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 instruction in the online programs 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 along with our budget deficit. To address these problems, Humana University will begin immediately to create and actively promote online degree programs like those at Omni. We predict that instituting these online degree programs will help Humana both increase its total enrollment and solve its budget problems."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the prediction 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 prediction.
Based on a comparison between Humana University and Omni University, the author suggests Humana University to promote online degree programs in order to increase its total enrollment and solve budget problems. The argument seems to be logical at first glance. However as more light is shed on the issue, and more detailed fact is concerned, it is easy to see that the argument suffers from many grave fallacies in its assumptions as well as commits a false analogy. In order to make this argument more logical and cogent, many questions need to be answered before jumping to conclusion.
First of all, for the total enrollment in Omni University, including both online degree and traditional degree, is it increasing or decreasing this year? A increase in the number of students enrolled in online degree does not necessarily mean the total enrollment increases. It is possible that the number of students who do not enrolled in online course decreased because they shifted to online course, and the total enrollment is not changed at all. It is also possible that as lots of resources are put onto online courses, the course quality of traditional degree is damaged, and the number of students enrolled greatly reduced, resulting in a decrease of total enrollment.
Moreover, the author need to further examine the reason behind expenditure decrease in Omni University, collect evidence to answer the question whether the decrease is actually because of online course. For example, does the university adopted a new energy saving methodology or technology that the energy expenses greatly dropped and therefore reduces the total expenses? Is it possible that the university has already finished a major construction work previously, and no more maintenance work is required this year? Without ruling all these possible explanation of the decrease in expenditure, the author cannot prove the assumption is logical or reliable.
What is more, instead of jumping to the conclusion that Hanna University failed to increase in enrollment because of lack of online course, the author needs to answer the question whether other factors are considered. For example, is it because the university fails to make any progress in terms of course quality? Or is it possible that many famous professors left the university in the past year, resulting in a reputation damage?
Even if we assume that the total enrollment of Omni University did increase, with total expenditure decrease, and both because of the online degree, the author still need to answer the questions that is online course feasible or applicable to Hanna University. Is Omni and Hanna University is similar in nature? It is possible that Omni University is strong in theory analysis, while Hanna University courses have a strong focus on experiments and hands-on practices, which is not feasible through online courses? Or is it possible that Hanna University is lack of the information technology infrastructure, therefore, it will require a significant investment for the IT infrastructure in order to support online courses? In that case, it will cause a raise in total expenditure instead of decreases.
If we further assume that Omni and Hanna University is indeed similar in nature, and online courses is applicable for Hanna University, the author still needs to answer the question whether online course will be popular and attract more students for Hanna University. For example, students who attend Hanna University maybe mostly come from families in poverty and do not have a quiet room for studying, nor do they have access to internet. Or maybe Omni University is located in remote areas, with poor transportation in that area, therefore making online courses a good choice, while Hanna University is located in major cities, and the convenience of online courses is not such an advantage?
To sum up, without answering above questions, the author failed to rule out other possible factors for Omni University’s success, and made a false analogy between Omni University and Hanna University, resulting in a unreliable argument.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-07-29 | Yash0535 | 27 | view |
| 2019-07-15 | raolitesh@gmail.com | 86 | view |
| 2019-03-11 | Ravi Khaitan | 50 | view |
| 2019-03-03 | evanlu | 42 | view |
| 2019-02-04 | evanlu | 54 | view |
- The following appeared in a letter from a firm providing investment advice to a client."Homes in the northeastern United States, where winters are typically cold, have traditionally used oil as their major fuel for heating. Last year that region experienc 66
- 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 significa 66
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 261, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: However,
...nt seems to be logical at first glance. However as more light is shed on the issue, and...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 155, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'An' instead of 'A' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: An
... it increasing or decreasing this year? A increase in the number of students enro...
^
Line 5, column 132, Rule ID: WHETHER[5]
Message: Can you shorten this phrase to just 'whether', or rephrase the sentence to avoid "the question"?
Suggestion: whether
... University, collect evidence to answer the question whether the decrease is actually because of onl...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 168, Rule ID: WHETHER[5]
Message: Can you shorten this phrase to just 'whether', or rephrase the sentence to avoid "the question"?
Suggestion: whether
...line course, the author needs to answer the question whether other factors are considered. For examp...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 665, Rule ID: DT_PRP[1]
Message: Possible typo. Did you mean 'the' or 'IT'?
