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 concludes that like those at Omni online degree program should be initiated and actively promoted to increase enrollment and solve the problem of budget deficit at Humana university; however, this conclusion cannot be accepted as it is in that it rests on a number of premises all of which can be challenged in one way or another.
The first problem with the argument is that the president of Humana university assumes that last year's increase in the number of students in Omni university by 50 percent has happened because Omni university offered an online program. However, there is no evidence to prove that the increase in enrollment in Omni university actually happened because of the online degree program. Maybe it happened because they offered new majors in the university which they did not offer before thus new students joined the university or maybe an increase in enrollment happened because Omni university has hired new, top-ranked faculty members that encored students to enroll in this university.
Another problem with the argument is that the president comes to this conclusion that a significant decrease in expenditures for dormitory and classroom space in comparison to prior years in Omni university is because they hold classes via the internet. However, there is no evidence to definitely prove this conclusion in that case. Maybe the price of houses around campus decrease and students preferred to rent a house near university instead of using dormitory thus Omni university did not need to create a new dormitory. Or maybe Omni university holds classes in hours that before no classes held on that hour and with this decision they did not need to increase classroom.
A third problem with the argument is that the writer thinks that the falling number of enrollment in Humana University in the past three years and an increase in the cost of maintaining new buildings can be solved with offering the online program. However, there is no evidence to insure this conclusion. Maybe the decrease in the number of enrollment is because they do not offer majors that in comparison to the past three years more students attract to it or maybe they increase the tuition fee and this is the reason the student does not enroll in their university. On the other hand, if we assume that offering an online program help to cut the building cost. But we should consider that it needs considerations that Humana university needs to prepare and maybe the cost of this basis for the online program be more than the cost of building new buildings.
In the final analysis, the president of Humana university's conclusion cannot be taken to be correct because as it was shown in the body paragraphs above it depends on the number of assumptions each of which is questionable. The conclusion can only be accepted if the weaknesses already referred to are all removed
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| 2020-01-20 | __annabelle__ | 59 | view |
| 2019-12-19 | tg763622253 | 68 | view |
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| 2019-11-30 | sudesh tiwari | 42 | view |
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- Critical judgment of work in any given field has little value unless it comes from someone who is an expert in that field. 50
- Governments officials should rely on their own judgment rather than unquestioningly carry out the will of the people they serve. 50
- 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 sign 59
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: 15 15
No. of Words: 487 350
No. of Characters: 2397 1500
No. of Different Words: 184 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.698 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.922 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.657 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 182 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 140 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 96 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 56 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 32.467 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 14.422 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.733 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.4 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.619 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.141 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, first, however, if, may, so, third, thus, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 12.9520958084 69% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 20.0 13.6137724551 147% => OK
Pronoun: 42.0 28.8173652695 146% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 75.0 55.5748502994 135% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 16.3942115768 73% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2429.0 2260.96107784 107% => OK
No of words: 487.0 441.139720559 110% => OK
Chars per words: 4.98767967146 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.69766713281 4.56307096286 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.70345991041 2.78398813304 97% => OK
Unique words: 184.0 204.123752495 90% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.377823408624 0.468620217663 81% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 797.4 705.55239521 113% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 4.96107784431 20% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 19.7664670659 76% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 32.0 22.8473053892 140% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 86.3186345274 57.8364921388 149% => OK
Chars per sentence: 161.933333333 119.503703932 136% => OK
Words per sentence: 32.4666666667 23.324526521 139% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.93333333333 5.70786347227 86% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.67664670659 21% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.331328273749 0.218282227539 152% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.128239208696 0.0743258471296 173% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.112400840265 0.0701772020484 160% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.193039896891 0.128457276422 150% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.105313859867 0.0628817314937 167% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 18.3 14.3799401198 127% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 39.0 48.3550499002 81% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.8 12.197005988 130% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.25 12.5979740519 97% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.98 8.32208582834 96% => OK
difficult_words: 85.0 98.500998004 86% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 29.0 12.3882235529 234% => Linsear_write_formula is high.
gunning_fog: 14.8 11.1389221557 133% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.