The following appeared in a memorandum written by the vice president of Health Naturally, a small but expanding chain of stores selling health food and other health-related products.
"Our previous experience has been that our stores are most profitable in areas where residents are highly concerned with leading healthy lives. We should therefore build one of our new stores in Plainsville, which clearly has many such residents. Plainsville merchants report that sales of running shoes and exercise equipment are at all-time highs. The local health club, which nearly closed five years ago due to lack of business, has more members than ever, and the weight-training and aerobics classes are always full. We can even anticipate a new generation of customers: Plainsville's schoolchildren are required to participate in a program called Fitness for Life, which emphasizes the benefits of regular exercise at an early age."
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.
The memorandum written by the vice president of Health Naturally concludes that their company should build a new store in Plainsville. It is based on the healthy lifestyles of the residents and the increasing demand of health-related products in that area. However, before the argument can be properly assessed, three key assumptions must be examined and validated with appropriate evidences.
To begin, it is irrationally assumed that the previous experience of sales is the accurate predictor of present. It is a strong possibility that in the past, people of Plainsville relied on healthy foods and products to lead a healthy life whereas in the present they are not reserved about food habits but they go to walk or gym regularly to be physically fit. Perhaps, the records of the running shoes and other exercise equipment also indicate the same. If any of the above situation has merits, the argument will be seriously weakened.
Second, it is prematurely considered that the report of the Plainsville merchants is valid and true. Nonetheless, it is a strong possibility that those merchants want to grab the opportunity to be a part of "Health Naturally" and make money. It is also possible that report from the merchants is misleadingly presented. Perhaps, the merchants affirm that the existing companies are now competing each other and they are the top-notch priority of the local customers. If this is the case, the Health Naturally can't expect flourishment in Plainsville and the conclusion of the argument does not hold water.
Last but not the least, it has been unreasonably assumed that school children will purchase their health related products because of their enrollment in the 'Fitness for Life' program. However, it is possible that schools of Plainsville have set all the necessary arrangements for the program and parents don't have to buy anything from a local store such as Health Naturally. It is also a possibility that the title of the program is not related to physical exercise or physical activities at all: it is solely based on the mental fitness and how moral and ethical characteristics make someone's life fit. If any of the above mentioned points are true, the argument will be seriously undermined.
To summarize, the argument, as it stands now, is seriously flawed because of its' reliance on many unwarranted assumptions. If the author of the passage can provide specific evidences against the mentioned assumptions as discussed above, the implications of the argument can be properly evaluated.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 4 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 6 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 413 350
No. of Characters: 2081 1500
No. of Different Words: 201 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.508 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.039 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.923 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 156 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 129 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 98 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 67 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.944 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.86 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.722 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.324 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.546 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.059 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 520, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
... this is the case, the Health Naturally cant expect flourishment in Plainsville and ...
^^^^
Line 7, column 304, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...rrangements for the program and parents dont have to buy anything from a local store...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, however, if, nonetheless, second, so, whereas, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 27.0 19.6327345309 138% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 15.0 11.1786427146 134% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 31.0 28.8173652695 108% => OK
Preposition: 50.0 55.5748502994 90% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 16.3942115768 73% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2142.0 2260.96107784 95% => OK
No of words: 412.0 441.139720559 93% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.19902912621 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.50530610838 4.56307096286 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.0263515734 2.78398813304 109% => OK
Unique words: 207.0 204.123752495 101% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.502427184466 0.468620217663 107% => OK
syllable_count: 675.0 705.55239521 96% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 9.0 4.96107784431 181% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 47.191100856 57.8364921388 82% => OK
Chars per sentence: 119.0 119.503703932 100% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.8888888889 23.324526521 98% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.61111111111 5.70786347227 63% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => 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: 0.185422238016 0.218282227539 85% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0561219295347 0.0743258471296 76% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0736479141295 0.0701772020484 105% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0986323581215 0.128457276422 77% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0748785098615 0.0628817314937 119% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.5 14.3799401198 101% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 49.15 48.3550499002 102% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.18 12.5979740519 105% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.83 8.32208582834 106% => OK
difficult_words: 107.0 98.500998004 109% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 12.3882235529 97% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 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.