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.
The president of Bower Builders argues that in order to increase sales and profits, the company must construct larger family rooms and kitchens. However, the argument is not cogent enough since the argument holds a number of unstated assumptions that need to be addressed. The unstated assumptions must be examined in order to determine the validity of the argument. Indeed, if the assumptions do not hold true, then the entire argument falls apart.
Firstly, the author assumes that the survey demonstrates an accurate representation of what many people are interested in buying: a house with a large family room and a well, appointed kitchen. Although the survey reveals the desired features of a home, it does not necessarily determine whether people are interested in buying homes. The survey only mentions the desired features, but no statistics show that many homeowners have bought houses with those features. Therefore, the assumption does not hold true if many people are simply interested in those features, but no homes have been bought with those features. Hence, the author must provide accurate data that the national population has bought homes with a large family room and kitchen. If not, then the assumption does not support the argument.
Secondly, the author assumes that what works the same for Domus Construction will work the same for Bowers Builders. The author implies that the company will benefit from modeling Domus Construction, a company that has the features of a large family room and kitchen sold at a higher price and faster rate. However, the company could have sold the houses at a higher price to taxes in the area and at a faster rate due to realtors who may have effective strategies in selling a house to customers. Therefore, if that were to be the case, then the assumption is unsupported. The author must provide specific data on the prices of the house, which may be due to other expenses, and why houses were sold at an expedite rate.
Lastly, the author assumes that recent buyers are indicative of what current buyers are interested in a home. The author states that recents buyers did not need a separate dining room for family meals. However, it could be argued that current buyers may be more interested in a separate dining room and kitchen. To avoid the mistake of building homes with non-separate rooms, the authors should consider a survey with a high representative population of home buyers on what they are interested in a home. Perhaps, only a few reported non-separate rooms, whereas a larger population of home buyers would disagree. Therefore, the argument would fall apart if many current home buyers are interested in separate kitchens and living rooms.
Moreover, the author has a number of unstated assumptions that need to be addressed in order to determine the validity of the argument. The author must provide valuable information, such as representative data and surveys that address the argument. If not, the argument falls apart, and the company would be wasting most profit and time instead with ineffective strategies and data.
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Comments
e-rater score 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: 24 15
No. of Words: 512 350
No. of Characters: 2531 1500
No. of Different Words: 189 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.757 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.943 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.599 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 194 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 133 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 93 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 47 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.333 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.549 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.75 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.324 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.324 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.138 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 704, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...r expenses, and why houses were sold at an expedite rate. Lastly, the author assumes that...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, firstly, hence, however, if, lastly, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, well, whereas, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 19.0 12.9520958084 147% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 20.0 28.8173652695 69% => OK
Preposition: 51.0 55.5748502994 92% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2595.0 2260.96107784 115% => OK
No of words: 512.0 441.139720559 116% => OK
Chars per words: 5.068359375 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.75682846001 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.68523861867 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 207.0 204.123752495 101% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.404296875 0.468620217663 86% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 824.4 705.55239521 117% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 4.96107784431 40% => OK
Article: 20.0 8.76447105788 228% => Less articles wanted as sentence beginning.
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 36.0976443907 57.8364921388 62% => OK
Chars per sentence: 108.125 119.503703932 90% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.3333333333 23.324526521 91% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.20833333333 5.70786347227 91% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.247444301977 0.218282227539 113% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0730983053583 0.0743258471296 98% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0721827775801 0.0701772020484 103% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.119912406755 0.128457276422 93% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0610173100031 0.0628817314937 97% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.1 14.3799401198 91% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.13 12.5979740519 96% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.85 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 103.0 98.500998004 105% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => 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.