The following memorandum is from the business manager of Happy Pancake House restaurants.
"Recently, butter has been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southwestern United States. This change, however, has had little impact on our customers. In fact, only about 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. Furthermore, many servers have reported that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. Clearly, either these customers do not distinguish butter from margarine or they use the term 'butter' to refer to either butter or margarine."
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument.
In the memorandum presented by the business manager of Happy Pancake House, the manager proposed an assumption that the customer of the Pancake house are not able to differentiate between butter and margarine, or they refer both of these ingredients with same term “butter”. The manager reaches to the conclusion by assuming that after the change was made, from butter to margarine as the ingredient, only 2 percent of their customer have complained. Also, he assumes that there are several customer who have not complained when they were served pancakes cooked with margarine rather than butter. However, there are two unstated assumption that the manager overlooked before leading to the conclusion.
First of all, the manager assumes that the customers who have not complained, are “happy” with the switch between the ingredients. It is possible that only a few of those who tasted the pancakes with margarine actually provided the feedback, and many of them could have stopped consuming the cakes from Happy Pancake House after realising that the taste which they previously enjoyed has changes. For example, if a regular customer of Happy Pancake House identifies the difference in the taste of the cake made with margarine, he might have opted for any other Pancake house, rather than providing his feedback to the company. Further, the author generalises that if the 2 percent of people dislike the change, then this percentage will remain unchanged when more number of people taste the cake having margarine. The two points mentioned, weakens the author’s claim that if only 2 percent of the customer have complained, then rest all other customer would be “happy” with the transition.
Second of all, the author’s point that the people served with margarine cakes, who, at the first place, ordered for a butter cake, are completely aware that the pancake is actually containing other ingredient that what they asked for. It might be possible that the customer who ordered the cake, which can possibly differ in taste, is not informed about the change that Happy Pancake House has made in their cake preparation. Even if the taste remains the same in both the cases, it might not be possible for every customer to have nuanced taste sense to identify that there is a change in the ingredients. The author while making the conclusion, does not provide the evidence that whether the consumer where informed about the change. Without a proper justification, author’s point is weakened where he states that the customer who were provided margarine made cakes didn’t complained about the change.
In conclusion, it could be possible that as “low percentage” of people have complained about the change from butter to margarine, the customer do not differentiate between both or refer them with single term. However, as of now, the statement remains flawed as its reliance on various unstated assumptions. If the author is able to provide more evidence, the it might be possible to fully evaluate whether the customers of Happy Pancake House can distinguish between butter and margarine.
Comments
e-rater score report
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: 17 15
No. of Words: 505 350
No. of Characters: 2524 1500
No. of Different Words: 194 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.74 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.998 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.51 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 181 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 141 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 94 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 53 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 29.706 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.716 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.765 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.392 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.46 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.182 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 2 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 484, Rule ID: MANY_NN[1]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun customer seems to be countable; consider using: 'several customers'.
Suggestion: several customers
...lained. Also, he assumes that there are several customer who have not complained when they were ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 492, Rule ID: THERE_RE_MANY[3]
Message: Possible agreement error. Did you mean 'customers'?
Suggestion: customers
...Also, he assumes that there are several customer who have not complained when they were ...
^^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 546, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ave not complained when they were served pancakes cooked with margarine rather th...
^^
Line 1, column 631, Rule ID: THERE_RE_MANY[3]
Message: Possible agreement error. Did you mean 'assumptions'?
Suggestion: assumptions
...butter. However, there are two unstated assumption that the manager overlooked before lead...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 631, Rule ID: CD_NN[1]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun 'assumption' seems to be countable, so consider using: 'assumptions'.
Suggestion: assumptions
...butter. However, there are two unstated assumption that the manager overlooked before lead...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 172, Rule ID: PROGRESSIVE_VERBS[1]
Message: This verb is normally not used in the progressive form. Try a simple form instead.
..., are completely aware that the pancake is actually containing other ingredient that what they asked f...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 304, Rule ID: MAY_COULD_POSSIBLY[1]
Message: Use simply 'can'.
Suggestion: can
...he customer who ordered the cake, which can possibly differ in taste, is not informed about ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 877, Rule ID: DID_BASEFORM[4]
Message: The verb 'didn't' requires base form of this verb: 'complain'
Suggestion: complain
...re provided margarine made cakes didn’t complained about the change. In conclusion, it c...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 314, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... on various unstated assumptions. If the author is able to provide more evidence,...
^^
Line 4, column 357, Rule ID: DT_PRP[1]
Message: Possible typo. Did you mean 'the' or 'it'?
Suggestion: the; it
...uthor is able to provide more evidence, the it might be possible to fully evaluate whe...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, however, if, look, second, so, then, while, for example, in conclusion, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 19.0 19.6327345309 97% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.9520958084 77% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 11.1786427146 45% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 29.0 13.6137724551 213% => Less relative clauses wanted (maybe 'which' is over used).
Pronoun: 39.0 28.8173652695 135% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 60.0 55.5748502994 108% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 16.3942115768 61% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2616.0 2260.96107784 116% => OK
No of words: 504.0 441.139720559 114% => OK
Chars per words: 5.19047619048 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.73813722054 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.68397089532 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 209.0 204.123752495 102% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.414682539683 0.468620217663 88% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 823.5 705.55239521 117% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 19.7664670659 86% => OK
Sentence length: 29.0 22.8473053892 127% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 49.8291197642 57.8364921388 86% => OK
Chars per sentence: 153.882352941 119.503703932 129% => OK
Words per sentence: 29.6470588235 23.324526521 127% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.58823529412 5.70786347227 115% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 10.0 5.25449101796 190% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.210133665871 0.218282227539 96% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0814198378808 0.0743258471296 110% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0687632523062 0.0701772020484 98% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.155392044617 0.128457276422 121% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.052423920069 0.0628817314937 83% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.8 14.3799401198 124% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 42.04 48.3550499002 87% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.6 12.197005988 120% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.41 12.5979740519 106% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.02 8.32208582834 96% => OK
difficult_words: 94.0 98.500998004 95% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 12.3882235529 105% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.6 11.1389221557 122% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => 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.