Argue 56 The following appeared in a memo from the vice president of marketing at Dura-Sock, Inc.
“A recent study of our customers suggests that our company is wasting the money it spends on its patented Endure manufacturing process, which ensures that our socks are strong enough to last for two years. We have always advertised our use of the Endure process, but the new study shows that despite our socks’ durability, our average customer actually purchases new Dura-Socks every three months. Furthermore, our customers surveyed in our largest market, northeastern United States cities, say that they most value Dura-Socks’ stylish appearance and availability in many colors. These findings suggest that we can increase our profits by discontinuing use of the Endure manufacturing process.”
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 this memo, the vice president of marketing at Dura-Sock, Inc. argues that they should stop the Endure manufacturing process for their profit. Although this argument looks convincing at the first glance, the unsubstantiated assumptions lead me to question the validity of the argument.
First, the vice president assumes that the durability of the socks they made is not significant because their average customer purchases the new Dura-Socks every three months. However, people did not possess only one pair of socks. This denotes that the shorter purchasing period than the life of the socks may not be directly connected to the low importance of the durability. Ordinary people have more than one pair of socks, and they may buy new one when one of them are old enough. In addition, the reason of the new purchase is possibly due to the new color or the seasonal change, not due to the durability of the socks. For example, the socks for the winter season may be too thick and hot for the summer season. They need additional new socks for the summer season.
Second, another assumption the vice president makes is that the survey results lead that the durability of the socks is not important. In the survey, the vice president suggests the result within the range of market for northeastern United States, not whole United States. Even if the market of the northeastern United States is the largest market for their company, it cannot be generalized as the tendency of whole United States. In addition, the suggested advantages as a result of the survey, stylish appearance and availability in many colors, is only the advantageous points, not the reason why they buy that socks. Since there are a gap between the advantages and the reason of the purchase, it cannot be directly interpreted as the vice president aforementioned.
Lastly, the vice president’s conclusion to discontinue the use of Endure manufacturing process is based on the assumption that it will increase profits. However, they might need an additional cost to modify their manufacturing process. The cost needs for the modification may overcome the cost that they possibly earn by the modification. Also, even if the result of the survey is trustworthy enough, still there are customers preferred the durability of the Dura-Sock. If the company modified the manufacturing process, they should take account about the possible loss of the customers who love their durability.
In brief, the vice president’s claim is unsound in many grounds. To bolster the argument, the vice president needs to reconsider the aforementioned assumptions.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 427 350
No. of Characters: 2135 1500
No. of Different Words: 187 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.546 4.7
Average Word Length: 5 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.796 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 154 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 105 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 80 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 57 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.333 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.058 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.762 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.326 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.555 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.125 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 95, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...Sock, Inc. argues that they should stop the Endure manufacturing process for their profit....
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 655, Rule ID: THE_FALL_SEASON[1]
Message: Use simply 'winter'.
Suggestion: winter
...f the socks. For example, the socks for the winter season may be too thick and hot for the summer...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 702, Rule ID: THE_FALL_SEASON[1]
Message: Use simply 'summer'.
Suggestion: summer
...ter season may be too thick and hot for the summer season. They need additional new socks for the...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 756, Rule ID: THE_FALL_SEASON[1]
Message: Use simply 'summer'.
Suggestion: summer
...son. They need additional new socks for the summer season. Second, another assumption the vice ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 641, Rule ID: THERE_RE_MANY[3]
Message: Possible agreement error. Did you mean 'gaps'?
Suggestion: gaps
... they buy that socks. Since there are a gap between the advantages and the reason o...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, however, if, lastly, look, may, second, so, still, for example, in addition, in brief, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 19.6327345309 81% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 11.1786427146 45% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 29.0 28.8173652695 101% => OK
Preposition: 43.0 55.5748502994 77% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 16.3942115768 73% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2206.0 2260.96107784 98% => OK
No of words: 427.0 441.139720559 97% => OK
Chars per words: 5.1662763466 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.54576487731 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.95423949633 2.78398813304 106% => OK
Unique words: 197.0 204.123752495 97% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.461358313817 0.468620217663 98% => OK
syllable_count: 691.2 705.55239521 98% => 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: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 22.0 19.7664670659 111% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 38.9615194776 57.8364921388 67% => OK
Chars per sentence: 100.272727273 119.503703932 84% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.4090909091 23.324526521 83% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.04545454545 5.70786347227 88% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.67664670659 192% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.20602881227 0.218282227539 94% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0710925154482 0.0743258471296 96% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0732000663261 0.0701772020484 104% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.1314501548 0.128457276422 102% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0545382733694 0.0628817314937 87% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.6 14.3799401198 88% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 52.19 48.3550499002 108% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.71 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.09 8.32208582834 97% => OK
difficult_words: 95.0 98.500998004 96% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.