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.
In the argument, the author claims that Humana University should initiate and actively promote online degree problems like Omni to increase enrollment and solve the problem of budget. At first glance, the author's argument seems plausible to some extent, with a detailed analysis, the reader can still find some logical fallacies that might seriously undermine the original chain of reasoning in the statement.
The first assumption we need to examine is whether online instruction taking place online significantly decrease the expenditure of Omni, as the author assumes. Clearly, other reasons also exist to lead to the same enhancement. For example, in many universities of China, all the lights in the dorm will be turned of and the gate of dorm will be shut down at 11 pm to help students keep a balanced lifestyle. If Omni take the same action, chances are good that the expenditure for dorm and classroom will go down. Obviously, the author needs to make sure that it is just because of online instruction taking place online that significantly decrease the expenditure of Omni, or else he could not justify his later conclusion.
The second assumption we need to check is whether the decrease of enrollment and the increasing cost of maintaining buildings at Humana could be solved by online degree. First, there are several reasons leading to the decline of enrollment, such as worse management, higher entrance standard, or declining education quality. Furthermore, much attention paid to the building reservation could also bring higher cost. Apparently, the author has to check that online degree could increase enrollment and decrease cost of maintaining buildings at Humana.
Even if the assumption mentioned above proves true, another assumption we need to make sure is whether Humana could refer to the best practice of Omni. Apparently, the author does not consider that there should exist great differences between those two universities, for instance, the campus management, education quality and campus locations. Such differences could weaken the analogy of the two universities. As a result, the author cannot simply propose that Humana could copy the successful experience of Omni.
After we have examined the implied assumption, which have approved not necessarily to be well justified, we may safely come to the conclusion that the argument based on such assumptions could not hold water.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
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: 16 15
No. of Words: 383 350
No. of Characters: 1986 1500
No. of Different Words: 200 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.424 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.185 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.723 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 152 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 107 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 82 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 56 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.938 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.235 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.812 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.348 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.599 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.136 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 206, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...problem of budget. At first glance, the authors argument seems plausible to some extent...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 315, Rule ID: TURNED_OFF[1]
Message: Did you mean 'off'?
Suggestion: off
...l the lights in the dorm will be turned of and the gate of dorm will be shut down ...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, apparently, first, furthermore, if, may, second, so, still, well, as to, for example, for instance, such as, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 19.6327345309 51% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 20.0 12.9520958084 154% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 11.1786427146 81% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 18.0 28.8173652695 62% => OK
Preposition: 47.0 55.5748502994 85% => OK
Nominalization: 25.0 16.3942115768 152% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2050.0 2260.96107784 91% => OK
No of words: 383.0 441.139720559 87% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.35248041775 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.42384287591 4.56307096286 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.82603999536 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 206.0 204.123752495 101% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.537859007833 0.468620217663 115% => OK
syllable_count: 645.3 705.55239521 91% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 4.96107784431 20% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => 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: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 49.3152724189 57.8364921388 85% => OK
Chars per sentence: 128.125 119.503703932 107% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.9375 23.324526521 103% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.875 5.70786347227 138% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.20758483034 134% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.141701455434 0.218282227539 65% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.053222039172 0.0743258471296 72% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0528758626601 0.0701772020484 75% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0735215995453 0.128457276422 57% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0407204009827 0.0628817314937 65% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.7 14.3799401198 109% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 39.67 48.3550499002 82% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 12.197005988 110% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.05 12.5979740519 112% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.98 8.32208582834 108% => OK
difficult_words: 102.0 98.500998004 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.