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 instruction in the online programs 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 along with our budget deficit. To address these problems, Humana University will begin immediately to create and actively promote online degree programs like those at Omni. We predict that instituting these online degree programs will help Humana both increase its total enrollment and solve its budget problems."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the prediction 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 prediction.
The author in this argument concludes by predicting that instituting online programs in Humana University like the Omni University would increase the enrollment of students and solve budget problems. The author gives statistical evidence without details and makes a hasty conclusion by comparing the Universities. Furthermore, he does not give strong reasons for the decrease in enrollment of Humana University.
Firstly, the author gives statistical evidence stating 50% of increase in enrollment in online degree in Omni University than the previous year. The author does not give details of which courses had an increase in enrollment in online degree. For example, some of the courses like life science, etc., require presence of students in the class for practical work and cannot take online degree. The author fails give details of the courses which had an increase in enrollment in online degree in Omni University based on this evidence the author cannot predict that instituting online degree would increase enrollment of students .
Secondly,the author also gives another evidence that increase in online degree has led to decrease in expenditure of dorm and classroom space because online programs takes through internet. This evidence would directly contradict the prediction of solving the problems of Humana University budget for maintenance of building because students would not spend any money on classroom space and building. The problem of solving budget for maintenance of buildings of Humana University cannot be solved by starting online degree courses.
Finally, the author makes comparison of Humana University with Omni University and predicts that instituting online degree would increase enrollment of students. The author fails to consider the factors required for increase in enrollment of students like a good teaching faculty and better facilities in Humana university for students.The reason for dwindling of enrollment in Humana University may be due to lack of good teaching faculty and facilities. The author also mentions increase in budget deficit so there may be chances of not having good facilities in Humana University.
The argument can be further strengthened by providing more details of the courses which had an increase in enrollment in online degree in Omni University, the budget for maintenance of buildings of Humana University can be obtained by increasing the fees in online degree programs and considering the factors like good teaching faculty ,etc., that have led Omni University increase in enrollment of students.However, the argument lacks concrete evidences to make predictions by comparing Omni University with Humana University and the argument is flawed.
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Sentence: The author fails give details of the courses which had an increase in enrollment in online degree in Omni University based on this evidence the author cannot predict that instituting online degree would increase enrollment of students .
Description: A verb, present tense, 3rd person singular is not usually followed by a verb, base: uninflected present, imperative or infinitive
Suggestion: Refer to fails and give
flaws:
No. of Different Words: 145 200
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 1 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 15 15
No. of Words: 416 350
No. of Characters: 2270 1500
No. of Different Words: 145 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.516 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.457 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.776 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 204 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 148 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 114 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 62 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 27.733 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 15.801 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.533 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.482 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.684 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.228 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5