The following is part of a memorandum from the president of Humana University.
"Last year the number of students who enrolled in online degree programs offered by nearby Omni University increased by 50 percent. During the same year, Omni showed a significant decrease from prior years in expenditures for dormitory
and classroom space, most likely because online instruction takes place via the Internet. In contrast, over the past three years, enrollment at Humana University has failed to grow and the cost of maintaining buildings has increased.
Thus, to increase enrollment and solve the problem of budget deficits at Humana University, we should initiate and actively promote online degree programs like those at Omni."
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 the Humana University has asserted that to increase enrollment and solve the problem of budget deficits at Humana University, they should promote online degree programs. To support the assertion, the president takes the nearby Omni university as example and shows how the enrollment has increased by 50% and also there is a significant decrease in expenditures. This seems like a coherent and cogent argument on first glance, but there are a lot of assumptions that need to be evaluated in order to validate the claim.
First of all, the author assumes that the reason for lack of growth in enrollment at Humana university is because there are no online degree programs. However, there can be several other reasons for the stagnation. It can be because the fee structure at Humana university is higher compared to others and so students might not prefer it, or there might be a recent incident that damaged the reputation of the university such as a lab accident. If so, the university has to consider reducing the fees or the university authorites have to take measures to rebuild the reputation by acquiring safety certificates from respective departments. The president has to investigate more into this regard before directly assuming that online degree program will help with increase in enrollment.
The author claims that the enrollment at Omni University has increased by 50% for their online programs but fails to establish absolute numbers. The number of students enrolled might have been very less before, maybe only 20 students and addition of more 10 students will not contribute to much profits as the expenditures in running a university is massive. Without the exact numbers, this arguments does not hold merit. Besides, the enrollment in online programs have increased, but what about offline programs? The decrease in the number of students participating in offline programs might have lead to the decrease in the expenditures at Omni University.
Moreover, there is no evidence to prove that students prefer online classes over offline classes. Conventionally, offline classes help students in understanding the course work clearly and also to clarify their doubts. Majority of students might not even prefer online classes and so a survey might help understand the preference of students and strengthen the argument.
It is understandable that the president is trying to improve the current state of the University but to take a decision based on invalid ssumptions might backfire. Further evidence and proofs are required before reaching the conclusion that promoting online degree programs will lead to increase in the enrollment.
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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: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 426 350
No. of Characters: 2207 1500
No. of Different Words: 195 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.543 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.181 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.816 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 181 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 137 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 103 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 56 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.667 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.206 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.667 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.334 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.568 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.074 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 427, Rule ID: ON_FIRST_GLANCE[1]
Message: Did you mean 'at'?
Suggestion: at
...ems like a coherent and cogent argument on first glance, but there are a lot of as...
^^
Line 5, column 146, 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.
...ut fails to establish absolute numbers. The number of students enrolled might have ...
^^^
Line 5, column 288, Rule ID: TO_TOO[2]
Message: Did you mean 'too'?
Suggestion: too
...of more 10 students will not contribute to much profits as the expenditures in run...
^^
Line 5, column 291, Rule ID: MUCH_COUNTABLE[1]
Message: Use 'many' with countable nouns.
Suggestion: many
...more 10 students will not contribute to much profits as the expenditures in running ...
^^^^
Line 5, column 387, Rule ID: THIS_NNS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'these'?
Suggestion: these
... is massive. Without the exact numbers, this arguments does not hold merit. Besides,...
^^^^
Line 9, column 165, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Further,
...d on invalid ssumptions might backfire. Further evidence and proofs are required before...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, besides, but, first, however, if, may, moreover, so, then, as to, such as, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 15.0 19.6327345309 76% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 13.6137724551 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 18.0 28.8173652695 62% => OK
Preposition: 60.0 55.5748502994 108% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2256.0 2260.96107784 100% => OK
No of words: 426.0 441.139720559 97% => OK
Chars per words: 5.29577464789 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.54310108192 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.88658718032 2.78398813304 104% => OK
Unique words: 202.0 204.123752495 99% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.474178403756 0.468620217663 101% => OK
syllable_count: 726.3 705.55239521 103% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 45.7175979841 57.8364921388 79% => OK
Chars per sentence: 125.333333333 119.503703932 105% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.6666666667 23.324526521 101% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.16666666667 5.70786347227 91% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => 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: 1.0 4.67664670659 21% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.326597302927 0.218282227539 150% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.104691290426 0.0743258471296 141% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0796585508301 0.0701772020484 114% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.181387730742 0.128457276422 141% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0785336933786 0.0628817314937 125% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.4 14.3799401198 107% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 39.67 48.3550499002 82% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 12.197005988 110% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.76 12.5979740519 109% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.63 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 104.0 98.500998004 106% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => 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.