The following is part of a memorandum from the president of Humana University.
"Last year the number of students who enrolled in online degree programs offered by nearby Omni University increased by 50 percent. During the same year, Omni showed a significant decrease from prior years in expenditures for dormitory and classroom space, most likely because online instruction takes place via the Internet. In contrast, over the past three years, enrollment at Humana University has failed to grow and the cost of maintaining buildings has increased. Thus, to increase enrollment and solve the problem of budget deficits at Humana University, we should initiate and actively promote online degree programs like those at Omni."
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.
In the prompt, the president of Humana University suggests that this institution should follow the method of online learning just like what was done in Omni University last year to alleviate the enrollment shortage and budget deficits. While the president's suggestion might hold true, it rests on several unfounded assumptions that, if not properly substantiated, dramatically weakens the argument given.
First of all, the president of Humana University assumes that the increment in Omni University's online enrollment points to a increase in its total enrollment number and that Omni University does not suffer from a shortage of students supply. It is possible that while the online enrollment in Omni University grows, the total number of its students decrease because of its shift of focus from off-line teaching to online teaching which discouraged a lot of students who do not believe in the effectiveness of online teaching. Or, perhaps its ageing facilities and limited space limited it capacity to enroll more student offline. If either of these two scenarios proves true, then the assertion of the assumption is significantly weakened.
Second, even if the total enrollment of Omni University does increase, it does not guarantee that online learning cost will be lower than the reduction on expenditures for dormitory and classroom space. There is the potential that online learning will cost more and impose a much heavier burden on the school's already deficient budget. For example, setting up servers and recruiting IT related engineers to help setting up websites and environments as well as keeping the online courses running smoothly all requires an extra expenditure. This may be much costlier than it sound. If this proves true, then the president should really consider put more money on improving the basic facilities and may be get sponsors to help the university thrive.
Finally, a stable enrollment number does not indicate the university is not improving. Perhaps that online learning have been working not so effectively as expected at Omni University and the reputation of the University may be damaged. For a more prospective development of the institution, the school board should really look into the actual validity of implementing this way of teaching and research the attitudes of the teachers. If the online learning cannot help the students or the school on the long run, then the suggestion may prove to be more of a bane than a boom to Humana University.
In conclusion, while the president may have come to a sound conclusion regarding the future focus of the university, more data and investigation is required before a firm conclusion is formed. If the president can fully validate the above three assumptions, it will be possible to fully evaluate the validity of this argument.
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- The following is part of a memorandum from the president of Humana University Last year the number of students who enrolled in online degree programs offered by nearby Omni University increased by 50 percent During the same year Omni showed a significant 73
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 17 15
No. of Words: 453 350
No. of Characters: 2333 1500
No. of Different Words: 215 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.613 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.15 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.854 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 182 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 136 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 112 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 68 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 26.647 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.683 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.824 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.336 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.558 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.074 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 247, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'presidents'' or 'president's'?
Suggestion: presidents'; president's
...shortage and budget deficits. While the presidents suggestion might hold true, it rests on...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 125, 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
...Universitys online enrollment points to a increase in its total enrollment number...
^
Line 9, column 413, Rule ID: ADVISE_VBG[5]
Message: The verb 'help' is used with infinitive: 'to set' or 'set'.
Suggestion: to set; set
...recruiting IT related engineers to help setting up websites and environments as well as...
^^^^^^^
Line 13, column 117, Rule ID: AFFORD_VB[1]
Message: This verb is used with the infinitive: 'to have'
Suggestion: to have
...improving. Perhaps that online learning have been working not so effectively as expe...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
finally, first, if, look, may, really, regarding, second, so, then, well, while, for example, in conclusion, as well as, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 19.6327345309 71% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 25.0 28.8173652695 87% => OK
Preposition: 55.0 55.5748502994 99% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2399.0 2260.96107784 106% => OK
No of words: 453.0 441.139720559 103% => OK
Chars per words: 5.29580573951 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.61343653406 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.90235686553 2.78398813304 104% => OK
Unique words: 220.0 204.123752495 108% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.485651214128 0.468620217663 104% => OK
syllable_count: 764.1 705.55239521 108% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 8.0 2.70958083832 295% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 19.7664670659 86% => OK
Sentence length: 26.0 22.8473053892 114% => OK
Sentence length SD: 59.611022877 57.8364921388 103% => OK
Chars per sentence: 141.117647059 119.503703932 118% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.6470588235 23.324526521 114% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.82352941176 5.70786347227 137% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.300070085666 0.218282227539 137% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0941648936571 0.0743258471296 127% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.108289864708 0.0701772020484 154% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.165884110369 0.128457276422 129% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.103823456704 0.0628817314937 165% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.9 14.3799401198 118% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 36.63 48.3550499002 76% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.6 12.197005988 120% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.76 12.5979740519 109% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.93 8.32208582834 107% => OK
difficult_words: 115.0 98.500998004 117% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 19.5 12.3882235529 157% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.1389221557 111% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.