The following appeared as part of an article in a business magazine.
"A recent study rating 300 male and female Mentian advertising executives according to the average number of hours they sleep per night showed an association between the amount of sleep the executives need and the success of their firms. Of the advertising firms studied, those whose executives reported needing no more than 6 hours of sleep per night had higher profit margins and faster growth. These results suggest that if a business wants to prosper, it should hire only people who need less than 6 hours of sleep per night."
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 this article professes that for businesses to “prosper,” it should only hire those who need less than 6 hours of sleep per night. According to a recent study, which rated male and female advertising executives on their sleep hours, there is an association between those who need 6 hours of sleep or less, and company prosperity. It is understandable how the author would believe this line of logic; however, this argument is riddled with holes and assumptions, so it lacks logical support.
Firstly, there is the assumption that there is no other cause for the link between higher performance and executive sleeping habits. While the minimal sleep on behalf of administration could suggest that they spend more time working and increasing growth, it is also possible that this is not the case. An increase in profits or accelerated growth could be attributed to an increase in stock prices, desaturation of the market, or increased shareholder investment. It also could have little to do with sleep habits and be solely personal abilities to run a business efficiently. If this is the case, hiring only people who need less sleep will have no overall impact on success. This also begs to question the study itself and its overall accuracy.
Secondly, it is assumed that this study is accurate and is representative of all executives. This research is based on an average, and averages inherently have a high end and low end that contribute to them. While this case suggests that 6 hours or less of sleep is prime for bringing in revenues, there are likely some executives in this study who function better on 7 hours of sleep, or even possibly 8 or 9. There are also other factors to consider when comparing sleep patterns of individuals. Such factors as age, gender, race, and health issues contribute to an individual’s sleep patterns. A majority of those in the study could have been older people, who tend to sleep less overall. If this is the case, this study is not representative or accurate, and does not provide sufficient support for this argument.
Finally, the assumption is made that association and causation are the same. According to the article there was an “association” established between the 2 variables. In most elementary statistics classes in colleges and universities, professors introduce an important rule to their students, that having a correlation or association between 2 variables does indicate a relationship. However, this does not necessarily mean those 2 variables are causally linked. While there may be an association between sleeping less and company performance, there is not a causal link that has been drawn between the two. Due to this, the findings of this study should not be the only factors considered when hiring employees, as well as evaluating executive performance.
Overall, while there are some cogent points made in this argument, overall, the logic and reasoning are misleading and inaccurate. There are an innumerable number of factors leading to both how humans sleep as well as overall company performance, and simply finding an association between the 2 of these does not provide enough evidence for this to be a successful or complete claim.
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- Leaders are created by the demands that are placed on them Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take In developing and supporting your position y 66
- The following appeared as part of an article in a business magazine A recent study rating 300 male and female Mentian advertising executives according to the average number of hours they sleep per night showed an association between the amount of sleep th 68
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: 2 2
No. of Sentences: 24 15
No. of Words: 531 350
No. of Characters: 2620 1500
No. of Different Words: 240 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.8 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.934 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.792 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 179 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 143 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 99 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 66 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.125 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.187 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.667 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.292 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.492 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.072 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 251, Rule ID: FEWER_LESS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'fewer'? The noun hours is countable.
Suggestion: fewer
...hile this case suggests that 6 hours or less of sleep is prime for bringing in reven...
^^^^
Line 5, column 413, Rule ID: ALSO_OTHER[1]
Message: Use simply 'there are other' or 'there are also'
Suggestion: There are other; There are also
...ours of sleep, or even possibly 8 or 9. There are also other factors to consider when comparing slee...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 209, Rule ID: BOTH_AS_WELL_AS[1]
Message: Probable usage error. Use 'and' after 'both'.
Suggestion: and
...actors leading to both how humans sleep as well as overall company performance, and simply...
^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, firstly, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, well, while, as well as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 32.0 19.6327345309 163% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 27.0 11.1786427146 242% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 18.0 13.6137724551 132% => OK
Pronoun: 45.0 28.8173652695 156% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 50.0 55.5748502994 90% => OK
Nominalization: 22.0 16.3942115768 134% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2714.0 2260.96107784 120% => OK
No of words: 531.0 441.139720559 120% => OK
Chars per words: 5.11111111111 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.80035803286 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.95527213211 2.78398813304 106% => OK
Unique words: 253.0 204.123752495 124% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.476459510358 0.468620217663 102% => OK
syllable_count: 852.3 705.55239521 121% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 4.96107784431 202% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 7.0 1.67365269461 418% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 47.4159343822 57.8364921388 82% => OK
Chars per sentence: 113.083333333 119.503703932 95% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.125 23.324526521 95% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.125 5.70786347227 72% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 11.0 4.67664670659 235% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.288259802082 0.218282227539 132% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.090135468568 0.0743258471296 121% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0840232751409 0.0701772020484 120% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.179168481477 0.128457276422 139% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0531118935708 0.0628817314937 84% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.7 14.3799401198 95% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 49.15 48.3550499002 102% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.36 12.5979740519 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.71 8.32208582834 105% => OK
difficult_words: 134.0 98.500998004 136% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.