Nature's Way, a chain of stores selling health food and other health-related products, is opening its next franchise in the town of Plainsville. The store should prove to be very successful: Nature's Way franchises tend to be most profitable in areas where residents lead healthy lives, and clearly Plainsville is such an area. Plainsville merchants report that sales of running shoes and exercise clothing are at all-time highs. The local health club has more members than ever, and the weight training and aerobics classes are always full. Finally, Plainsville's schoolchildren represent a new generation of potential customers: these schoolchildren are required to participate in a fitness-for-life program, which emphasizes the benefits of regular exercise at an early age.
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 prompt’s author argues that Nature’s Way will have a successful store opening in Plainsville. The argument is based on the chain’s trend of being successful in areas where residents lead healthy lives and statistics on Plainsville. While this position may prove to be true, it currently is a flawed one as it rests on three unwarranted assumptions.
To begin, the author assumes that the chain’s success tends to derive from areas where people lead healthy lives. However, there may be several other factors that could account for this. It is possible that the chain’s success rests largely on areas where residents are from upper-middle to upper classes. If Plainsville largely consists of lower to lower-middle class citizens with tighter budgets, then the author’s argument may not hold true. Similarly, another possible explanation for the chain’s success may derive from being located in areas where there are many youngsters. If Plainsville is comprised of a significantly more senior population, then it is not clear if the chain will be as successful as it has been in the past.
Moreover, even if the previous assumptions holds true, the author’s position may still be a tenuous one as he/she assumes that the statistics provided in the prompt are accurate indicators of the healthy lifestyles that the residents of Plainsville lead. Yet, this assumption may not necessarily be valid. That is, it is possible that people in Plainsville spend a lot on health-related products, but do not lead healthy lives. For instance, while all weight training and aerobics classes are always full in the local health club, perhaps only a miniscule number of people attend these classes. Similarly, it is possible that people buy a lot of exercise clothes and running shoes, but not actually use them. Instead, they may make these purchases for other motives, such as being liked on social media. Should there be some truth to these scenarios, the author’s argument loses some credibility.
Thirdly, the author assumes that schoolchildren represent the chain’s new generation of potential customers. He/she bases this on the fact that children are forced to participate in a fitness program. While this is true, one cannot equate action with will. That is, it is possible these children would not voluntarily decide to participate in this program if they had a choice. It may even be possible that these children develop a certain degree of hatred and frustration towards healthy lifestyles as they are being forced into this program. If so, they may not be passionate advocates for healthy lifestyles and nor for the chain’s products.
Fourthly, even if all the previous three assumptions hold true, the author assumes that the chain will have no substantial competition at Plainsville. However, this may not necessarily be true. Indeed, the market at Plainsville may already be saturated with health-focused food chains. If so, then it is not clear if Nature’s Way will be very successful in this town. Instead, if the competition is very cut-throat, then Nature’s Way may even struggle to bear the costs for its new store opening. Furthermore, even if the chain can survive in this competition, it may take several years for the firm to start thriving in this tight market. Thus, should such a situation hold water, then it is questionable if the chain can be successful in this new geographical market.
In conclusion, the author’s argument is a spurious one as it relies on three unjustifiable assumptions. However, if the author can provide more evidence on these three issues, it may be possible to better assess the strength of his/her claim.
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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: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 31 15
No. of Words: 601 350
No. of Characters: 2977 1500
No. of Different Words: 249 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.951 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.953 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.766 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 209 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 168 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 113 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 69 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.387 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.641 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.806 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.286 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.286 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.082 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 598, Rule ID: IS_COMPRISED_OF[1]
Message: Did you mean 'comprises' or 'consists of' or 'is composed of'?
Suggestion: comprises; consists of; is composed of
...ere are many youngsters. If Plainsville is comprised of a significantly more senior population,...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 646, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...tyles and nor for the chain’s products. Fourthly, even if all the previous three...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, furthermore, however, if, may, moreover, similarly, so, still, then, third, thirdly, thus, while, for instance, in conclusion, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 39.0 19.6327345309 199% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 27.0 12.9520958084 208% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 18.0 13.6137724551 132% => OK
Pronoun: 58.0 28.8173652695 201% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 54.0 55.5748502994 97% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3087.0 2260.96107784 137% => OK
No of words: 598.0 441.139720559 136% => OK
Chars per words: 5.16220735786 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.94510247834 4.56307096286 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.90050106967 2.78398813304 104% => OK
Unique words: 251.0 204.123752495 123% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.419732441472 0.468620217663 90% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 920.7 705.55239521 130% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 15.0 4.96107784431 302% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 12.0 2.70958083832 443% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 31.0 19.7664670659 157% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 39.9974765073 57.8364921388 69% => OK
Chars per sentence: 99.5806451613 119.503703932 83% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.2903225806 23.324526521 83% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.8064516129 5.70786347227 84% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 15.0 8.20758483034 183% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.246593693703 0.218282227539 113% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0742832818228 0.0743258471296 100% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0640638913732 0.0701772020484 91% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.139621844484 0.128457276422 109% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0801736717986 0.0628817314937 127% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.5 14.3799401198 87% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 60.65 48.3550499002 125% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.5 12.197005988 78% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.65 12.5979740519 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.75 8.32208582834 93% => OK
difficult_words: 120.0 98.500998004 122% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 7.5 12.3882235529 61% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.9071856287 67% => The average readability is low. Need to imporve the language.
What are above readability scores?
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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.