[15] The following memorandum is from the business manager of Happy Pancake House restaurants.
Recently, butter has been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southwestern United States. This change, however, has had little impact on our customers. In fact, only about 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. Furthermore, many servers have reported that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. Clearly, either these customers do not distinguish butter from margarine or they use the term 'butter' to refer to either butter or margarine.
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument.
Suggesting that replacing butter with margarine in Happy Pancake House throughout southwestern U.S. causes a few complains, the author concludes that this hasn't impacted on their customers. However, there are a number of possible alternative explanations that can be employed to invalidate the apparently sound interpretation.
First, to reach the conclusion that the impact is little, the author mentions there is only about 2 percent of customers have complained, and posits that 98 percent are happy to change. Nevertheless, the reasoning line between the 2 percent, and the 98 percent is rife with holes and assumptions. We don't know where does the 2 percent come from. Maybe the feedback form is too inconvenient for most customers to fill. Even if the form is accessible, we can't assume that people who don't express their dislike equate to people is happy. To be specific, some consumers could complain just when they meet the situation twice, and some who don't complain may just don't patronize the restaurants any more. Hence, there are many possible scenarios where the statistic doesn't reflect the accurate dissatisfaction.
Additionally, the author mentions "many servers" report "a number of customers" don't complain when given margarine after asking better. Nevertheless, without specific numbers, we can not imply that customers complain little. "Many servers" could be the workers who serve at night when few customers would order butter to avoid consume too much fat. "Many servers" may be 20 servers out of 1000 servers. "A number of customers" alike might be 5 out of 10. We just don't know. These equivocal words can't lead to the explanation the author claims.
Finally, even if there really is a small part of customers who dislike the change, we can not jump to the conclusion that there is little impact. There might be some alternative consequences. For instance, the amount of consumption attributes to the consumers who disagree with the change accounts for 10% of the revenue. The influence of the dislike may be disproportionately bigger in that the bad words spread quicker than the benign.
To sum up, the author's argument that the complains is few and the impact is little could be true at some situation. However, there are many alternative explanations. The author doesn't offer enough statistic to determine which statement is most likely, and can't fundamentally persuad us.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 397 350
No. of Characters: 1966 1500
No. of Different Words: 194 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.464 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.952 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.849 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 141 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 101 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 74 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 55 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 17.261 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.514 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.565 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.289 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.488 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.112 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 156, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: hasn't
...mplains, the author concludes that this hasnt impacted on their customers. However, t...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 301, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
... is rife with holes and assumptions. We dont know where does the 2 percent come from...
^^^^
Line 3, column 454, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
...ill. Even if the form is accessible, we cant assume that people who dont express the...
^^^^
Line 3, column 482, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...essible, we cant assume that people who dont express their dislike equate to people ...
^^^^
Line 3, column 636, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
... meet the situation twice, and some who dont complain may just dont patronize the re...
^^^^
Line 3, column 659, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...ce, and some who dont complain may just dont patronize the restaurants any more. Hen...
^^^^
Line 3, column 761, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
... possible scenarios where the statistic doesnt reflect the accurate dissatisfaction. ...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 101, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...eport 'a number of customers' dont complain when given margarine after ask...
^^^^
Line 5, column 444, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
... may be 20 servers out of 1000 servers. 'A number of customers' alike might...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 514, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...os; alike might be 5 out of 10. We just dont know. These equivocal words cant lead t...
^^^^
Line 5, column 547, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
...e just dont know. These equivocal words cant lead to the explanation the author clai...
^^^^
Line 9, column 16, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...ker than the benign. To sum up, the authors argument that the complains is few and ...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 178, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...ny alternative explanations. The author doesnt offer enough statistic to determine whi...
^^^^^^
Line 9, column 257, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
...ine which statement is most likely, and cant fundamentally persuad us.
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
apparently, but, finally, first, hence, however, if, may, nevertheless, really, so, for instance, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 23.0 19.6327345309 117% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 11.1786427146 54% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 21.0 13.6137724551 154% => OK
Pronoun: 21.0 28.8173652695 73% => OK
Preposition: 37.0 55.5748502994 67% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 16.3942115768 61% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2081.0 2260.96107784 92% => OK
No of words: 388.0 441.139720559 88% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.36340206186 5.12650576532 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.43821085614 4.56307096286 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.06459989314 2.78398813304 110% => OK
Unique words: 203.0 204.123752495 99% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.523195876289 0.468620217663 112% => OK
syllable_count: 623.7 705.55239521 88% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 16.0 22.8473053892 70% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 45.587780673 57.8364921388 79% => OK
Chars per sentence: 90.4782608696 119.503703932 76% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.8695652174 23.324526521 72% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.65217391304 5.70786347227 82% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 14.0 5.25449101796 266% => Less language errors wanted.
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.67664670659 171% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.0796167013814 0.218282227539 36% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0212640278594 0.0743258471296 29% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0587409588073 0.0701772020484 84% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0608223303836 0.128457276422 47% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0792191822461 0.0628817314937 126% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.3 14.3799401198 86% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 55.24 48.3550499002 114% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.5 12.197005988 78% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.51 12.5979740519 107% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.26 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 94.0 98.500998004 95% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.4 11.1389221557 75% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
It is not exactly right on the topic in the view of e-grader. Maybe there is a wrong essay topic.
Rates: 16.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 1.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.