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 t

The author has concocted an entire argument based on unreasonable assumptions and inadequate evidence. He fails to consider that there might be many reasons which could’ve led to higher profits as well as fewer hours of sleep at night. It is naive to believe that the number of hours of sleep might be the only cause that contributes to higher profit margins.

Probably one of the biggest assumptions that the author has made is that the number of hours of sleep is directly related to the amount of profits earned by the said advertising executives. There is no reason to believe that a person who sleeps for 6 hours at night is able to earn higher profits as opposed to a person who sleeps for maybe 8 to 10 hours, besides the fact that the apparent recent study suggests so. It could be very well the case that maybe the advertising executives who earn substantial profits have a tendency to spend such profits by indulging in libertine pleasures which leave less time for sleep. There could be a variety of factors that could have easily led to a lack of sleep which the author fails to account for.

In addition to that, there is no way of determining the veracity of the study mentioned by the author. The lack of details of the study poses a serious threat to the soundness of the argument. Was the study strictly focused on the sleeping habits of the advertising executives and their profit earning ability or was it a part of a larger study with a few questions dedicated to the author’s reasoning? The author assumes that the sample is representative of the entire population. However, is that even the case? Is the sample accurately selected based on the population of Mentian advertising executives? With the amount of data that has been provided, there is no way for the reader to answer all the aforementioned questions.

It is also wise to note that the author states that the study shows the average number of hours advertising executives sleep per night among the sample of 300 men and women. An average is not always the most representative measure of central tendency because it means that there could have easily been people that slept more or less than 6 hours at night. How many of these 300 people slept more or less than 6 hours at night cannot be determined without additional data regarding the statistics of the sample selected for the study. The author assumes that an average can be an accurate representation of the population and fails to consider the drawbacks of the said measure of central tendency.

The argument could’ve been strengthened had the author not made such hurried assumptions pertaining to the direct correlation between hours of sleep and profit earning capacity, the genuineness and the reliability of the study and that an average could be a true representative of a group of study. While it can be assumed that fewer hours of sleep at night leaves more time in the day for advertising executives to be productive and earn higher profits for the company, it is not a reasonable inference that the agency should hire only people who need less than 6 hours of sleep per night.

Votes
Average: 5.5 (3 votes)
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, besides, but, however, may, regarding, so, then, well, while, in addition, as well as, more or less

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 27.0 19.6327345309 138% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 28.0 13.6137724551 206% => Less relative clauses wanted (maybe 'which' is over used).
Pronoun: 31.0 28.8173652695 108% => OK
Preposition: 73.0 55.5748502994 131% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 16.3942115768 67% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2606.0 2260.96107784 115% => OK
No of words: 547.0 441.139720559 124% => OK
Chars per words: 4.76416819013 5.12650576532 93% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.83611736076 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.73863383898 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 215.0 204.123752495 105% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.393053016453 0.468620217663 84% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 827.1 705.55239521 117% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 27.0 22.8473053892 118% => OK
Sentence length SD: 68.1625080231 57.8364921388 118% => OK
Chars per sentence: 130.3 119.503703932 109% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.35 23.324526521 117% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.25 5.70786347227 92% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.287022431278 0.218282227539 131% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0938396660222 0.0743258471296 126% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0689293665907 0.0701772020484 98% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.179749749641 0.128457276422 140% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0399732764806 0.0628817314937 64% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.7 14.3799401198 102% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 52.53 48.3550499002 109% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.6 12.197005988 103% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.62 12.5979740519 84% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.83 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 99.0 98.500998004 101% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.8 11.1389221557 115% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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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.

flaws:
the arguments are somehow duplicated.

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Let's analyze the structure of the statement and argue accordingly:

condition 1:
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.

condition 2:
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.

conclusion:
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.

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then here goes the argument:

argument 1:
1. it is 'A recent study', it may not work in the past/future; 2. the sample is not big enough

argument 2:
some other reasons may work behind higher profit margins and faster growth.

argument 3:
suppose it works for advertising industry, while it may not work for other businesses.

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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: 20 15
No. of Words: 549 350
No. of Characters: 2551 1500
No. of Different Words: 208 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.841 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.647 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.627 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 166 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 116 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 75 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 52 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 27.45 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.27 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.45 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.352 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.551 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.122 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5