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 author of the memo states that Bower builder should increase the size of the family rooms and kitchens in all homes since the homes built by their competitor Domus construction which have such features sold much faster and at higher prices. The argument is based on unwarranted assumptions. If the assumptions prove invalid, then the argument falls apart.
Firstly, the author of the memo assumes that homes built by Domus construction have been sold faster and higher prices than the national average because they have a large family room and a large kitchen. The assumption does not take all factors which affect the higher prices into consideration. The author does not tell if the homes built by Bower builders are sold at higher prices than the national average. The homes built by the Domus construction might be built faster and the people prefer it so that they can move to their new homes quickly. The author does not compare the size of family and kitchens built by Bower Builders and Domus construction. For instance, Bower Builders might have built homes with large family room and a large kitchen. In the above cases, the author might be taking wrong decision increasing the size of family rooms and kitchens in all homes. If there is some proper evidence that the homes built by Domus construction are sold faster and at higher prices than the national average, then it supports the argument.
Secondly, the author assumes that the homes built by Bower Builders can come at the expense of dining room since many of their recent buyers do not need a separate dining room for family meals. The author assumes that the same implies for future buyers and most of their buyers do not need dining room. For instance, few number of buyers might have bought homes built by Bower Builders recently. In this case, the company will be making incorrect decision increasing the size of family rooms and kitchens taking the recent buyers' decision into consideration.
Thirdly, the author assumes that their sales and profits will increase if Bower Builders increase the size of the family rooms and kitchens in all homes. There is no evidence supporting the assumption. Even if many people prefer large family room and a large kitchen, they should not increase the size of the family rooms and kitchens for all homes because there is no evidence that most of the people will buy homes from Bower Builders.
The argument is based on unwarranted assumptions. There should be some concrete evidence supporting the argument that the sales and profits will definitely increase if Bower Builders increase the size of the family rooms and kitchens for the homes they build.
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Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 1 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 452 350
No. of Characters: 2185 1500
No. of Different Words: 138 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.611 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.834 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.268 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 149 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 89 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 65 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 21 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.6 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.943 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.55 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.407 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.584 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.129 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 412, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...igher prices than the national average. The homes built by the Domus construction m...
^^^
Line 3, column 551, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...ey can move to their new homes quickly. The author does not compare the size of fam...
^^^
Line 5, column 318, Rule ID: MANY_NN[1]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun number seems to be countable; consider using: 'few numbers'.
Suggestion: few numbers
... do not need dining room. For instance, few number of buyers might have bought homes built...
^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
first, firstly, if, second, secondly, so, then, third, thirdly, for instance
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 12.0 19.6327345309 61% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.9520958084 116% => OK
Conjunction : 18.0 11.1786427146 161% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 21.0 28.8173652695 73% => OK
Preposition: 41.0 55.5748502994 74% => OK
Nominalization: 20.0 16.3942115768 122% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2231.0 2260.96107784 99% => OK
No of words: 452.0 441.139720559 102% => OK
Chars per words: 4.93584070796 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.61088837703 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.35768368756 2.78398813304 85% => OK
Unique words: 143.0 204.123752495 70% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.316371681416 0.468620217663 68% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 684.9 705.55239521 97% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 4.96107784431 20% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.76447105788 148% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 60.2198264694 57.8364921388 104% => OK
Chars per sentence: 111.55 119.503703932 93% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.6 23.324526521 97% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.8 5.70786347227 67% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 10.0 4.67664670659 214% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.339763118519 0.218282227539 156% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.123236091931 0.0743258471296 166% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.105971981484 0.0701772020484 151% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.217569749876 0.128457276422 169% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0546168064113 0.0628817314937 87% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.1 14.3799401198 91% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 57.61 48.3550499002 119% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.67 12.5979740519 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 6.96 8.32208582834 84% => OK
difficult_words: 64.0 98.500998004 65% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 12.3882235529 85% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.