The following appeared in a memo from the new vice president of Sartorian, a company that manufactures men's clothing.
"Five years ago, at a time when we had difficulty obtaining reliable supplies of high-quality wool fabric, we discontinued production of our popular alpaca overcoat. Now that we have a new fabric supplier, we should resume production. Given the outcry from our customers when we discontinued this product and the fact that none of our competitors offers a comparable product, we can expect pent-up consumer demand for our alpaca coats. Due to this demand and the overall increase in clothing prices, we can predict that Sartorian's alpaca overcoats will be more profitable than ever before."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the prediction 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 prediction.
In the memo provided by Sartonian, the vice president claims that his company should resume production of alpaca coats as its profits will augment. He bases this conclusion on the fact that he has a new fabric supplier, the response customers showed when the coat was discontinued, and that competitors have not taken over the alpaca coat market. However, this argument is riddled with assumptions which lead it to be a flawed conclusion. In order more effectively and clearly evaluate this memo, three questions should be analyzed.
First, the demand for alpaca coats in the present day needs to be compared with the demand five years ago. Whether or not it remains as high is a crucial question to understanding if Sartonian will truly profit from resuming production of alpaca coats. It is also valuable to know when and how this demand was surveyed. For example, had this been a questionnaire asked only to returning customers during the winter time, the results may have differed profoundly from asking the same question in the summertime. Perhaps fashion trends have evolved significantly, and alpaca coats are no longer of high demand. This could also account for why no competitors have a similar product. Further analyzing the demand and having a clearer understanding of how and when these measurements are taken may greatly help Sartonian make the right decision because they can understand their clientele’s needs and desires on a deeper level.
We are also given no information regarding the quality, efficiency, and general details of the new fabric supplier. Therefore, we must inquire to fully comprehend how similar the new alpaca coats will be compared to the former productions. Perhaps the new supplier has a lower quality wool. If customers were used to a superior wool, they may not readily settle for something of lower quality, especially if they particularly enjoyed the older style. To some, the principles of how a company obtains its wool is paramount. For instance, should a company use inhumane methods to produce wool for the coats, customers may be unwilling to support this company. It is important to ask about the fabric supplier, as its quality and methods may be important information to potential buyers of Sartonian coats.
Finally, we should examine prices. The vice president states that there has been an overall increase in clothing prices. This can affect their company of many levels, and they should take care to understand how the increase in price has affected customers. Perhaps they can reach out to customers to comprehend to what extent a price increase will affect their decisions of buying a coat or not. Supply and demand is a very fine and intricate topic, studied in depth to fully understand. To say that a high demand, even with significantly raised prices, will be benefical to Sartonian needs more evidence.
The argument provided is based on assumptions that may end up leading to results that are unexpected to the company. However, upon further investigation and research, it is possible to develop a more thorough and cogent understanding of the issue at hand. Surveying customers and conducting marketing research may help create this clearer understanding. Asking questions regarding fashion trends over the years, product quality of a new supplier, and price differences may lead the vice president to re-evaluate his statement and come to a more informed argument and decision, leading to increased success of Sartonian.
Comments
Essay evaluation 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: 28 15
No. of Words: 568 350
No. of Characters: 2862 1500
No. of Different Words: 260 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.882 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.039 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.735 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 223 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 171 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 111 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 74 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.286 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.237 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.607 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.258 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.463 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.089 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 108, Rule ID: WHETHER[7]
Message: Perhaps you can shorten this phrase to just 'Whether'. It is correct though if you mean 'regardless of whether'.
Suggestion: Whether
...ompared with the demand five years ago. Whether or not it remains as high is a crucial questio...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 500, Rule ID: SUMMER_TIME[1]
Message: Use simply 'summer'.
Suggestion: summer
...ly from asking the same question in the summertime. Perhaps fashion trends have evolved si...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 681, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Further,
... no competitors have a similar product. Further analyzing the demand and having a clear...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, first, however, if, may, regarding, so, therefore, for example, for instance
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 23.0 12.9520958084 178% => OK
Conjunction : 20.0 11.1786427146 179% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 40.0 28.8173652695 139% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 65.0 55.5748502994 117% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2941.0 2260.96107784 130% => OK
No of words: 568.0 441.139720559 129% => OK
Chars per words: 5.17781690141 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.88187981987 4.56307096286 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.84916329418 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 273.0 204.123752495 134% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.480633802817 0.468620217663 103% => OK
syllable_count: 909.9 705.55239521 129% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 11.0 4.96107784431 222% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 5.0 1.67365269461 299% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 28.0 19.7664670659 142% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 52.5731147827 57.8364921388 91% => OK
Chars per sentence: 105.035714286 119.503703932 88% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.2857142857 23.324526521 87% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.25 5.70786347227 57% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 16.0 8.20758483034 195% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.143598871334 0.218282227539 66% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0423775996429 0.0743258471296 57% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0340228130105 0.0701772020484 48% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0789931874061 0.128457276422 61% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0306565498561 0.0628817314937 49% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.1 14.3799401198 91% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.76 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.66 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 145.0 98.500998004 147% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.