The following appeared in a letter from a homeowner to a friend.
"Of the two leading real estate firms in our town—Adams Realty and Fitch Realty—Adams Realty is clearly superior. Adams has 40 real estate agents; in contrast, Fitch has 25, many of whom work only part-time. Moreover, Adams' revenue last year was twice as high as that of Fitch and included home sales that averaged $168,000, compared to Fitch's $144,000. Homes listed with Adams sell faster as well: ten years ago I listed my home with Fitch, and it took more than four months to sell; last year, when I sold another home, I listed it with Adams, and it took only one month. Thus, if you want to sell your home quickly and at a good price, you should use Adams Realty."
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 argument suggests his friend that if he wants to sell his home quickly and at a good price, he should choose Adams Realty. To support his advice, the author listed several evidences. Those evidences look convincing at first glance; however, they are based on some fabulous assumptions which make the whole argument groundless.
First of all, the writer’s assumption that the firm with higher revenue and a greater average home sale indicates they can sell houses at a better price is unfounded. Admittedly, some firms tend to sell customers’ homes in a relatively lower price so that houses can be sold more quickly and also more properties can be sold. Therefore, a higher revenue does not equal to a better price; instead, it can be explained by more homes were sold in a lower price. Besides, a higher home sale average is also meaningless if there is no evidence to support that homes sold by two companies are almost in the same condition. If those properties sold by Adams are all beautiful houses with a very good location, while Fitch only sell some common apartments, the average sale price cannot prove that Adam can sell homes at a better price.
Besides, the assumption that Adams realty can sell home sooner is based on author’s own experiences. However, two experiences he chosen to compare is not reasonable. The situation 10 years ago can be very different from what the market is like last year. So it is unfair to compare those two speed and draw a conclusion based on it. Also, two homes the author sold may have definitely different condition and it is very likely that 10 years ago most people do not have the ability to buy a second house, thus it takes a longer time for the house to be sold by Fitch.
Apart from that, the author’s assumption that more agents means better service is also doubtable. Without relevant research, we cannot assume that the more people a company has, the better their quality is. Similarly, there is also no evidence to support that part-time workers do poorer job than full time workers. So the author mentioned this as an evidence to persuade his friend is irrational. Therefore, it cannot be seen as a supporting material to convince his friend that Adams Realty can sell his homes at a higher price and a quicker speed. If he does want to make this argument valid, he should compare those two firms at the same condition and provide some more details.
To sum up, the suggestion given by the author is unconvincing. The evidence he proved and the assumptions he made are unfounded. Based on the information listed above, we can not get the conclusion that Adams Realty can help his friend sell home quickly and at a good price. If he wants to strengthen his argument, more information should be given.
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argument 1 -- Don't guess: 'Admittedly, some firms tend to sell customers’ homes in a relatively lower price so that houses can be sold more quickly and also more properties can be sold. Therefore, a higher revenue does not equal to a better price; instead, it can be explained by more homes were sold in a lower price.'
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- OK
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 487 350
No. of Characters: 2238 1500
No. of Different Words: 202 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.698 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.595 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.42 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 148 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 97 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 66 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 47 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.174 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.097 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.783 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.323 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.521 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.136 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5