"Homes in the northeastern United States, where winters are typically cold, have traditionally used oil as their major fuel for heating. Last year that region experienced twenty days with below-average temperatures, and local weather forecasters throughout the region predict that this weather pattern will continue for several more years. Furthermore, many new homes have been built in this region during the past year. Because of these developments, we predict an increased demand for heating oil and recommend investment in Consolidated Industries, one of whose major business operations is the retail sale of home heating oil."
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
The above argument is seemingly quite alright: colder winters and more houses means that more heating is needed, and this heating will be supplied by the oil industry, specifically Consolidated Industries. However, taking a closer look at the argument raises several questions and doubts about this recommendation, which is based on assumptions with no support.
To begin with, there is an assumption that oil will continue to be the major source of heat used in the area. This raises a question about the new homes being built, as they might have more modern sources of heat. If there is in fact a...
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Sentence: The above argument is seemingly quite alright: colder winters and more houses means that more heating is needed, and this heating will be supplied by the oil industry, specifically Consolidated Industries.
Description: The fragment houses means that is rare
Suggestion: Possible agreement error: Replace means with verb, base: uninflected present, imperative or infinitive
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 5.0 out of 6
Category: Very Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 1 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 475 350
No. of Characters: 2264 1500
No. of Different Words: 211 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.668 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.766 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.665 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 151 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 121 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 75 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 52 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.619 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.629 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.667 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.315 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.583 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.08 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5