2. The following memorandum is from the business manager of Happy Pancake House restaurants.
"Recently, butter has been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southwestern United States. This change, however, has had little impact on our customers. In fact, only about 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. Furthermore, many servers have reported that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. Clearly, either these customers do not distinguish butter from margarine or they use the term 'butter' to refer to either butter or margarine."
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument.
The memorandum provided suggests the following two assertions. First, the manager alleges that 98% of the customers are satisfied with the change. Second, they insist that customers are incapable of differentiating between butter and margarine or butter is used as an umbrella term for both butter and margarine for the aforementioned customers. I would like to use the following paragraphs to elucidate why these two allegations are inconclusive and provide alternatives that could explain the given phenomena.
First and foremost, the allegation that "98% of the customers are satisfied with the change" is based on the fact that "only 2 percent of customers have complained". These two statements, however, are not mutually exclusive, as it is not unconditionally true that a customer who does not complain is satisfied with the change. As a result, the manager's conclusion is not necessarily true and in fact, is likely to be erroneous with the following possibilities. While there is no doubt that the 98% of customers who did not complain about the change (which is an event mutually exclusive with the provided 2% that did complain) would include those who are content with the transition from butter to margarine, that group of patrons is likely to be an amalgam of people who did not make a complaint with an explanation other than being satisfied. One possibility is that customers who actually are dissatisfied with the change simply did not make a complaint for a multitude of reasons. Such reasons could include residing a distance away from the restaurants so that making a trip there just to make a complaint is not cost effective, or they just simply stop patronizing the restaurant altogether. Another suggestion is that some customers could be indifferent between the two condiments. This in itself does not mean that they are "happy" with the change, but rather that they feel apathetic and do not care regardless.
Equally noteworthy is that the contention that "customers do not distinguish butter from margarine or they use the term 'butter' to refer to either butter or margarine" is due to the fact that "a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead". This statement is based on the wild assumption that customers who do not complain truly equate butter with margarine. It is spurious to make such an assumption, given how patrons could have plenty of alternative reasons why they did not complain. One other explanation is that some part of the population inherently avoid conflict, and are unwilling to confront a server and demand for butter if they really do prefer butter to margarine. Such characteristics of eschewing friction may give rise to their decision to not make a complaint. Another reason that cannot be overemphasized is that customers could truly be indifferent between butter and margarine. This, however, does not imply that they are not capable of telling the difference. They could be fully aware that they have been handed margarine in the stead of butter, but did not complain because both condiments provide them with the same utility.
By way of conclusion, I would like to restate my alternative explanations for the given phenomena. Instead of 98% of the customers being happy for the change from butter to margarine, it is also plausible to say that the 98% that did not complain about the change is a union of patrons who are truly satisfied, those who are restricted from making a complaint, and those who find butter and margarine equally satisfying. What's more, the fact that a number of customers do not complain when they are given margarine instead of butter could be a result of the customers' aversion of conflict or even just an indifference between the margarine and butter. In a nutshell, the conclusions that the manager has made are not conclusive, and a plethora of alternative explanations are also likely to be true.
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Comments
Essay evaluation 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: 24 15
No. of Words: 653 350
No. of Characters: 3216 1500
No. of Different Words: 235 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.055 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.925 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.842 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 224 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 172 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 137 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 108 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 27.208 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 14.092 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.625 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.332 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.463 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.087 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 365, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'managers'' or 'manager's'?
Suggestion: managers'; manager's
...sfied with the change. As a result, the managers conclusion is not necessarily true and ...
^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 1, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Equally,
...thetic and do not care regardless. Equally noteworthy is that the contention that ...
^^^^^^^
Line 13, column 422, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: What's
...utter and margarine equally satisfying. Whats more, the fact that a number of custome...
^^^^^
Line 13, column 559, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'customers'' or 'customer's'?
Suggestion: customers'; customer's
...tead of butter could be a result of the customers aversion of conflict or even just an in...
^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, however, if, may, really, second, so, while, in fact, no doubt, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 47.0 19.6327345309 239% => Less to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 20.0 11.1786427146 179% => OK
Relative clauses : 40.0 13.6137724551 294% => Less relative clauses wanted (maybe 'which' is over used).
Pronoun: 55.0 28.8173652695 191% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 72.0 55.5748502994 130% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3345.0 2260.96107784 148% => OK
No of words: 653.0 441.139720559 148% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.12251148545 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.05508305356 4.56307096286 111% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.06392168879 2.78398813304 110% => OK
Unique words: 257.0 204.123752495 126% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.393568147014 0.468620217663 84% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1054.8 705.55239521 149% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 11.0 4.96107784431 222% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 6.0 1.67365269461 358% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 27.0 22.8473053892 118% => OK
Sentence length SD: 78.3021214414 57.8364921388 135% => OK
Chars per sentence: 139.375 119.503703932 117% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.2083333333 23.324526521 117% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.29166666667 5.70786347227 75% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 8.20758483034 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 11.0 6.88822355289 160% => 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: 0.114491738251 0.218282227539 52% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0418502494348 0.0743258471296 56% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0316057954935 0.0701772020484 45% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0903631332897 0.128457276422 70% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0180510732837 0.0628817314937 29% => 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: 16.3 14.3799401198 113% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 44.07 48.3550499002 91% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.8 12.197005988 113% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.71 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.22 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 134.0 98.500998004 136% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 12.3882235529 97% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.8 11.1389221557 115% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.