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
The argument tries to assert that by promoting online degree programs, the enrollment in the university would increase and the budget deficit due to maintenance costs will decrease. It might be a valid argument if the assumptions in the argument hold true. However, the argument is filled with assumptions, and if the assumptions prove unwarranted, the argument fails. Therefore, the argument is not persuasive.
First of all, the argument assumes that if Omni University was successful in getting many students enrolled in its online degree program, Humana University too would be able to get similar enrollments. Therefore, based on this assumption, Humana University would be able to collect enough tuition and fees from the students in order to counter the budget deficit. However, it is not a certainty that Humana University too would be able to get similar enrollments. Just the availability of online programs cannot ensure that students will join the university. For instance, if there was a certain program that got most students enrolled in Omni and if that program was not available in Humana, then Humana would not be able to enroll many students. Similarly, promotion of the programs and the reputation of the university also affect the chances of getting good enrollment. If Humana could not meet Omni's standards, it would not be able to lure many students. In that case, argument of decreasing budget deficit by getting more students would be void.
Further, the argument also assumes that the decrease in maintenance expenditure at Omni was because of classes being held online. Therefore, the contention of the president of Humana is that by having online classes, maintenance expenditure can be mitigated. While having online classes can be one of the reasons of decrease in Omni's expenditure, we cannot be sure that it was the only reason. For example, if Omni was able to find a contractor that would do the maintenance task at a significantly lower price, the expenditure of Omni would decrease. If reasons similar to this had contributed more for the decreased expenditure, Humana would not be able to significantly decrease its expenses merely by adding online program.
Moreover, another assumption that bigger enrollment would decrease the budget deficit can also be flawed. If expenses increase with increase in number of students, the deficit can also widen. If expenses related to running online programs become more than the earnings from the program the deficit will increase. In that case, the program that is expected to be lucrative will instead cause financial disaster in Humana.
At length, adding online degree programs is an important decision, and various questions have to be analyzed before adapting the suggestion.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 7, column 193, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” 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.
...f students, the deficit can also widen. If expenses related to running online prog...
^^
Discourse Markers used:
['also', 'but', 'first', 'however', 'if', 'moreover', 'similarly', 'so', 'then', 'therefore', 'while', 'for example', 'for instance', 'first of all']
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance in Part of Speech:
Nouns: 0.25354969574 0.25644967241 99% => OK
Verbs: 0.16430020284 0.15541462614 106% => OK
Adjectives: 0.0892494929006 0.0836205057962 107% => OK
Adverbs: 0.0588235294118 0.0520304965353 113% => OK
Pronouns: 0.0141987829615 0.0272364105082 52% => OK
Prepositions: 0.125760649087 0.125424944231 100% => OK
Participles: 0.0446247464503 0.0416121511921 107% => OK
Conjunctions: 2.84615384615 2.79052419416 102% => OK
Infinitives: 0.0283975659229 0.026700313972 106% => OK
Particles: 0.0 0.001811407834 0% => OK
Determiners: 0.0953346855984 0.113004496875 84% => OK
Modal_auxiliary: 0.0466531440162 0.0255425247493 183% => Less modal verbs wanted (like 'must , shall , will , should , would , can , could , may , and might').
WH_determiners: 0.00811359026369 0.0127820249294 63% => OK
Vocabulary words and sentences:
No of characters: 2767.0 2731.13054187 101% => OK
No of words: 442.0 446.07635468 99% => OK
Chars per words: 6.26018099548 6.12365571057 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.58517132086 4.57801047555 100% => OK
words length more than 5 chars: 0.423076923077 0.378187486979 112% => OK
words length more than 6 chars: 0.328054298643 0.287650121315 114% => OK
words length more than 7 chars: 0.242081447964 0.208842608468 116% => OK
words length more than 8 chars: 0.14479638009 0.135150697306 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.84615384615 2.79052419416 102% => OK
Unique words: 182.0 207.018472906 88% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.411764705882 0.469332199767 88% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
Word variations: 44.7933079987 52.1807786196 86% => OK
How many sentences: 22.0 20.039408867 110% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0909090909 23.2022227129 87% => OK
Sentence length SD: 39.6073705471 57.7814097925 69% => OK
Chars per sentence: 125.772727273 141.986410481 89% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.0909090909 23.2022227129 87% => OK
Discourse Markers: 0.636363636364 0.724660767414 88% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.14285714286 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 3.58251231527 28% => OK
Readability: 52.8963389552 51.9672348444 102% => OK
Elegance: 1.78632478632 1.8405768891 97% => OK
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.410566856272 0.441005458295 93% => OK
Sentence sentence coherence: 0.170350668652 0.135418324435 126% => OK
Sentence sentence coherence SD: 0.110632275306 0.0829849096947 133% => OK
Sentence paragraph coherence: 0.597939162712 0.58762219726 102% => OK
Sentence paragraph coherence SD: 0.139448094602 0.147661913831 94% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.189099276039 0.193483328276 98% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0965418909265 0.0970749176394 99% => OK
Paragraph paragraph coherence: 0.367483704049 0.42659136922 86% => OK
Paragraph paragraph coherence SD: 0.131010577992 0.0774707102158 169% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.269592780989 0.312017818177 86% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0794200112815 0.0698173142475 114% => OK
Task Achievement:
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.33743842365 72% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 13.0 6.87684729064 189% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.82512315271 62% => OK
Positive topic words: 5.0 6.46551724138 77% => OK
Negative topic words: 11.0 5.36822660099 205% => OK
Neutral topic words: 2.0 2.82389162562 71% => OK
Total topic words: 18.0 14.657635468 123% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.