The following appeared in a memo from the vice president of marketing at Dura-Sock, Inc.
"A recent study of our customers suggests that our company is wasting the money it spends on its patented Endure manufacturing process, which ensures that our socks are strong enough to last for two years. We have always advertised our use of the Endure process, but the new study shows that despite our socks' durability, our average customer actually purchases new Dura-Socks every three months. Furthermore, our customers surveyed in our largest market, northeastern United States cities, say that they most value Dura-Socks' stylish appearance and availability in many colors. These findings suggest that we can increase our profits by discontinuing use of the Endure manufacturing process."
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.
According to the memo, the author recommends that the company, Dura-Sock should discontinue their use of the Endure manufacturing process to increase profits. The reason given to support this claim is that the customers in Dura-Socks largest market value Dura-Sock’s stylish appearance and availability in many colors over their durability. But, before this recommendation is accepted, the following three questions must be answered.
To begin, is the evidence from the ‘recent study’ credible enough? The author does not mention the number of customers surveyed or what was the ratio of those who valued durability over those who valued appearance. It may be the case that for some customers, durability is more important and stylish appearance is just a secondary benefit. Also, it is mentioned that an average customer purchases new Dura-Socks every three months, but this does not mean that they are discarding the socks they purchases earlier. It might be the case that the requirement for socks is greater due to some other factors like cold weather.
Furthermore, the author has assumed that the choices of the customers from northeastern United States cities will be universal across the entire market where Dura-Socks are available. It might be the case that in some other region, the focus of the customers might not be towards stylish appearance but towards the durability and comfort of the socks. The writer’s generalization of choices of customers across all regions based on a single region may lead to misinterpretation of customer satisfaction.
Lastly, will discontinuation of the Endure manufacturing process directly result in increase in profits? Assuming that the process is discontinued, it would have to be replaced by some other process. The writer assumes that the difference in cost of both the process will be profound. Also, reducing the durability just for profits may result in decline of the loyal customer base who had valued the sock’s durability feature and this may cause a further reduction in revenue for the company.
Moreover, there is no mention of the competitors of Dura-sock who might be having an eclectic variety of socks. In that case, the durability due to the Endure manufacturing process might have been the differentiating factor, which had led to the success of Dura-sock. The author assumes that after the Endure manufacturing process is discontinued, there will be no effect on the demand of the socks. Hence, further evidence is necessary in this matter.
In conclusion, the current state of the argument is considerably flawed due to its reliance on several unwarranted assumptions. If the author is able to answer the aforementioned questions and is able to provide concrete evidence, perhaps in the form of a comprehensive research study, then the viability of the recommendation to discontinue Endure manufacturing process can be fully evaluated.
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Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 461 350
No. of Characters: 2391 1500
No. of Different Words: 210 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.634 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.187 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.984 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 183 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 138 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 92 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 68 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.952 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.773 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.571 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.308 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.308 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.06 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 106, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...ra-Sock should discontinue their use of the Endure manufacturing process to increase profi...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 224, Rule ID: THE_SUPERLATIVE[2]
Message: A determiner is probably missing here: 'Dura-Socks the largest'.
Suggestion: Dura-Socks the largest
...ort this claim is that the customers in Dura-Socks largest market value Dura-Sock’s stylish appear...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 495, Rule ID: NON3PRS_VERB[2]
Message: The pronoun 'they' must be used with a non-third-person form of a verb: 'purchase'
Suggestion: purchase
...that they are discarding the socks they purchases earlier. It might be the case that the ...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 33, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...tion. Lastly, will discontinuation of the Endure manufacturing process directly result i...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 148, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...ks. In that case, the durability due to the Endure manufacturing process might have been t...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 298, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...ura-sock. The author assumes that after the Endure manufacturing process is discontinued, ...
^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, furthermore, hence, if, lastly, may, moreover, second, so, then, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 29.0 19.6327345309 148% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 17.0 12.9520958084 131% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 18.0 13.6137724551 132% => OK
Pronoun: 29.0 28.8173652695 101% => OK
Preposition: 58.0 55.5748502994 104% => OK
Nominalization: 20.0 16.3942115768 122% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2462.0 2260.96107784 109% => OK
No of words: 461.0 441.139720559 105% => OK
Chars per words: 5.34056399132 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.63367139033 4.56307096286 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.09621300587 2.78398813304 111% => OK
Unique words: 218.0 204.123752495 107% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.472885032538 0.468620217663 101% => OK
syllable_count: 781.2 705.55239521 111% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 49.1513466274 57.8364921388 85% => OK
Chars per sentence: 117.238095238 119.503703932 98% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.9523809524 23.324526521 94% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.2380952381 5.70786347227 74% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 14.0 8.20758483034 171% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 6.88822355289 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.213257012723 0.218282227539 98% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0696608010658 0.0743258471296 94% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0513925344856 0.0701772020484 73% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.120317194733 0.128457276422 94% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.048607760265 0.0628817314937 77% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.7 14.3799401198 102% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 41.7 48.3550499002 86% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.197005988 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.69 12.5979740519 109% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.65 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 116.0 98.500998004 118% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => 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.