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, to improve productivity, Acme should require all of our employees to take the Easy Read course."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the advice and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the advice.
In the recommendation from the personnel director to the president of Acme Publishing Company, it is stated that all of their employees should take the Easy Read Course stating the reasons that many other companies who have implemented the speed course have improved their productivity. The personnel director has even given the examples of two graduates from the course. On the surface, the recommendation from the personnel director seems plausible. But under close inspection it is full of unstated assumptions. Three questions need to be answered to properly evaluate the recommendation.
To begin, do all the employees in the Acme Publishing Company even need reading skill? Perhaps, only few of them are actually involved in the reading while others are stationed at the printing house. It is also possible that, proof read of the publishing materials are done through a computer rather than by people, so as a result of which people do not require as much reading skill as it would have before. If the above cases are true then the argument presented in the original paragraph is markedly hampered.
Secondly, Even if we assume that almost all employees are inlvoled in reading work in Acme Publishing Company. Will the effect of the course be same in Acme publishing company as compared to other companies? It is possible that the employees in the Acme company are already terrific readers and the course is not going to increase their productivity. Perhaps, the employees have so much of reading experience that the course will not have any effect. If any of the above cases are true then the argument presented in the original paragraph is significntly weakened.
Thirdly, the question about the price of the course. It is really worth it? Perhaps, there are other better options available at more affordable price. It is also possible that, the Company cannot afford the price of the course. And the course includes a seminar in Spurce City, which may be very far from the company. It is possible that, three weeks absence of the employees in the company will seriously hamper the business. Therefore, if above cases are true then the argument presented in the recommendation is considerably hindered.
In conclusion, the argument as it stands is full of unwarranted assumptions. If the author of the passage is able to provide more evidence and answer the above three questions in systematic manner then it will be possible to evaluate the recommendation of the personnel director to provide all employees of the Acme Publishing Company with Easy Read Course.
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Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 2.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 425 350
No. of Characters: 2105 1500
No. of Different Words: 182 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.54 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.953 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.738 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 154 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 122 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 91 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 52 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18.478 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.611 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.609 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.325 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.509 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.104 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 410, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
... reading skill as it would have before. If the above cases are true then the argum...
^^
Line 11, column 452, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...at the course will not have any effect. If any of the above cases are true then th...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, if, may, really, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, third, thirdly, while, in conclusion, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.6327345309 132% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.9520958084 77% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 11.1786427146 36% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 28.8173652695 83% => OK
Preposition: 57.0 55.5748502994 103% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2173.0 2260.96107784 96% => OK
No of words: 425.0 441.139720559 96% => OK
Chars per words: 5.11294117647 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.54043259262 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.82394702794 2.78398813304 101% => OK
Unique words: 180.0 204.123752495 88% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.423529411765 0.468620217663 90% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 691.2 705.55239521 98% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 22.8473053892 79% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 63.1227986758 57.8364921388 109% => OK
Chars per sentence: 94.4782608696 119.503703932 79% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.4782608696 23.324526521 79% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.47826086957 5.70786347227 96% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 6.88822355289 29% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 13.0 4.67664670659 278% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.44883562717 0.218282227539 206% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.110678878704 0.0743258471296 149% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.145744818072 0.0701772020484 208% => The coherence between sentences is low.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.260585440153 0.128457276422 203% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.152514865319 0.0628817314937 243% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.9 14.3799401198 83% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 53.21 48.3550499002 110% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 12.197005988 84% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.36 12.5979740519 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.76 8.32208582834 93% => OK
difficult_words: 87.0 98.500998004 88% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.1389221557 83% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.9071856287 67% => The average readability is low. Need to imporve the language.
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.