Butter has now been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southwestern United States. Only about 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. Furthermore, many servers have reported that a number of customers who still ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. Clearly, either these customers cannot distinguish margarine from butter, or they use the term "butter" to refer to either butter or margarine. Thus, to avoid the expense of purchasing butter, the Happy Pancake House should extend this cost-saving change to its restaurants in the southeast and northeast as well.
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
In the given argument, Because Happy Pancake House locations in the Southwest use margarine rather than butter, logic dictates that locations in the Southeast and Northeast should do the same. The narrator presents statistics to substantiate the notion that butter may eventually supplant margarine in the Southwest. A closer examination of the data reveals that they do not support, but rather undermine, the argument. Each point will be discussed in full below.
Because silence does not imply contentment, presuming that 98 percent of clients are satisfied with the new policy is incorrect. Their silence could be due to a variety of factors. It's possible they couldn't tell the difference between butter and margarine. Even if they were aware of the distinction, they probably did not complain, assuming butter would not be available. Additionally, it is impossible to overlook the reality that the majority of people would not object if margarine were substituted for butter. Customers may discontinue patronising a restaurant if margarine is frequently served in place of butter. As a result, individuals accustomed to butter may be hesitant to move to margarine.
The argument does not prove that clients are informed that margarine was substituted for butter notwithstanding their preference for butter. Even if they do not express their dissatisfaction, they may refrain from returning. If visitors are not informed of the change and the restaurant waits to see how they react, they may claim they were duped into eating something other than what they ordered. Bear in mind that thinking "butter" refers to either butter or margarine can result in unintended consequences.
Even if customers don't complain, they can tell butter from margarine. Customers can grumble while ordering butter from another server and say their waiter couldn't tell the difference. It is also possible that the consumer was unaware since they thought the chef recommended the margarine. The argument fails if the preceding is true.
Finally, the author assumes that individuals who did not object to margarine and butter have the same taste. Some customers may stop coming to the restaurant because they dislike margarine, while those who prefer margarine to butter may return. People who prefer butter to margarine may have stopped going to the restaurant, explaining the low complaint rate. If this is true, the claim becomes much weaker.
In conclusion, the current argument is flawed due to a variety of problematic assumptions. So long as all prior assumptions are correct, switching from butter to margarine may not affect Happy restaurant patrons.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 4 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 25 15
No. of Words: 419 350
No. of Characters: 2174 1500
No. of Different Words: 209 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.524 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.189 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.777 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 171 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 125 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 94 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 70 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 16.76 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 5.645 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.72 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.309 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.523 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.088 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 200, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: couldn't
...a variety of factors. Its possible they couldnt tell the difference between butter and ...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 20, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...ded consequences. Even if customers dont complain, they can tell butter from mar...
^^^^
Line 7, column 157, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: couldn't
...rom another server and say their waiter couldnt tell the difference. It is also possibl...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, if, look, may, so, while, in conclusion, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 17.0 12.9520958084 131% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 13.6137724551 95% => OK
Pronoun: 32.0 28.8173652695 111% => OK
Preposition: 40.0 55.5748502994 72% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2256.0 2260.96107784 100% => OK
No of words: 416.0 441.139720559 94% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.42307692308 5.12650576532 106% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.51620172871 4.56307096286 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.94637413818 2.78398813304 106% => OK
Unique words: 212.0 204.123752495 104% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.509615384615 0.468620217663 109% => OK
syllable_count: 689.4 705.55239521 98% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 4.96107784431 161% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 9.0 2.70958083832 332% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 25.0 19.7664670659 126% => OK
Sentence length: 16.0 22.8473053892 70% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 37.135729426 57.8364921388 64% => OK
Chars per sentence: 90.24 119.503703932 76% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.64 23.324526521 71% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.88 5.70786347227 50% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 10.0 4.67664670659 214% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.182067081392 0.218282227539 83% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0522299235647 0.0743258471296 70% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0448739609523 0.0701772020484 64% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.100993929254 0.128457276422 79% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0243316717264 0.0628817314937 39% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.4 14.3799401198 86% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 46.78 48.3550499002 97% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.86 12.5979740519 110% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.68 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 112.0 98.500998004 114% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 7.5 12.3882235529 61% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.4 11.1389221557 75% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => 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.