hold water.
In conclusion, this argument is not presented cogently enough to ascertain that increasing the size of the family rooms and kitchen will increase the sales of Bower Builders' homes. With more evidence about how the national survey was conducted, the primary consumers of each company, and additional features of Domer Construction houses, we can begin to properly evaluate the argument, in order to support or abandon the conclusion.
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Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 25 15
No. of Words: 571 350
No. of Characters: 2999 1500
No. of Different Words: 244 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.888 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.252 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.846 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 217 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 165 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 123 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 80 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.84 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.839 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.88 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.297 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.488 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.074 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 929, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'presidents'' or 'president's'?
Suggestion: presidents'; president's
...s true, is significantly undermines the presidents argument. Secondly, the president b...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 829, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'presidents'' or 'president's'?
Suggestion: presidents'; president's
... target demographic hold true, then the presidents conclusion is severely weakened. Th...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 763, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'presidents'' or 'president's'?
Suggestion: presidents'; president's
...of the situations proves true, then the presidents argument that enlarging the kitchen and...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 434, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...r to support or abandon the conclusion.
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, third, thirdly, thus, while, for example, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.6327345309 127% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 18.0 12.9520958084 139% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 34.0 28.8173652695 118% => OK
Preposition: 64.0 55.5748502994 115% => OK
Nominalization: 24.0 16.3942115768 146% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3081.0 2260.96107784 136% => OK
No of words: 571.0 441.139720559 129% => OK
Chars per words: 5.39579684764 5.12650576532 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.88831323574 4.56307096286 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.93186825113 2.78398813304 105% => OK
Unique words: 264.0 204.123752495 129% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.46234676007 0.468620217663 99% => OK
syllable_count: 952.2 705.55239521 135% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 14.0 2.70958083832 517% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 25.0 19.7664670659 126% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 62.0908237987 57.8364921388 107% => OK
Chars per sentence: 123.24 119.503703932 103% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.84 23.324526521 98% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.52 5.70786347227 79% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 10.0 4.67664670659 214% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.199182076117 0.218282227539 91% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0593562078155 0.0743258471296 80% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0517301714924 0.0701772020484 74% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.121723768993 0.128457276422 95% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0143506858435 0.0628817314937 23% => 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: 15.4 14.3799401198 107% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 40.69 48.3550499002 84% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.1 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.34 12.5979740519 114% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.74 8.32208582834 105% => OK
difficult_words: 145.0 98.500998004 147% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.