The following is a recommendation from the personnel director to the president of Acme Publishing Company.
"Many other companies have recently stated that having their employees take the Easy Read Speed-Reading Course has greatly improved productivity. One graduate of the course was able to read a 500-page report in only two hours; another graduate rose from an assistant manager to vice president of the company in under a year. Obviously, the faster you can read, the more information you can absorb in a single workday. Moreover, Easy Read would cost Acme only $500 per employee—a small price to pay when you consider the benefits. Included in this fee is a three-week seminar in Spruce City and a lifelong subscription to the Easy Read newsletter. Clearly, to improve overall productivity, Acme should require all of our employees to take the Easy Read course."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
In the statement, the director argues that all of the employees from Acme Publishing Company should be required to make the easy read course in order to improve productivity. To bolster this, the director cites the achievements by two of the graduates from the course and mentions the cost of the course. however, the argument is tenuous in several aspects.
it is being stated that one graduate from the easy read course is about to read a 500-page report in two hours. however, one might ask that does two hours means this graduate is a fast reader? it is possible that it only took one hour to read the same amount of paper for others who didn’t even take the course. also, the director mentions that another graduate rose from an assistant manager to vice president within a year. Nevertheless, another question might rise: is there other factors that leads to this change? without concrete evidence, we cannot exclude the possibility that this graduate has some other special skills such as he is a polyglot that makes him stands out from other candidates for the position of vice president.
The director mentions that the faster reading speed will lead to more information absorption in a single workday. Nonetheless, one might argue that productivity is not only depend on the reading speed, there also many other factors that related to an employee’s woking efficiency. it is possible that easy read requires its learners to take a 4 hours course every single day. this might deprived the sleeping time of the employees because they also need to deal with their works from job. without sufficient rest, it is possible that the productivity of the employees will even go down.
it is also mentioned that easy read course would cost five hundred dollars per employee. one question that taken into consideration is that what about the cost of other speed-reading courses? it is possible that other study organizations might only charge two or three hundred dollars per person for their speed reading courses, or they might even offer discount on their price. Moreover, even though faster reading speed can actually improve one’s productivity, another question might be that will the course be useful for everyone? Perhaps some employees might still found speed reading so difficult even after taken the course.
In sum, the director’s argument is logically flawed and the evidence used is also groundless. To strength it, the director should conduct a more comprehensive research about the relationship between reading speed and productivity and should also compare the price and the practicability of courses offered by other study organizations with the one offered by easy read.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 2.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 11 15
No. of Words: 445 350
No. of Characters: 2202 1500
No. of Different Words: 203 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.593 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.948 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.576 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 151 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 117 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 76 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 37 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 40.455 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 23.376 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.818 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.428 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.713 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.165 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 44, Rule ID: ALL_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'all the'.
Suggestion: all the
...the statement, the director argues that all of the employees from Acme Publishing Company ...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 306, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: However
...se and mentions the cost of the course. however, the argument is tenuous in several asp...
^^^^^^^
Line 11, column 1, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: It
...uous in several aspects. it is being stated that one graduate from ...
^^
Line 11, column 113, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: However
...to read a 500-page report in two hours. however, one might ask that does two hours mean...
^^^^^^^
Line 11, column 194, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: It
...s means this graduate is a fast reader? it is possible that it only took one hour ...
^^
Line 11, column 318, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Also
...s who didn't even take the course. also, the director mentions that another gra...
^^^^
Line 11, column 525, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Without
...ther factors that leads to this change? without concrete evidence, we cannot exclude th...
^^^^^^^
Line 21, column 287, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: It
...o an employee's woking efficiency. it is possible that easy read requires its...
^^
Line 21, column 382, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: This
...take a 4 hours course every single day. this might deprived the sleeping time of the...
^^^^
Line 21, column 495, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Without
...need to deal with their works from job. without sufficient rest, it is possible that th...
^^^^^^^
Line 31, column 1, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: It
...oyees will even go down. it is also mentioned that easy read course...
^^
Line 31, column 90, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: One
...cost five hundred dollars per employee. one question that taken into consideration ...
^^^
Line 31, column 193, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: It
...he cost of other speed-reading courses? it is possible that other study organizati...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, however, if, moreover, nevertheless, nonetheless, so, still, of course, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 19.0 19.6327345309 97% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 18.0 12.9520958084 139% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 19.0 13.6137724551 140% => OK
Pronoun: 40.0 28.8173652695 139% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 51.0 55.5748502994 92% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 16.3942115768 73% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2320.0 2260.96107784 103% => OK
No of words: 444.0 441.139720559 101% => OK
Chars per words: 5.22522522523 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.5903493882 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.72475984411 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 213.0 204.123752495 104% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.47972972973 0.468620217663 102% => OK
syllable_count: 694.8 705.55239521 98% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 4.96107784431 161% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 51.0423771296 57.8364921388 88% => OK
Chars per sentence: 110.476190476 119.503703932 92% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.1428571429 23.324526521 91% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.52380952381 5.70786347227 79% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 13.0 5.25449101796 247% => Less language errors wanted.
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 6.88822355289 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.67664670659 192% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.323673459085 0.218282227539 148% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.104952984612 0.0743258471296 141% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.069377553291 0.0701772020484 99% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.203412915068 0.128457276422 158% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0364614635967 0.0628817314937 58% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.8 14.3799401198 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.05 12.5979740519 104% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.52 8.32208582834 90% => OK
difficult_words: 80.0 98.500998004 81% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 7.5 12.3882235529 61% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.9071856287 67% => The average readability is low. Need to imporve the language.
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.