The following appeared in a memo from a vice president of a large, highly diversified company.
"Ten years ago our company had two new office buildings constructed as regional headquarters for two regions. The buildings were erected by different construction companies — Alpha and Zeta. Although the two buildings had identical floor plans, the building constructed by Zeta cost 30 percent more to build. However, that building's expenses for maintenance last year were only half those of Alpha's. In addition, the energy consumption of the Zeta building has been lower than that of the Alpha building every year since its construction. Given these data, plus the fact that Zeta has a stable workforce with little employee turnover, we recommend using Zeta rather than Alpha for our new building project, even though Alpha's bid promises lower construction costs."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation 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 recommendation
The argument claims that Zeta corporation, rather than Alpha company, should be employed for the new building project because of the lower costs associated to the existent headquarters which have been built by Zeta. However, the argument fails to mention several key factors on the basis of which the conclusion can be evaluated. Additionally, it manipulates facts and conveys a distorted view of the situation, thus the argument is weak and unconvincing.
The argument readily assumes that the lower maintenance cost of the previous year of the headquarter built by Zeta is one of the reasons why the new building project should be carried out not by Alpha corporation. However, some questions need to be answered in order to properly evaluate the situation. Are lower maintenance costs associated due to the fact that the headquarter has been built by Zeta? Or simply because less people use the building compared to the one constructed by Alpha? Indeed, the reason makes sense only if the lower maintenance costs are due to the better quality of the building constructed by Zeta. Moreover: had the maintenance costs been lower in the headquarters built by Zeta also in all the previous years? If the lower costs are only a sporadic event associated with last year, then the conclusion is even more unconvincing. Therefore, the argument would have been clearer if it has mentioned whether lower maintenance costs are directly due to better quality of the building constructed by Zeta corporation and whether the lower costs are a temporary or a permanent trend.
Additionally, the argument mentions as a supporting factor for the conclusion the lower energy consumption costs of the headquarters built by Zeta. Nonetheless, it fails to mention, again, whether the reduced costs are due to the quality of the components used by Zeta and not simply because less people work in that building. Indeed, the lower energy costs could be due to the fact that where the headquarters built by Zeta the weather is usually warmer compared to where the other one is located. Thus, less energy is needed. Furthermore, the vice president mentions the stable workforce of Zeta as a supporting factor for choosing it for the new building project. Why is there a more stable workforce and less turnover? Maybe it could be the type of contract that employees sign that force them to work for a long time for Zeta. In conclusion, the vice president neglect two key factors in his decision: the lower building cost associated with Alpha and its lower bid.
To conclude, the argument fails to mention several key factors on the basis of which it could be evaluated. In order to assess the vice president’s decision, it would have been needed to know the above-mentioned evidences. Hence, the argument is flaw and still open to debate.
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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: 22 15
No. of Words: 470 350
No. of Characters: 2298 1500
No. of Different Words: 178 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.656 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.889 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.72 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 149 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 124 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 90 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 54 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.364 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.579 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.545 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.353 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.5 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.094 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 86, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...aintenance cost of the previous year of the headquarter built by Zeta is one of the reasons why...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 364, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...e costs associated due to the fact that the headquarter has been built by Zeta? Or simply becau...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 422, Rule ID: FEWER_LESS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'fewer'? The noun people is countable.
Suggestion: fewer
...s been built by Zeta? Or simply because less people use the building compared to the...
^^^^
Line 3, column 627, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Moreover,
...ty of the building constructed by Zeta. Moreover: had the maintenance costs been lower i...
^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 293, Rule ID: FEWER_LESS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'fewer'? The noun people is countable.
Suggestion: fewer
...nts used by Zeta and not simply because less people work in that building. Indeed, t...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, furthermore, hence, however, if, may, moreover, nonetheless, so, still, then, therefore, thus, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.6327345309 132% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 12.9520958084 69% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 11.1786427146 81% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 17.0 28.8173652695 59% => OK
Preposition: 55.0 55.5748502994 99% => OK
Nominalization: 22.0 16.3942115768 134% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2361.0 2260.96107784 104% => OK
No of words: 470.0 441.139720559 107% => OK
Chars per words: 5.02340425532 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.65612321451 4.56307096286 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.85276306936 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 184.0 204.123752495 90% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.391489361702 0.468620217663 84% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 730.8 705.55239521 104% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 22.0 19.7664670659 111% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 52.499763872 57.8364921388 91% => OK
Chars per sentence: 107.318181818 119.503703932 90% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.3636363636 23.324526521 92% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.18181818182 5.70786347227 91% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 12.0 6.88822355289 174% => 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: 0.126136989498 0.218282227539 58% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0452911318044 0.0743258471296 61% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.048183689344 0.0701772020484 69% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0791319393177 0.128457276422 62% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0337293246727 0.0628817314937 54% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.9 14.3799401198 90% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.84 12.5979740519 94% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.7 8.32208582834 93% => OK
difficult_words: 90.0 98.500998004 91% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => 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.