The following is part of a memorandum from the president of Humana University.
"Last year the number of students who enrolled in online degree programs offered by nearby Omni University increased by 50 percent. During the same year, Omni showed a significant decrease from prior years in expenditures for dormitory and classroom space, most likely because online instruction takes place via the Internet. In contrast, over the past three years, enrollment at Humana University has failed to grow and the cost of maintaining buildings has increased. Thus, to increase enrollment and solve the problem of budget deficits at Humana University, we should initiate and actively promote online degree programs like those at Omni."
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 president of Humana University suggests that the school should initiate the online degree programs like Omni in order to increase incoming and expect receiving the same gain as Omni. However, the argument is rife with skewed assumptions that the author has to deal with.
Firstly, the writer claims that the number of students enrolling online degree by nearby Omni University has increased by 50 percent and implies that the same strategy will work in Humana University. Still, the assumption here is that the field of Humana and Omni University are identical. It is possible that Humana University is famous of its medicine field and it requires students to attend the experiments courses. In contrast, Omni University is a literature academy where students are not required to do experiments in the laboratory and could present their writing online instead. Even Humana University open online courses, students are unlikely to enroll them because students have to go to the campus after all. Therefore, the author has to deal with the argument to make it more convincing.
Besides, the argument says that the data from Omni is only last year. It is based on the assumption that it would receive the same growth in the following years. However, it is possible that the students have trouble with online programs, because slow internet could give promptly response from teachers. They complain about the poorly teaching quality of it and would not to participate online program anymore. Thus, the enrollments in the next year drops a lot. The president should take care of the reliability of the data before making any vital decision.
Additionally, the argument said that there is also a considerable decrease from prior years in expenditures for dormitory and it seems that it's a advantageous effect from online programs and helps decrease the cost of maintaining fee in Humana University. However, it is assumed that the cost of the maintenance would decrease as Omni. A probable explanation is that those who enrolled online programs of Humana University still live in the dormitories, because Humana University is a technology university and would require students to perform a lot of experiments courses. And pupils must go to laboratory every day, therefore they are likely to live in the dormitory instead of out of campus. Thus, the reduced cost of maintaining building is conceivably unattainable.
Moreover, the writer said that the enrollment of Humana University is barely to grow and cost of maintaining buildings has increased. It causes a financial issue. Nevertheless, the assumption is that the declined enrollment is caused by insufficient of online program. It is possible that the academic reputation of Humana University has decreased last three years. The ranking of related field has drops from 30th to 100th because of drastically lacking published papers or research. Therefore, fewer and fewer students would like to enroll in programs in Humana University even it initiates online courses. The president must answer the detailed of academic status of Humana University to make the argument more cogent.
In conclusion, unless the author addresses the assumption mentioned properly, the readers could not believe in the argument.
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: 27 15
No. of Words: 521 350
No. of Characters: 2690 1500
No. of Different Words: 227 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.778 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.163 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.755 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 216 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 158 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 123 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 71 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.296 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.755 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.667 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.305 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.495 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.074 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 4, column 141, Rule ID: IT_IS[17]
Message: Did you mean 'it's' (='it is') instead of 'its' (possessive pronoun)?
Suggestion: it's; it is
...ditures for dormitory and it seems that its a advantageous effect from online progr...
^^^
Line 4, column 145, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
...res for dormitory and it seems that its a advantageous effect from online program...
^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, besides, first, firstly, however, if, moreover, nevertheless, so, still, therefore, thus, after all, as to, in conclusion, in contrast
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.9520958084 100% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 18.0 13.6137724551 132% => OK
Pronoun: 35.0 28.8173652695 121% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 71.0 55.5748502994 128% => OK
Nominalization: 15.0 16.3942115768 91% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2748.0 2260.96107784 122% => OK
No of words: 521.0 441.139720559 118% => OK
Chars per words: 5.27447216891 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.77759609229 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.83454878837 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 231.0 204.123752495 113% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.443378119002 0.468620217663 95% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 897.3 705.55239521 127% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 16.0 8.76447105788 183% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 27.0 19.7664670659 137% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 51.5566198272 57.8364921388 89% => OK
Chars per sentence: 101.777777778 119.503703932 85% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.2962962963 23.324526521 83% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.18518518519 5.70786347227 91% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 13.0 4.67664670659 278% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.430244937863 0.218282227539 197% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.108982586592 0.0743258471296 147% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0981129274553 0.0701772020484 140% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.210178898894 0.128457276422 164% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.104993607996 0.0628817314937 167% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.0 14.3799401198 90% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 43.73 48.3550499002 90% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.29 12.5979740519 105% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.19 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 119.0 98.500998004 121% => 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?
---------------------
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.