The following appeared in a memo from the president of Bower Builders, a company that constructs new homes.
"A nationwide survey reveals that the two most-desired home features are a large family room and a large, well-appointed kitchen. A number of homes in our area built by our competitor Domus Construction have such features and have sold much faster and at significantly higher prices than the national average. To boost sales and profits, we should increase the size of the family rooms and kitchens in all the homes we build and should make state-of-the-art kitchens a standard feature. Moreover, our larger family rooms and kitchens can come at the expense of the dining room, since many of our recent buyers say they do not need a separate dining room for family meals."
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.
In the memo from Bower Builders, the president claims that the company would witness an increase in sales and profits if it invests in large family rooms and large, state-of-the-art kitchens. However, while the conclusion drawn by the president may hold water, it relies heavily on unfounded assumptions that, if not adequately substantiated, would weaken the persuasiveness of the argument dramatically. Thus, before the argument can be properly evaluated, specific evidence would have to be provided.
First, the president assumes that because a competitor, Domus Construction, currently has features that match the description and has witnessed an increase in sales at a higher price, then Bower Builders would be successful subsequently. However, the president fails to provide some specific evidence in this regard. For instance, it is possible that Domus Construction has invested in a less densely populated and a more desirable part of the state. This could account for the increase in sales and why the prices are higher than the national average. Perhaps, Domus Construction has a particular marketing strategy or an attractive payment plan that draws buyers to their homes who are willing to spend more. For example, the interest rate offered by Domus COnstruction may be the lowest offered by any construction company within the state. If either of these scenarios proves true then the conclusion drawn in the argument is significantly weakened.
Secondly, the president also assumes that because some of the recent buyers do not require separate dining rooms, the subsequent buyers would not. This however holds no water if no evidence is provided to support the claim. For example, it may be possible that Bower Builders invested in homes for single individuals or college students in the past, who in some cases do not have any use for a separate dining room for families. This could account for the president's claim that the recent buyers have no interest in dining rooms. Perhaps, Bower Builders invested in an area with a large dense population, and their buyers who probably did not have much choice as regards their accommodation decided to purchase the homes irrespective of the absence of a dining area. The president could provide more evidence as regards the issues highlighted above which would substantiate his claims.
Thirdly, the president assumes that if the company were to invest in these "desired" new homes, it would realize an increase in sales and boost profits. He however does not address economic changes and if the new homes, upon completion, would be both desirable and affordable for the general public. For example, if the economic changes negatively impact the national average by raising the prices very high, then the public would most likely have difficulties purchasing these new units. Even if the economic situations stay the same, the is no assurance that buyers would be willing to spend their money on Bower's projects. The author's argument would be substantially weakened if these hold true.
In conclusion, the argument has it stands is fundamentally flawed. The president needs to provide more evidence addressing the issues highlighted above which would further substantiate his claims. The evidence would ascertain if the plan to invest in these "desirable" homes and make a compromise by removing dining areas, would lead to an increase in sales and profits.
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Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 845, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
... construction company within the state. If either of these scenarios proves true t...
^^
Line 5, column 51, Rule ID: SOME_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'some'.
Suggestion: some
...the president also assumes that because some of the recent buyers do not require separate d...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 295, Rule ID: GENERAL_XX[1]
Message: Use simply 'public'.
Suggestion: public
...e both desirable and affordable for the general public. For example, if the economic changes n...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 641, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...end their money on Bowers projects. The authors argument would be substantially weakene...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, third, thirdly, thus, while, as regards, for example, for instance, in conclusion, in some cases
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 19.6327345309 81% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 21.0 12.9520958084 162% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 33.0 28.8173652695 115% => OK
Preposition: 52.0 55.5748502994 94% => OK
Nominalization: 24.0 16.3942115768 146% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2903.0 2260.96107784 128% => OK
No of words: 546.0 441.139720559 124% => OK
Chars per words: 5.31684981685 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.83390555256 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.95443272582 2.78398813304 106% => OK
Unique words: 245.0 204.123752495 120% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.448717948718 0.468620217663 96% => OK
syllable_count: 908.1 705.55239521 129% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 4.96107784431 161% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.76447105788 148% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 50.0453787133 57.8364921388 87% => OK
Chars per sentence: 120.958333333 119.503703932 101% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.75 23.324526521 98% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.45833333333 5.70786347227 113% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.20758483034 134% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.15988080992 0.218282227539 73% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0446780067593 0.0743258471296 60% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0467139961946 0.0701772020484 67% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0943795639179 0.128457276422 73% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0226010527925 0.0628817314937 36% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.0 14.3799401198 104% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 40.69 48.3550499002 84% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.1 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.87 12.5979740519 110% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.43 8.32208582834 101% => OK
difficult_words: 128.0 98.500998004 130% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => 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.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 845, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
... construction company within the state. If either of these scenarios proves true t...
^^
Line 5, column 51, Rule ID: SOME_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'some'.
Suggestion: some
...the president also assumes that because some of the recent buyers do not require separate d...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 295, Rule ID: GENERAL_XX[1]
Message: Use simply 'public'.
Suggestion: public
...e both desirable and affordable for the general public. For example, if the economic changes n...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 641, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...end their money on Bowers projects. The authors argument would be substantially weakene...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, third, thirdly, thus, while, as regards, for example, for instance, in conclusion, in some cases
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 19.6327345309 81% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 21.0 12.9520958084 162% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 33.0 28.8173652695 115% => OK
Preposition: 52.0 55.5748502994 94% => OK
Nominalization: 24.0 16.3942115768 146% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2903.0 2260.96107784 128% => OK
No of words: 546.0 441.139720559 124% => OK
Chars per words: 5.31684981685 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.83390555256 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.95443272582 2.78398813304 106% => OK
Unique words: 245.0 204.123752495 120% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.448717948718 0.468620217663 96% => OK
syllable_count: 908.1 705.55239521 129% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 4.96107784431 161% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.76447105788 148% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 50.0453787133 57.8364921388 87% => OK
Chars per sentence: 120.958333333 119.503703932 101% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.75 23.324526521 98% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.45833333333 5.70786347227 113% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.20758483034 134% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.15988080992 0.218282227539 73% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0446780067593 0.0743258471296 60% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0467139961946 0.0701772020484 67% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0943795639179 0.128457276422 73% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0226010527925 0.0628817314937 36% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.0 14.3799401198 104% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 40.69 48.3550499002 84% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.1 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.87 12.5979740519 110% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.43 8.32208582834 101% => OK
difficult_words: 128.0 98.500998004 130% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => 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.