Suggestion: the; IT
...ll require a significant investment for the IT infrastructure in order to support onli...
^^^^^^
Line 11, column 170, Rule ID: WHETHER[5]
Message: Can you shorten this phrase to just 'whether', or rephrase the sentence to avoid "the question"?
Suggestion: whether
...rsity, the author still needs to answer the question whether online course will be popular and attra...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 13, column 215, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
...sity and Hanna University, resulting in a unreliable argument.
^
Discourse Markers used:
['actually', 'also', 'first', 'however', 'if', 'may', 'moreover', 'so', 'still', 'therefore', 'well', 'while', 'for example', 'of course', 'as well as', 'first of all', 'to sum up', 'what is more']
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance in Part of Speech:
Nouns: 0.277008310249 0.25644967241 108% => OK
Verbs: 0.162049861496 0.15541462614 104% => OK
Adjectives: 0.101108033241 0.0836205057962 121% => OK
Adverbs: 0.0415512465374 0.0520304965353 80% => OK
Pronouns: 0.0235457063712 0.0272364105082 86% => OK
Prepositions: 0.134349030471 0.125424944231 107% => OK
Participles: 0.0429362880886 0.0416121511921 103% => OK
Conjunctions: 2.86539615086 2.79052419416 103% => OK
Infinitives: 0.0290858725762 0.026700313972 109% => OK
Particles: 0.00138504155125 0.001811407834 76% => OK
Determiners: 0.090027700831 0.113004496875 80% => OK
Modal_auxiliary: 0.00554016620499 0.0255425247493 22% => Some modal verbs wanted.
WH_determiners: 0.00692520775623 0.0127820249294 54% => OK
Vocabulary words and sentences:
No of characters: 4113.0 2731.13054187 151% => OK
No of words: 657.0 446.07635468 147% => OK
Chars per words: 6.2602739726 6.12365571057 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.06280665599 4.57801047555 111% => OK
words length more than 5 chars: 0.427701674277 0.378187486979 113% => OK
words length more than 6 chars: 0.327245053272 0.287650121315 114% => OK
words length more than 7 chars: 0.228310502283 0.208842608468 109% => OK
words length more than 8 chars: 0.146118721461 0.135150697306 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.86539615086 2.79052419416 103% => OK
Unique words: 262.0 207.018472906 127% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.398782343988 0.469332199767 85% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
Word variations: 48.9551318173 52.1807786196 94% => OK
How many sentences: 24.0 20.039408867 120% => OK
Sentence length: 27.375 23.2022227129 118% => OK
Sentence length SD: 62.3410061009 57.7814097925 108% => OK
Chars per sentence: 171.375 141.986410481 121% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.375 23.2022227129 118% => OK
Discourse Markers: 0.75 0.724660767414 103% => OK
Paragraphs: 7.0 5.14285714286 136% => OK
Language errors: 7.0 3.58251231527 195% => Correct essay format wanted or double check grammar & spelling issues after essay writing.
Readability: 60.0995053272 51.9672348444 116% => OK
Elegance: 2.0 1.8405768891 109% => OK
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.431447107315 0.441005458295 98% => OK
Sentence sentence coherence: 0.15516634765 0.135418324435 115% => OK
Sentence sentence coherence SD: 0.0888053193763 0.0829849096947 107% => OK
Sentence paragraph coherence: 0.638211518405 0.58762219726 109% => OK
Sentence paragraph coherence SD: 0.135246640636 0.147661913831 92% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.203050217166 0.193483328276 105% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0877643853455 0.0970749176394 90% => OK
Paragraph paragraph coherence: 0.465232884639 0.42659136922 109% => OK
Paragraph paragraph coherence SD: 0.115220517281 0.0774707102158 149% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.295526997654 0.312017818177 95% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0903207526963 0.0698173142475 129% => OK
Task Achievement:
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.33743842365 96% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.87684729064 145% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.82512315271 124% => OK
Positive topic words: 8.0 6.46551724138 124% => OK
Negative topic words: 10.0 5.36822660099 186% => OK
Neutral topic words: 4.0 2.82389162562 142% => OK
Total topic words: 22.0 14.657635468 150% => OK
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6 -- The score is based on the average performance of 20,000 argument essays. This e-grader is not smart enough to check on arguments.
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations to cover all aspects.