"Recently, we signed a contract with the Fly-Away Pest Control Company to provide pest control services at our warehouse in Palm City, but last month we discovered that over $20,000 worth of food there had been destroyed by pest damage. Meanwhile, the Buzzoff Pest Control Company, which we have used for many years in Palm City, continued to service our warehouse in Wintervale, and last month only $10,000 worth of the food stored there had been destroyed by pest damage. This difference in pest damage is best explained by the negligence of Fly-Away."
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument.
The argument above is well-presented and appears to be relatively sound at first glance: Since over $20,000 worth of food had been destroyed, it seems cogent to argue that the Fly-Away Pest Control Company was negligent on controlling pest. However, as more light is shed on the issue and more detailed facts are concerned, the possibility of alternative explanations leads me to question the validity of the argument.
First of all, the author should take into account that the amount of destroyed food is not equal to the money worth of destroyed food. The author hastily assumes that the service of Fly-Away Pest Control Company is not satisfactory because the money worth of destroyed food is significant. However, it is possible that the actual amount of food that was destroyed was minimal but the food itself was too costly. On the other hand, despite of lower cost of destroyed products, the actual amount of food that was destroyed by Buzzoff can be substantial. If this is the case, the author’s contention of the negligence of Fly-Away can be weaken.
Another alternative that the author should take into consideration is the result of last month’s pest control service by the Fly-Away. Since the result of last month’s service was adverse, the author concludes that the Fly-Away’s pest control service is not reliable. However, it should be noted that the weather condition of last month could be an aberration. To be more specific, the weather was extremely hot and humid so that the amount of destroyed products would be more severe without Fly-Away’s service. Therefore, the effectiveness of the Fly-Away’s service should be see in the long run.
Lastly, the author needs to consider other possible explanation regarding the innate conditions of two cities. Without detailed information, the author hastily believes that the inherent conditions of Palm city and Wintervale are similar, and therefore, it is possible to make comparison. However, in all likelihood, the weather of Palm City is relatively hot and humid, which has high tendency to have a plethora of pest. However, in Winterville, snow is prevalent so it would be much easier to control the pest in warehouse. If the weather conditions of these two cities are different, it is illogical to make a comparison between two cities and argue that the service of Buzzoff is superior.
In conclusion, the argument is not persuasive in many respects. To strengthen the argument, the author should provide solid explanations on the conditions of two cities and the amount of food destroyed.
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argument 1 -- anyway it has a much bigger loss. Maybe the size of the warehouse in Palm City is much bigger, suppose two warehouses hold same stuffs.
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- duplicated to argument 2
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Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 421 350
No. of Characters: 2079 1500
No. of Different Words: 177 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.53 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.938 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.701 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 159 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 121 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 79 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 52 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.158 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.352 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.789 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.364 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.599 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.15 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5