The following appeared in a memo from the president of Bower Builders, a company that constructs new homes.
"A nationwide survey reveals that the two most-desired home features are a large family room and a large, well-appointed kitchen. A number of homes in our area built by our competitor Domus Construction have such features and have sold much faster and at significantly higher prices than the national average. To boost sales and profits, we should increase the size of the family rooms and kitchens in all the homes we build and should make state-of-the-art kitchens a standard feature. Moreover, our larger family rooms and kitchens can come at the expense of the dining room, since many of our recent buyers say they do not need a separate dining room for family meals."
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.
At first glimpse, the argument seems to be plausible. However, a closer scrutiny of the evidences reveals that, a lot of significant queries yet to be responded to consider the argument valid and irrefutable. In this assertion, the author concludes that, to boost sales and profit, the Bower Builders Company should increase the size of the family rooms and kitchens in all the homes and should make state-of-the-art kitchens a standard feature. To substantiate the conclusion, the author cites several evidences as follows: he cited the example of a competitor Domus Construction and surveys. However, before the argument can be properly examined, three assumptions must be evaluated.
Firstly, the method of sample taken in the survey and the precision of the survey should be provided. Is the survey significantly represent the whole population? How the sample had been collected? The author hasn’t provided any evidence about these questions. It can be possible that, the survey was totally flawed. Perhaps, the survey was made on those sample, who doesn’t significantly represent the whole population. If most of the person who took part on the survey, was biased toward the large family room, then the whole survey will be flawed. If the above scenario has merit, then the conclusion drawn in the original argument is significantly weakened.
Secondly, additional information about the competitor company Domus Construction should be provided. What are the other factors which made Domus Construction Company to sell faster and significantly higher prices than the national average? The author hasn’t provided any other possible factors about the company. It may be possible that, the marketing side of Domus Construction is very much effective and intelligent. That’s why Domus construction is selling their homes faster and significantly higher prices than the other company. Perhaps, they have many other features which attracts the buyers. For example, their homes may be well arranged, well colored, they provide various convenience to their customers and so on. So, without considering other factors about the Domus Construction, the argument doesn’t hold water.
Last but not least, the additional information about the recent buyers who gave opinion about the dining room should also be provided. How the opinion from the recent buyers been collected? Does there exist any biasness? Who collected the information from them? The author hasn’t provided any information regarding these questions. It may be possible that, the buyers who gave opinion about the dining, they represent a very little portion of the whole population. If only based on a few opinion recorded from the recent buyers the company make a conclusion about their features, then in the long run the company will not get profit. If the above assumption is true, the argument is totally flawed.
In a nutshell, by using the above mentioned substantiation, we can clearly say that, the argument is totally untenable due to lack of persuasive evidences and unstated assumptions. To further fortifying the argument, the author is suggested to provide the evidences as follows: The author should provide information about the sample and survey, he also should take other factors which have influence on the vast selling of their competitor company. By stating these evidences and answering the questions, the argument can be considered as tenable and irrefutable.
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Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 32 15
No. of Words: 546 350
No. of Characters: 2821 1500
No. of Different Words: 227 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.834 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.167 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.738 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 218 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 161 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 113 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 71 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 17.062 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.951 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.531 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.282 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.471 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.114 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, however, if, may, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, well, as to, for example
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 27.0 19.6327345309 138% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 17.0 12.9520958084 131% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 26.0 28.8173652695 90% => OK
Preposition: 56.0 55.5748502994 101% => OK
Nominalization: 30.0 16.3942115768 183% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2953.0 2260.96107784 131% => OK
No of words: 540.0 441.139720559 122% => OK
Chars per words: 5.46851851852 5.12650576532 107% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.82057051367 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.92226916359 2.78398813304 105% => OK
Unique words: 235.0 204.123752495 115% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.435185185185 0.468620217663 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 909.0 705.55239521 129% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 9.0 4.96107784431 181% => OK
Article: 20.0 8.76447105788 228% => Less articles wanted as sentence beginning.
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 10.0 4.22255489022 237% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 32.0 19.7664670659 162% => OK
Sentence length: 16.0 22.8473053892 70% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 53.7386252499 57.8364921388 93% => OK
Chars per sentence: 92.28125 119.503703932 77% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.875 23.324526521 72% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.375 5.70786347227 59% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 17.0 4.67664670659 364% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.113721874681 0.218282227539 52% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0308854003679 0.0743258471296 42% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.037304959205 0.0701772020484 53% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.065104507501 0.128457276422 51% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.031954658344 0.0628817314937 51% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.8 14.3799401198 89% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 46.78 48.3550499002 97% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.15 12.5979740519 112% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.14 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 127.0 98.500998004 129% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.4 11.1389221557 75% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.