"Of the two leading real estate firms in our town---Adams Realty and Fitch Realty---Adams 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 hi

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"Of the two leading real estate firms in our town---Adams Realty and Fitch Realty---Adams 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."

Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.

The writer of the argument claims that Adams real estate firm is superior to Fitch Realty. To support this claim, the author points out that Adams has not only more real estate agents, but also higher revenue. The author also cites a personal experience regarding the two leading real estate firms to substantiate his or her claim. Close scrutiny of each of these supporting evidences, however, reveals that none of them lends credible support for the author’s claim.

First of all, the editorial’s author assumes that the more the number of real estate agents, the better the real estate firms are. Absent any evidence for the support of this crucial assumption, I cannot accept the author’s claim that Adams Realty is superior to Fitch. Maybe Fitch has a few number of experience estate agents with exceptional skills in their business who are more productive than the agents who work at Adams Realty. In short, until the author supply convincing evidence to support the claim, I cannot accept that more agents would amount to superiority, let alone to recommend others to use Adams Realty to sell their home quickly and at a good price.

Secondly, another problem with the argument is that it assumes that Adam’s higher revenue in the last year proves its superiority. Yet, there is not sufficient evidence in the argument that this is the case. It is entirely possible that the Adam’s revenue was less than that of Fitch in most other years. Hence, the last year’s sales volume might amount to an aberration, in which event the author’s recommendation lack any merit whatsoever.

Thirdly, As for the author’s personal experience with the two real estate firms, the author assumes that conditions involving the homes, and the market as well, remain unchanged with time. For that matter, we need to know whether the supply and demand, as well as the prices and economic conditions, were essentially the same in the last ten years. Without persuasive evidence for the support of this crucial assumption, the writer of the argument cannot convince me that Adams Realty is superior to Fitch Realty.

Finally, the author further claims that, based on some limited anecdotal evidences, Adams real estate firm can sell your home at a good price. However, this claim is unwarranted, since no evidence is supplied in the argument. The evidences provided in the argument accomplish nothing toward the foregoing claim. Hence, the author’s recommendation amount to poor advice for the people of the town.

In sum, the argument is logically flawed and therefore unconvincing as it stands. To strengthen it, the editorial’s author must either present convincing evidence to show that more real estate agents would amount to higher efficiency and more sales, or prove that Adam’s revenue were higher than that of Fitch in most other years. To better evaluate the argument, I would also need to know whether the relevant factors affecting the two real estate firms were essentially the same in the last ten years.

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2016-06-21 sharonyi 80 view
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Comments

argument 1 -- OK

argument 2 -- not OK. maybe Adams charge more service fee,for example.

argument 3 and argument 4 can be put in one argument
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flaws:
You can't just ask the author providing more evidence. Need to find out the loopholes from the text by your own.

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Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 22 15
No. of Words: 499 350
No. of Characters: 2443 1500
No. of Different Words: 207 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.726 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.896 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.417 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 182 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 109 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 78 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 42 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.682 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.968 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.636 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.351 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.57 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.103 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5