The following appeared in a letter from a homeowner to a friend.
"Of the two leading real estate firms in our town — Adams Realty and Fitch Realty — Adams Realty is clearly superior. Adams has 40 real estate agents; in contrast, Fitch has 25, many of whom work only part-time. Moreover, Adams' revenue last year was twice as high as that of Fitch and included home sales that averaged $168,000, compared to Fitch's $144,000. Homes listed with Adams sell faster as well: ten years ago I listed my home with Fitch, and it took more than four months to sell; last year, when I sold another home, I listed it with Adams, and it took only one month. Thus, if you want to sell your home quickly and at a good price, you should use Adams Realty."
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 a letter to their friend, a homeowner recommends listing their home with the purportedly superior Adams Realty over Fitch Realty, if they wish to sell their home quickly and at a good price. To support their position the author presents several points of comparison between the two real estate agencies. The author states that Adams employs 40 real estate agents to Fitch’s 25, many of whom work only part-time. Furthermore, last year Adams’ revenue last year was twice as high as that of Fitch, this figure also included home sales that averaged significantly more compared to Fitch. The author claims that homes listed with Adams sell faster as well. The author offers an anecdote about listing with each agency: ten years ago, they listed with Fitch and it took more than four months to sell; last year the author listed with Adams and it sold after a month. The argument appears well reasoned when it is given a cursory reading, however, an in-depth analysis reveals several unsubstantiated assumptions that severely weaken the persuasiveness of the author’s position.
A major issue in the given argument is the unjustified assumption that the person for whom the recommendation is made will have a similar experience if they list their home with Adams Realty. In other words, there is no guarantee that their home will be sold as quickly or at a very good price. Several different factors may have influenced both author’s experiences with each agency. For example, the author clearly states that they listed their home with Fitch more than ten years ago and just listed with Adams the previous year. It is highly likely that the housing market has changed from then to now. Perhaps, during the time that the author listed their home with Fitch, the location of the home was an issue or maybe the home itself was ancient and had fallen into disrepair necessitating a lengthy renovation period. It would greatly behoove the author to consider the multitude of important factors that influence the value of a home before giving sole credit to the real estate agency.
Another flaw found within the author argues is the mistaken assumption that simply having more real estate agents makes an agency more superior over one that has less. The author fails to illustrate how Adams’ 40 real estate agents make them a better agency than Fitch’s’ 25 agents. While Adams’ Realty clearly has more agents there is no evidence presented that suggests they are superior because of this fact. If the author were to consider the quality of customer service provided by each agency, then the number of agents would be irrelevant. Perhaps, Fitch’s agents, while only working part-time, are more qualified, expertly trained, and highly experienced than Adams’ agents. Moreover, if the author were to consider evidence such as customer feedback, they might find that Fitch’s agents are friendly, helpful, and approachable and consistently garner glowing reviews. Therefore, the argument succumbs to the fallacious line of thinking that bigger is not always better.
Lastly, the author makes the assumption that revenue generated by Adam’s Realty is comparable to that made by Fitch. The author states that Adams' revenue last year was twice as high as that of Fitch and included home sales that averaged $168,000, compared to Fitch's $144,000. This figure may not be all that impressive if the author were to consider the types of houses that each agency specializes in selling. Adams’ may only sell mansions or higher-end homes in the city whereas Fitch mainly sells ranch-style homes out in rural parts of the area. Therefore, the gap in the revenues would not be a reliable measure to determine one’s superiority over the other.
In sum, the inference drawn by the author is fallacious. While Adams may be superior the reasoning presented by the author does not hold up to scrutiny. To bolster the argument the author might consider the different factors influencing a home's value, assess customer feedback on both agencies, and/or the social reputation of each to determine the superiority of one agency over the other.
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Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 14 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 7 2
No. of Sentences: 29 15
No. of Words: 682 350
No. of Characters: 3359 1500
No. of Different Words: 288 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.11 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.925 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.425 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 252 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 159 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 106 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 54 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.517 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.806 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.655 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.327 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.484 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.092 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 648, Rule ID: COMP_THAN[3]
Message: Comparison requires 'than', not 'then' nor 'as'.
Suggestion: than
...hat homes listed with Adams sell faster as well. The author offers an anecdote abo...
^^
Line 1, column 866, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...d with Adams and it sold after a month. The argument appears well reasoned when it ...
^^^
Line 3, column 296, Rule ID: NUMEROUS_DIFFERENT[1]
Message: Use simply 'Several'.
Suggestion: Several
...old as quickly or at a very good price. Several different factors may have influenced both author...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 58, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “While” 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.
...ence drawn by the author is fallacious. While Adams may be superior the reasoning pre...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, furthermore, however, if, lastly, may, moreover, so, then, therefore, well, whereas, while, for example, such as, in other words
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.6327345309 127% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 14.0 11.1786427146 125% => OK
Relative clauses : 26.0 13.6137724551 191% => OK
Pronoun: 47.0 28.8173652695 163% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 77.0 55.5748502994 139% => OK
Nominalization: 18.0 16.3942115768 110% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3468.0 2260.96107784 153% => OK
No of words: 681.0 441.139720559 154% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.09251101322 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.10842213422 4.56307096286 112% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.53319414711 2.78398813304 91% => OK
Unique words: 303.0 204.123752495 148% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.444933920705 0.468620217663 95% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1063.8 705.55239521 151% => 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: 15.0 8.76447105788 171% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 29.0 19.7664670659 147% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 47.1231594038 57.8364921388 81% => OK
Chars per sentence: 119.586206897 119.503703932 100% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.4827586207 23.324526521 101% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.62068965517 5.70786347227 81% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 14.0 8.20758483034 171% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => 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: 0.27382766024 0.218282227539 125% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0872250434734 0.0743258471296 117% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0915242881299 0.0701772020484 130% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.168128090773 0.128457276422 131% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0867698076004 0.0628817314937 138% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.3 14.3799401198 99% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.3550499002 100% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.54 12.5979740519 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.32 8.32208582834 100% => OK
difficult_words: 153.0 98.500998004 155% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 30 minutes.
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.