The following appeared in a memo from the vice president of marketing at Dura-Socks, Inc.
"A recent study of Dura-Socks customers suggests that our company is wasting the money it spends on its patented Endure manufacturing process, which ensures that our socks are strong enough to last for two years. We have always advertised our use of the Endure process, but the new study shows that despite the socks' durability, our customers, on average, actually purchase new Dura-Socks every three months. Furthermore, customers surveyed in our largest market—northeastern United States cities—say that they most value Dura-Socks' stylish appearance and availability in many colors. These findings suggest that we can increase our profits by discontinuing use of the Endure manufacturing process."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation 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 recommendation.
In the above demo, the vice president states that according to a survey, a customer on average buys their socks every three months and what they value most is the fashion and color of the socks rather than the durability. From this, he/she draws the conclusion that their patented Endure manufacturing process must be discontinued. However, I find this argument flawed due to the following reasons.
First, the vice-president assumes that the reason for his customers buying the socks every three months is because of their short-term "durability". This survey lacks an essential information, as to why, these customers are buying the socks again? It could be possible that they are buying to get new colors and designs to keep themselves updated with the fashion. Morever, we do not know the average cost for a pair of socks that the customers buy. It is quite possible that the customers who's survey is done have a quite high income and the socks are very economical. Hence, they do not care much about the socks being lost and readily buy new ones.
Secondly, an important point to note here is that the vice-president mentions that they do advertise their Endure manufacturing process and the durability of their products, yet after every three months the customers still stick to Dura-Socks. If durability would have been an issue, the customers would have lost faith long back and would not be continuing with Dura-Socks. Hence, we cannot simply assume that the non-durability of the product makes the customers buy their socks after an interval of a few months.
Third, the vice-president does not mention on which customers the survey for the frequency of buying their socks are done. He/She does mention the survey details when asked the customers what they value most, but not for the durability. If the survey sample is small, it is subjected to go to extreme ends and we cannot assume that it represents the entire set of the customers.
Hence, I conclude that the survey is incomplete for it lacks many of the details and the memo misses to provide essential facts like the sample size of the customers. Thus, I find the vice-president's argument flawed and full of assumptions and I do not support his/her decision of discontinuing the use of their Endure manufacturing process until complete information is gathered.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-08-16 | anon7652 | 72 | view |
| 2022-05-01 | Indrayani Yadav | 73 | view |
| 2022-03-09 | skmsamu | 68 | view |
| 2021-11-09 | amiftekher | 55 | view |
| 2020-08-15 | sag162 | 50 | view |
- Argument Topic In order to reverse the recent decline in our profits we must reduce operating expenses at Movies Galore s ten video rental stores Since we are famous for our special bargains raising our rental prices is not a viable way to improve profits 58
- In an attempt to improve highway safety Prunty County last year lowered its speed limit from 55 to 45 miles per hour on all county highways But this effort has failed the number of accidents has not decreased and based on reports by the highway patrol man 60
- Erosion of beach sand along the shores of Tria Island is a serious threat to our island and our tourist industry In order to stop the erosion we should charge people for using the beaches Although this solution may annoy a few tourists in the short term i 60
- All too often companies hire outside consultants to suggest ways for the company to operate more efficiently If companies were to spend more time listening to their own employees such consultants would be unnecessary 50
- Argument Topic The following is taken from a memo from the advertising director of the Super Screen Movie Production Company According to a recent report from our marketing department during the past year fewer people attended Super Screen produced movies 60
Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 501, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: who's
...It is quite possible that the customers whos survey is done have a quite high income...
^^^^
Line 5, column 259, Rule ID: IF_WOULD_HAVE_VBN[1]
Message: Did you mean 'had been'?
Suggestion: had been
...till stick to Dura-Socks. If durability would have been an issue, the customers would have lost...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 95, Rule ID: ADMIT_ENJOY_VB[1]
Message: This verb is used with the gerund form: 'misses providing'.
Suggestion: misses providing
... lacks many of the details and the memo misses to provide essential facts like the sample size of...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, hence, however, if, second, secondly, so, still, third, thus, as to
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 19.6327345309 92% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.9520958084 54% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 13.6137724551 95% => OK
Pronoun: 48.0 28.8173652695 167% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 35.0 55.5748502994 63% => OK
Nominalization: 6.0 16.3942115768 37% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1962.0 2260.96107784 87% => OK
No of words: 391.0 441.139720559 89% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.0179028133 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.44676510885 4.56307096286 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.88695489042 2.78398813304 104% => OK
Unique words: 186.0 204.123752495 91% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.475703324808 0.468620217663 102% => OK
syllable_count: 598.5 705.55239521 85% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 13.0 4.96107784431 262% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => 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: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 48.6743290803 57.8364921388 84% => OK
Chars per sentence: 115.411764706 119.503703932 97% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.0 23.324526521 99% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.64705882353 5.70786347227 81% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
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: 0.200598388425 0.218282227539 92% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0706511062181 0.0743258471296 95% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0464473626812 0.0701772020484 66% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.119843305758 0.128457276422 93% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0333522670006 0.0628817314937 53% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.7 14.3799401198 95% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 56.59 48.3550499002 117% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.13 12.5979740519 96% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.68 8.32208582834 92% => OK
difficult_words: 72.0 98.500998004 73% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 501, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: who's
...It is quite possible that the customers whos survey is done have a quite high income...
^^^^
Line 5, column 259, Rule ID: IF_WOULD_HAVE_VBN[1]
Message: Did you mean 'had been'?
Suggestion: had been
...till stick to Dura-Socks. If durability would have been an issue, the customers would have lost...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 95, Rule ID: ADMIT_ENJOY_VB[1]
Message: This verb is used with the gerund form: 'misses providing'.
Suggestion: misses providing
... lacks many of the details and the memo misses to provide essential facts like the sample size of...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, hence, however, if, second, secondly, so, still, third, thus, as to
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 19.6327345309 92% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.9520958084 54% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 13.6137724551 95% => OK
Pronoun: 48.0 28.8173652695 167% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 35.0 55.5748502994 63% => OK
Nominalization: 6.0 16.3942115768 37% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1962.0 2260.96107784 87% => OK
No of words: 391.0 441.139720559 89% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.0179028133 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.44676510885 4.56307096286 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.88695489042 2.78398813304 104% => OK
Unique words: 186.0 204.123752495 91% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.475703324808 0.468620217663 102% => OK
syllable_count: 598.5 705.55239521 85% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 13.0 4.96107784431 262% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => 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: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 48.6743290803 57.8364921388 84% => OK
Chars per sentence: 115.411764706 119.503703932 97% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.0 23.324526521 99% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.64705882353 5.70786347227 81% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
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: 0.200598388425 0.218282227539 92% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0706511062181 0.0743258471296 95% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0464473626812 0.0701772020484 66% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.119843305758 0.128457276422 93% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0333522670006 0.0628817314937 53% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.7 14.3799401198 95% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 56.59 48.3550499002 117% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.13 12.5979740519 96% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.68 8.32208582834 92% => OK
difficult_words: 72.0 98.500998004 73% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.