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.
It seems axiomatic that Humana University should follow the policy of Omni University that provides online degree programs. To support the argument the president cites a significant drop of expenditures for dormitory and classroom space that is most likely because of Omni University's online instructions. Humana University, in contrast, is stagnant in growth of enrollment and cost of facility maintenance has increased. However, the president's claim is not cogent because of several reasons.
First, the author posits that online programs in Omni University is successful since the enrollment increased by 50% from last year. This data, nonetheless, could be an aberrant data that only applies for this year. Also, it could also be that 50% increase is coming from 2 students last year and 3 students this year, which, if true, will fail to elucidate the success of the program. Without considering these possibilities, the author cannot draw any firm conclusion that the online program offered by Omni University is successful.
Second, the president conjectures that Omni University's significant expenditures decrease owes to the cost decrease for dormitory and classroom space. Nevertheless, cost decrease for dormitory and classroom space cannot accurately manifest the reason of decrease in expenditure of the entire cost. Perhaps, the entire expenditure of the school might have increased due to its heavy investment on its online degree programs. Unless the author provides exact document of the total costs, the claim will remain gratuitous.
Another supposition the author has is that Humana University's lack of growth in enrollment rate and increase in cost are due to not implementing online degree program. The president's argument, nevertheless, is flawed since it fails to consider confounding variables. Humana University's enrollment rate could be stagnant because of the school's lack of funding for students, low quality of lectures, and not enough promotion. Since the author is not considering these variables, the author's claim is flawed.
Lastly, the president supposes that the situations of both Humana University and Omni University are the same; thus, same policy will elicit same outcome. First, it is not proven that online programs contributed to O's positive changes. And even if it is true, the situations for both schools are different. Omni University could be funded more by the government for their online degree programs. Also, Omni University could be generally more preferred by students owing to its various majors and stellar faculties. Without identifying and weighing these possibilities, the author's argument remains unconvincing.
All in all, the president's claim remains gratuitous. To strengthen this claim, the author should provide more information about exact enrollment number at Omni and Humana, accurate revenue-expense analysis, and education environment of Humana and Omni University.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- not exactly, you mean if there are 2000 students last year and 3000 students this year, then it is a success? or how many numbers mean the success.
argument 2 -- there are nothing wrong that Omni showed a significant decrease from prior years in expenditures for dormitory and classroom space.
argument 3 -- OK
argument 4 -- OK
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flaws:
Better to put argument 1 and argument 2 together:
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.
here we suppose there are two million students for last last year and 3 million students this year, and we also accept there is a significant decrease from prior years in expenditures for dormitory and classroom space. now if:
'the money made from the increased students' is less than 'the investment on its online degree programs and the expenditures(no matter the expenditures are up or down)'
then it is not a success.
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 24 15
No. of Words: 444 350
No. of Characters: 2442 1500
No. of Different Words: 193 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.59 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.5 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.927 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 198 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 144 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 117 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 80 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18.5 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.191 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.5 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.318 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.547 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.073 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 7, column 173, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'presidents'' or 'president's'?
Suggestion: presidents'; president's
...implementing online degree program. The presidents argument, nevertheless, is flawed since...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 574, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...g and weighing these possibilities, the authors argument remains unconvincing. All ...
^^^^^^^
Discourse Markers used:
['also', 'but', 'first', 'however', 'if', 'lastly', 'nevertheless', 'nonetheless', 'second', 'so', 'then', 'thus', 'in contrast', 'it is true']
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance in Part of Speech:
Nouns: 0.300198807157 0.25644967241 117% => OK
Verbs: 0.131212723658 0.15541462614 84% => OK
Adjectives: 0.0994035785288 0.0836205057962 119% => OK
Adverbs: 0.0437375745527 0.0520304965353 84% => OK
Pronouns: 0.0178926441352 0.0272364105082 66% => OK
Prepositions: 0.119284294235 0.125424944231 95% => OK
Participles: 0.0318091451292 0.0416121511921 76% => OK
Conjunctions: 2.98654423599 2.79052419416 107% => OK
Infinitives: 0.0178926441352 0.026700313972 67% => OK
Particles: 0.0 0.001811407834 0% => OK
Determiners: 0.0934393638171 0.113004496875 83% => OK
Modal_auxiliary: 0.0258449304175 0.0255425247493 101% => OK
WH_determiners: 0.00596421471173 0.0127820249294 47% => Some subClauses wanted starting by 'Which, Who, What, Whom, Whose.....'
Vocabulary words and sentences:
No of characters: 2952.0 2731.13054187 108% => OK
No of words: 444.0 446.07635468 100% => OK
Chars per words: 6.64864864865 6.12365571057 109% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.5903493882 4.57801047555 100% => OK
words length more than 5 chars: 0.459459459459 0.378187486979 121% => OK
words length more than 6 chars: 0.333333333333 0.287650121315 116% => OK
words length more than 7 chars: 0.272522522523 0.208842608468 130% => OK
words length more than 8 chars: 0.198198198198 0.135150697306 147% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.98654423599 2.79052419416 107% => OK
Unique words: 203.0 207.018472906 98% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.457207207207 0.469332199767 97% => OK
Word variations: 50.4670115777 52.1807786196 97% => OK
How many sentences: 24.0 20.039408867 120% => OK
Sentence length: 18.5 23.2022227129 80% => OK
Sentence length SD: 40.027052484 57.7814097925 69% => OK
Chars per sentence: 123.0 141.986410481 87% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.5 23.2022227129 80% => OK
Discourse Markers: 0.583333333333 0.724660767414 80% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.14285714286 117% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 3.58251231527 56% => OK
Readability: 51.8333333333 51.9672348444 100% => OK
Elegance: 2.34020618557 1.8405768891 127% => OK
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.532729621715 0.441005458295 121% => OK
Sentence sentence coherence: 0.106883849429 0.135418324435 79% => OK
Sentence sentence coherence SD: 0.103164488784 0.0829849096947 124% => OK
Sentence paragraph coherence: 0.538902705046 0.58762219726 92% => OK
Sentence paragraph coherence SD: 0.130172040627 0.147661913831 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.202717474509 0.193483328276 105% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0998284674788 0.0970749176394 103% => OK
Paragraph paragraph coherence: 0.313124010768 0.42659136922 73% => OK
Paragraph paragraph coherence SD: 0.0285560625104 0.0774707102158 37% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.343561115407 0.312017818177 110% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0749197508105 0.0698173142475 107% => OK
Task Achievement:
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.33743842365 120% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 6.87684729064 58% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 10.0 4.82512315271 207% => Less neutral sentences wanted.
Positive topic words: 6.0 6.46551724138 93% => OK
Negative topic words: 3.0 5.36822660099 56% => OK
Neutral topic words: 9.0 2.82389162562 319% => OK
Total topic words: 18.0 14.657635468 123% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
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Rates: 70.83 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.25 Out of 6 -- The score is based on the average performance of 20,000 argument essays. This e-grader is not smart enough to check on arguments.
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Note: This is not the final score. 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.