The following appeared as part of an article in the business section of a local newspaper.
“Motorcycle X has been manufactured in the United States for over 70 years. Although one foreign company has copied the motorcycle and is selling it for less, the company has failed to attract motorcycle X customers - some say because its product lacks the exceptionally loud noise made by motorcycle X. But there must be some other explanation. After all, foreign cars tend to be quieter than similar American-made cars, but they sell at least as well. Also, television advertisements for motorcycle X highlight its durability and sleek lines, not its noisiness, and the ads typically have voice-overs or rock music rather than engine-roar on the sound track.”
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations of counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.
The argument attributes the motorcycles from one foreign company not doing as well as Motorcycle X to the exceptionally loud noise made by the latter but not by the former. At first glance, this appears to be convincing but further reflection reveals that it is based on several flawed assumptions.
Firstly, the author assumes that the foreign company would be able to attract motorcycle X’s customers simply because it is selling for less. He fails to consider that people look at more than the price when considering a purchase. This is especially true for long-term assets such as a vehicle where buying an inferior motorcycle might lead to higher costs in the long run due to upkeep. Hence, aside from the price, the brand name might have played a part in the foreign company’s failure to attract customers. Since motorcycle X has been manufactured in the United States for over 70 years, it would be fair to assume that it has a solid reputation. In comparison, the foreign company has just entered the market and is selling its product as what would appear to be a cheap imitation. Therefore, it is no wonder that customers would think twice before switching their loyalty.
Secondly, the argument uses a weak analogy involving sales of American-made cars to evaluate the motorcycle industry. Whilst both motorcycles and cars are both classified as vehicles, they are inherently different. Motorcycles as seen from their television advertisements which typically have voice-overs or rock music are often bought for style. Cars on the other hand, are typically a symbol of luxury and comfort. Both vehicles target an entirely different set of consumers. Each set of consumers would have their own preference and would be looking out for different characteristics. For example, one would not smell a watermelon as they would an apple despite the two being fruits. Therefore, it is unfair and illogical to deduce that because quieter foreign cars sell just as well as American-made cars, quieter foreign motorcycles should sell just as well as American-made motorcycles as well.
Lastly, the article emphasizes the noise being produced by motorcycle x as one of the leading factor for its stronger sales despite there being no evidence indicating such. In fact, the television advertisement for motorcycle x does not even highlight its noisiness as one of its selling point. It is also stated that motorcycle advertisements typically have voice-overs or rock music rather than the engine roar as its soundtrack. Yet, the argument apportions a large proportion of the blame on the lack of noise by the motorcycle from the foreign company. This is highly presumptions as there had been no research done to investigate the characteristics people look for when buying a motorcycle. The least the author could have done was to have conducted a survey questionnaire to find out why the people who bought motorcycle x chose it over its competitors.
In conclusion, the argument is weak because the author based it on a flawed assumption, used a weak analogy and failed to find any statistical evidence to back himself up. To strengthen the argument, he could have used a more apt comparison and conducted survey questionnaires to back up his points.
- “Since a competing lower-priced newspaper, The Bugle, was started five years ago, The Mercury’s circulation has declined by 10,000 readers. The best way to get more people to read The Mercury is to reduce its price below that of The Bugle, at least un 58
- The following appeared as part of an article in the business section of a local newspaper. “Motorcycle X has been manufactured in the United States for over 70 years. Although one foreign company has copied the motorcycle and is selling it for less, the 50
- The package of benefits and incentives that Ready to Ware offers to professional staff is too costly Our quarterly profits have declined since the package was introduced two years ago at the time of our incorporation Moreover the package had little positi 76
- The following appeared as part of an article in the business section of a local newspaper. “Motorcycle X has been manufactured in the United States for over 70 years. Although one foreign company has copied the motorcycle and is selling it for less, the 59
- The falling revenues that the company is experiencing coincide with delays in manufacturing. These delays, in turn, are due in large part to poor planning in purchasing metals. Consider further that the manager of the department that handles purchasing of 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: 25 15
No. of Words: 535 350
No. of Characters: 2664 1500
No. of Different Words: 260 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.809 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.979 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.905 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 186 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 141 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 99 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 80 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.4 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 5.94 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.64 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.276 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.483 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.089 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, hence, if, lastly, look, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, well, as to, for example, in conclusion, in fact, such as, as well as, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.9520958084 100% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 34.0 28.8173652695 118% => OK
Preposition: 57.0 55.5748502994 103% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2745.0 2260.96107784 121% => OK
No of words: 535.0 441.139720559 121% => OK
Chars per words: 5.1308411215 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.80937282943 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.00079239542 2.78398813304 108% => OK
Unique words: 261.0 204.123752495 128% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.48785046729 0.468620217663 104% => OK
syllable_count: 856.8 705.55239521 121% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 4.96107784431 202% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 25.0 19.7664670659 126% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 34.1060932972 57.8364921388 59% => The essay contains lots of sentences with the similar length. More sentence varieties wanted.
Chars per sentence: 109.8 119.503703932 92% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.4 23.324526521 92% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.16 5.70786347227 125% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => 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: 0.328802282317 0.218282227539 151% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.088142462387 0.0743258471296 119% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0777476955094 0.0701772020484 111% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.168673217274 0.128457276422 131% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.100679656991 0.0628817314937 160% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.4 14.3799401198 93% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.47 12.5979740519 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.1 8.32208582834 97% => OK
difficult_words: 116.0 98.500998004 118% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 12.3882235529 93% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.