The following appeared in a memo from the president of Bower Builders, a company that constructs new homes.
"A nationwide survey reveals that the two most-desired home features are a large family room and a large, well-appointed kitchen. A number of homes in our area built by our competitor Domus Construction have such features and have sold much faster and at significantly higher prices than the national average. To boost sales and profits, we should increase the size of the family rooms and kitchens in all the homes we build and should make state-of-the-art kitchens a standard feature. Moreover, our larger family rooms and kitchens can come at the expense of the dining room, since many of our recent buyers say they do not need a separate dining room for family meals."
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.
In the memo written by the president of Bower Builders, a recommendation of how to boost sales and profits was made. In arriving at that conclusion, the president relied on the following arguments 1. A nationwide survey that revealed that the two most-desired home features are a large family room and a large, well-appointed kitchen. 2. A competitor success tied to implementation of this feature 3. A recent trend as regards buyers.
First, the national survey may be problematic in various regards. Were respondents provided with alternatives to choose from or was the survey questions open-ended. If they were provided alternatives, this will impact the credibility of the results given that respondents who would have preferred other options will be left with no choice than to pick from limited alternatives. Secondly, was the respondents’ identity anonymous or treated confidentially. This raises a question to the answers being supplied given that respondents would respond in certain way especially if they feel that their personal information and identity would be revealed. Either case would significantly impact on the survey, and any recommendation engendered from such would amount to a poor advice.
Furthermore, was the survey conducted by an independent party or by a competitor. It is possible for Domus construction company to have sponsored the national survey using its employing or third party in other to get a market advantage. The president would have to substantiate with evidence, otherwise the assumptions that the national survey came from an independent body would be unwarranted.
In addition, the president cites the success of its competitor as a result of its adoption and implementation of a large family room and a large well-appointed kitchen. This assumption may be unwarranted, it could have been that other than these features, Domus goes ahead to provide its clientele with consultation services, interior and exterior decorations of the buildings. The president fails to provide any evidence to suggest that this features alone is sufficient to amount to such high prices than the national average.
Whether the houses that Domus constructed were pre-ordered remains debatable. It is possible that they had contractual agreement with the government to supply housing units for a given demography in which case the government paid for it and is now selling at a subsidized rate. Also, whether Domus Construction serves an affluent clientele is yet to be substantiated with empirical evidence by the president. In which case provides a groundless basis for the recommendation.
The recent trend of recent buyers that do not need a separate dining room for family meals may not be reliable. This trend may be as a result of supply to a different demography. To ascertain whether this trend is not a mere temporal relationship, it is imperative that a comparison of trends for the past year to ascertain whether this is the case. Failure to substantiate this, would cast serious doubt on the soundness of the claim and whether if at all would lead to increase in profit for Bower Builders.
In summary, the president has to substantiate on the credibility of the national survey and whether both Bower and Domus Construction serve the same demography. Even if this is the case whether the features provided by Domus are solely sufficient in ensuring success
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Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 10 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 8 2
No. of Sentences: 28 15
No. of Words: 544 350
No. of Characters: 2801 1500
No. of Different Words: 242 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.829 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.149 4.6
Word Length SD: 3.075 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 201 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 163 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 127 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 87 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.429 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.914 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.536 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.255 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.32 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.065 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 2 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 402, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...ed to implementation of this feature 3. A recent trend as regards buyers. First,...
^
Line 2, column 763, Rule ID: A_UNCOUNTABLE[3]
Message: Uncountable nouns are usually not used with an indefinite article. Use simply 'poor advice'.
Suggestion: poor advice
...on engendered from such would amount to a poor advice. Furthermore, was the survey conducted...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 8, column 1, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “Whether” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...rices than the national average. Whether the houses that Domus constructed were ...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, furthermore, if, may, second, secondly, so, third, well, as regards, as to, in addition, in summary, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 17.0 12.9520958084 131% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 37.0 28.8173652695 128% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 69.0 55.5748502994 124% => OK
Nominalization: 20.0 16.3942115768 122% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2868.0 2260.96107784 127% => OK
No of words: 544.0 441.139720559 123% => OK
Chars per words: 5.27205882353 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.82947280553 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.16747091105 2.78398813304 114% => OK
Unique words: 250.0 204.123752495 122% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.459558823529 0.468620217663 98% => OK
syllable_count: 893.7 705.55239521 127% => 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: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 27.0 19.7664670659 137% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 49.5665436525 57.8364921388 86% => OK
Chars per sentence: 106.222222222 119.503703932 89% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.1481481481 23.324526521 86% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.62962962963 5.70786347227 81% => OK
Paragraphs: 7.0 5.15768463074 136% => Less paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => 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: 0.196818900523 0.218282227539 90% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0596935170739 0.0743258471296 80% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.119440557877 0.0701772020484 170% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.114344639095 0.128457276422 89% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.128563957274 0.0628817314937 204% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.5 14.3799401198 94% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.29 12.5979740519 105% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.63 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 138.0 98.500998004 140% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 6.5 12.3882235529 52% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Maximum six paragraphs wanted.
Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.