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 salesthat 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.
At a glance the argument seems fair and many might take it at face value and believe that Adams Realty is a better option if you want to sell your house at a faster rate and at a higher cost. There are many facets to the argument, other than the fact most of Fitch Realty’s employees work part-time, that could help explain this argument. Sadly the argument forms its basis on solely this one factor, which could paint a different picture than what is the reality.
One assumption that we could make is about the locality in which the homes are listed by the two firms. There is a possibility that the homes listed by Adams Realty are much more probable to be in an affluent neighbourhood than those listed by Fitch Realty. This assumption would help explain the disparity in revenue generated and the difference in average sales price of the homes. This could be because low and middle income households may not tend to commit to high spending decisions as easily as richer households. This could be due to the fact that if the decision goes wrong in some manner, it affects the former to a much greater extent than the latter. It could lead the family into a downward spiral financially, from which it is very hard to recover from. This assumption can very satisfactorily explain why Fitch Realty on an average takes a longer time to sell homes at a lower price.
Another theory that supports this assumption is that the author of the argument is comparing between two time periods that are ten years apart. In this time, there is a very distinct possibility that the author might have risen in financial stature due to a combination of hard work, dedication and many other factors which can’t be pinpointed. This rise in financial stature might have led him/her to buy a house in a wealthier neighbourhood. This could lead to them listing their house with Adams Realty the second time around as their newer neighbours may have recommended. To declare that Adams Realty is a better firm that Fitch Realty without exploring all the different reasons for the difference is not justifiable. The two firms occupy two different niches in the town, and both firms would be necessary to service all the different sections of the town.
If the assumption proves unwarranted, and Adams Realty sells homes at a higher rate in and around the same neighbourhoods as Fitch realty, then the argument could be true. The employees of Admas Realty may just work that much more harder than those at Fitch. This in turn attracts newer more ambitious and more enthusiastic realtors to Adams Realty which further increases the disparity between the two firms, firmly establishing Adams Realty as the better firm for selling homes in the town.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
one argument missed:
Adams has 40 real estate agents; in contrast, Fitch has 25, many of whom work only part-time.
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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: 19 15
No. of Words: 475 350
No. of Characters: 2217 1500
No. of Different Words: 214 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.668 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.667 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.454 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 139 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 89 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 62 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 44 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.173 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.316 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.332 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.503 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.131 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 41, Rule ID: MANY_NN_U[1]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun might seems to be uncountable; consider using: 'much might', 'a good deal of might'.
Suggestion: much might; a good deal of might
...At a glance the argument seems fair and many might take it at face value and believe that ...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 522, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...cisions as easily as richer households. This could be due to the fact that if the de...
^^^^
Line 7, column 227, Rule ID: MOST_COMPARATIVE[2]
Message: Use only 'harder' (without 'more') when you use the comparative.
Suggestion: harder
...of Admas Realty may just work that much more harder than those at Fitch. This in turn attra...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
if, may, second, so, then, thus
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 18.0 12.9520958084 139% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 13.6137724551 125% => OK
Pronoun: 38.0 28.8173652695 132% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 56.0 55.5748502994 101% => OK
Nominalization: 15.0 16.3942115768 91% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2269.0 2260.96107784 100% => OK
No of words: 474.0 441.139720559 107% => OK
Chars per words: 4.78691983122 5.12650576532 93% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.66599839874 4.56307096286 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.55490806784 2.78398813304 92% => OK
Unique words: 218.0 204.123752495 107% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.459915611814 0.468620217663 98% => OK
syllable_count: 698.4 705.55239521 99% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 4.96107784431 202% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 2.0 8.76447105788 23% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 22.8473053892 105% => OK
Sentence length SD: 35.9866087744 57.8364921388 62% => OK
Chars per sentence: 119.421052632 119.503703932 100% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.9473684211 23.324526521 107% => OK
Discourse Markers: 1.63157894737 5.70786347227 29% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => 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: 0.237057099026 0.218282227539 109% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0823686679742 0.0743258471296 111% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0765769186162 0.0701772020484 109% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.171422992437 0.128457276422 133% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0653645008969 0.0628817314937 104% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.6 14.3799401198 95% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 55.58 48.3550499002 115% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.8 12.5979740519 86% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.09 8.32208582834 97% => OK
difficult_words: 98.0 98.500998004 99% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 12.3882235529 105% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 11.1389221557 104% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.