The following memorandum is from the business manager of Happy Pancake House restaurants.
"Butter has now been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southwestern United States. Only about 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. Furthermore, many servers have reported that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. Clearly, either these customers cannot distinguish butter from margarine or they use the term 'butter' to refer to either butter or margarine. Thus, we predict that Happy Pancake House will be able to increase profits dramatically if we extend this cost-saving change to all our restaurants in the southeast and northeast as well."
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.
In the memorandum from the business manager of Happy Pancake House restaurants, it is stated that the restaurants have started using margarine instead of Butter which is saving a lot of money, hence it will increase profit throughout southwestern, southeast and northeast United States. Based on the customer's reaction, they made this assertion that customer's are liking the new change in the restaurants which will be beneficial for the revenue of Happy Pancake House Restaurants. However, before this prediction can be properly evaluated, three questions must be answered.
First of all, do we know the percentage of customers that didn't complain regarding the change is happy? It is possible that those who didn't fall into the '2 percent of customers that made complaints' didn't actually like having margarine in place of butter, yet they didn't want to sound rude to the employees of the restaurant by saying it upfront. If any of these scenarios has any merit, then the conclusion drawn in the original argument doesn't hold water.
Second of all, do we know the customers who didn't complain when they were given margarine even after asking for butter return to that restaurant? It is possible that those customers thought that it was unncessesary to make the complaint when the employees didn't abide by the request at the first place which compelled them to never return to that same restaurant again. Further, probably any sort of customer review was not taken into consideration to determine the reason whether they liked the food or not. If this is correct, then the assertion becomes significantly weakened.
Finally, was any survey conducted to understand whether the customers can distinguish between butter or margarine? It is possible that there was no survey done to ask the customers what they actually wanted to have between butter or margarine, and which one they liked best. Maybe they didn't finish the food and left the restaurant in a hurry without paying attention to the elements of the food. If the aforementioned notions are valid, then argument is significantly incomplete.
In conclusion, the argument, as it stands now, is considerably flawed due to its reliance on several unwarranted assumptions. If the author is able to answer the three questions above and offer more evidence, perhaps in the form of a systematic research study, then it will be possible to fully evaluate the viability of the proposed argument that leads to the prediction that profit will increase by adopting the finacially efficient method of extending the use of margarine instead of butter in the Happy Pancake House restaurants.
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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: 6 2
No. of Sentences: 16 15
No. of Words: 437 350
No. of Characters: 2164 1500
No. of Different Words: 215 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.572 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.952 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.779 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 153 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 119 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 94 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 65 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 27.312 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 14.928 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.875 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.312 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.566 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.102 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 301, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'customers'' or 'customer's'?
Suggestion: customers'; customer's
...d northeast United States. Based on the customers reaction, they made this assertion that...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 361, Rule ID: PROGRESSIVE_VERBS[1]
Message: This verb is normally not used in the progressive form. Try a simple form instead.
...they made this assertion that customers are liking the new change in the restaurants which...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 576, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ated, three questions must be answered. First of all, do we know the percentage ...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 59, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: didn't
...e know the percentage of customers that didnt complain regarding the change is happy?...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 135, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: didn't
...is happy? It is possible that those who didnt fall into the 2 percent of customers th...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 199, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: didn't
...rcent of customers that made complaints didnt actually like having margarine in place...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 265, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: didn't
... margarine in place of butter, yet they didnt want to sound rude to the employees of ...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 439, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...nclusion drawn in the original argument doesnt hold water. Second of all, do we kno...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 45, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: didn't
...nd of all, do we know the customers who didnt complain when they were given margarine...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 257, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: didn't
...o make the complaint when the employees didnt abide by the request at the first place...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 287, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: didn't
...d which one they liked best. Maybe they didnt finish the food and left the restaurant...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, finally, first, hence, however, if, may, regarding, second, so, then, in conclusion, sort of, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.9520958084 54% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 20.0 13.6137724551 147% => OK
Pronoun: 38.0 28.8173652695 132% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 58.0 55.5748502994 104% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 16.3942115768 79% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2214.0 2260.96107784 98% => OK
No of words: 429.0 441.139720559 97% => OK
Chars per words: 5.16083916084 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.55107846309 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.81622514068 2.78398813304 101% => OK
Unique words: 218.0 204.123752495 107% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.508158508159 0.468620217663 108% => OK
syllable_count: 684.0 705.55239521 97% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 1.0 8.76447105788 11% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 19.7664670659 81% => 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: 26.0 22.8473053892 114% => OK
Sentence length SD: 86.0168724365 57.8364921388 149% => OK
Chars per sentence: 138.375 119.503703932 116% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.8125 23.324526521 115% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.5625 5.70786347227 132% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 11.0 5.25449101796 209% => Less language errors wanted.
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.295664800761 0.218282227539 135% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.086621807883 0.0743258471296 117% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.105051392356 0.0701772020484 150% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.159701253136 0.128457276422 124% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.102722991823 0.0628817314937 163% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.3 14.3799401198 113% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 45.09 48.3550499002 93% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 12.197005988 110% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.94 12.5979740519 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.61 8.32208582834 103% => OK
difficult_words: 100.0 98.500998004 102% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.1389221557 111% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 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.