The following appeared in a letter from the owner of the Sunnyside Towers apartment complex to its manager.
“One month ago, all the showerheads in the rest three buildings of the Sunnyside Towers complex were modified to restrict maximum water flow to one-third of what it used to be. Although actual readings of water usage before and after the adjustment are not yet available, the change will obviously result in a considerable savings for Sunnyside Corporation, since the corporation must pay for water each month. Except for a few complaints about low water pressure, no problems with showers have been reported since the adjustment. I predict that modifying showerheads to restrict water flow throughout all twelve buildings in the Sunnyside Towers complex will increase our profits even more dramatically.”
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.
In this letter, the manager states that modified showerheads, which restrict water flow to one-third of it used to be, need to use in all twelve building in the Sunnyside Towers complex and believes that it will increase profits dramatically. However, before this plan is implemented, the author needs to address a few questions about these possible flaws.
The first question the manager needs to be addressed is the reliability of his survey towards customers attitude and savings. As the manager mentioned in his letter, these showerheads were only installed in a month. Thus, it is entirely possible that some potential side effects of these modified showerheads have not appeared or residents who want to make complaints do not start their acts. It is also probable that last month was a special case and residents do not use the same amount of water as usual. In this case, the manager needs to address whether the water flow of these modified shower heads can suffer stress from a high-level water usage season. Without answering these potential problems, the author cannot justifiably conclude that the success of last month can apply in the future.
In addition, the manager needs to answer what he means for
considerable savings” in his letter. In order to convince his residents and readers of his letter, he needs to give the exact amount and percentage of the cost-saving made by modified showerheads. Also, it is better for him to show whether these savings are statistically significant or not. Despite this problem, in the letter, the manager mentioned that he received “a few complaints.” What is the accurate number of cases and percentages of complaints happen in the last month? What’s the severity of these complaints? If the manager cannot answer these questions, he cannot convince me that his modified shower head plan is cost-saving and can be effective to all buildings.
Other than the questions I mentioned above, another important question that needs to be answered is the profitability of this plan. Even if it’s true that modifying showerheads is cost-saving, it would not necessarily mean that this plan is profitable as a result. In fact, profitability is a function of both revenue and expense. For instance, changing shower heads is also a cost for residents. The manager needs to answer whether saving from water usage will balance the cost of showerheads. In addition, the manager needs to answer whether this plan will cause certain potential residents to give up moving to these buildings and some old residents decide to move out due to the water pressure of these showerheads. Without weighing revenue against expenses, the argument’s conclusion is premature at best.
Even if this plan is cost-saving in general and is effective in three buildings, the manager also needs to address whether this plan can apply to all twelve buildings. In our common sense, more residents mean more potential problems as each individual has different water usage habits. Also, different residents may have different attitudes toward their water usage rights. The manager needs to answer whether he and his colleague have been prepared for extending his plan to a larger population and the way they may use to face critics from those residents.
In conclusion, the argument the manager presented in his letter is unpersuasive. To strengthen it, the manager must answer the following questions: what’s the reliability of his survey? What’s the exact number of complaints and savings made by this plan? What're the overall profits of this plan? How can they apply it to all twelve buildings?
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-08-18 | cocozhao321 | 55 | view |
- The following appeared in a letter from the owner of the Sunnyside Towers apartment complex to its manager.“One month ago, all the showerheads in the rest three buildings of the Sunnyside Towers complex were modified to restrict maximum water flow to on 55
- "Butter has now been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southwestern United States. Only about 2 percent of customers have filed a formal complaint, indicating that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy wit 55
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 31 15
No. of Words: 594 350
No. of Characters: 2955 1500
No. of Different Words: 237 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.937 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.975 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.682 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 217 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 167 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 118 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 82 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.161 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.398 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.484 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.298 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.344 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.122 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 2 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 59, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...anager needs to answer what he means for considerable savings' in his letter...
^^^
Line 8, column 266, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: What're
...mplaints and savings made by this plan? Whatre the overall profits of this plan? How c...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, however, if, may, so, then, third, thus, for instance, in addition, in conclusion, in fact, in general, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 16.0 12.9520958084 124% => OK
Conjunction : 15.0 11.1786427146 134% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 64.0 28.8173652695 222% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 79.0 55.5748502994 142% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 16.3942115768 61% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3071.0 2260.96107784 136% => OK
No of words: 593.0 441.139720559 134% => OK
Chars per words: 5.17875210793 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.93473315629 4.56307096286 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.87172076811 2.78398813304 103% => OK
Unique words: 256.0 204.123752495 125% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.431703204047 0.468620217663 92% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 945.9 705.55239521 134% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 15.0 8.76447105788 171% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 15.0 4.22255489022 355% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 30.0 19.7664670659 152% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 50.8562243541 57.8364921388 88% => OK
Chars per sentence: 102.366666667 119.503703932 86% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.7666666667 23.324526521 85% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.26666666667 5.70786347227 75% => OK
Paragraphs: 7.0 5.15768463074 136% => Less paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 13.0 8.20758483034 158% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.67664670659 171% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.15665883796 0.218282227539 72% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.045286072893 0.0743258471296 61% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0514999659555 0.0701772020484 73% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0852176300587 0.128457276422 66% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0589520175446 0.0628817314937 94% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.9 14.3799401198 90% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 52.19 48.3550499002 108% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.76 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.77 8.32208582834 93% => OK
difficult_words: 120.0 98.500998004 122% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Maximum six paragraphs wanted.
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.