The following was used as part of an internet advertising company s appeal to businesses Furniture Depot employed our internet advertising company to help Since then its sales increased by 10 over last year s totals Furniture Depot s success demonstrates

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"The following was used as part of an internet advertising company's appeal to businesses: Furniture Depot employed our internet advertising company to help. Since then its sales increased by 10% over last year's totals. Furniture Depot's success demonstrates how using our internet services can increase your profitability. "

Describe how well reasoned you find this argument. In the discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the argument's conclusion. You may also address possible changes in the argument that would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.

The argument presented here is rife with unwarranted assumptions. Te begin with, the advertising company claims that it is because of their advertising campaign that the company has achieved greater profits as compared to last year. The amount of profit that the company made last year has not been mentioned. Say for example, the company made a profit of $100,000 last year, then a 10% increase would amount to a significant growth in profits.

However, if the company made a profit of $100 last year, then a 10% increase does not amount to much, and hence, would perhaps not justify the amount of money that the consumer would have to pay to avail the services of the advertising agency. Again, it is to be noted here, that the cost of availing these services has also not been mentioned, which is why it becomes difficult to do a cost-benefit analysis of employing these services.

Secondly, it has not been mentioned anywhere in the argument about any promotional offers/campaigns that the company might have organised. This would have attracted a greater number of buyers, and hence, would have resulted in the increase in profits.

Another assumption which has been made here is regarding the population of the area. If there has been a substantial increase in the population of the area over the last year, then it is quite reasonable to expect an increase in the number of good purchased from the Depot.

There is nothing mentioned in the argument about the cost of manufacturing of the items offered at Furniture Depot. It could be possible that the company might have employed new techniques to bring down its cost of manufacturing, in which case, even if the there was no change in the number and type of goods sold during the year, there would have been an increase in the amount of profit made this year.

The above reasoning gives rise to the conclusion that the argument presented in the question is not well-reasoned and is host to a number of questionable assumptions.

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Sentence: It could be possible that the company might have employed new techniques to bring down its cost of manufacturing, in which case, even if the there was no change in the number and type of goods sold during the year, there would have been an increase in the amount of profit made this year.
Description: The fragment the there was is rare
Suggestion: Possible agreement error: Replace there with adjective

Sentence: Secondly, it has not been mentioned anywhere in the argument about any promotional offers/campaigns that the company might have organised.
Error: organised Suggestion: organized

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argument 1 -- not OK

argument 2 -- not OK

argument 3 -- not OK
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Score: ? out of 6
Category: Poor Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 1 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 13 15
No. of Words: 342 350
No. of Characters: 1605 1500
No. of Different Words: 145 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.3 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.693 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.634 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 103 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 82 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 60 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 35 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 26.308 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.387 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.615 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.42 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.712 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.16 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5