Five years ago, the local university built two new dormitories through different contractors: Aleph
Construction and Gimmel Builders. The buildings were nearly identical, though it cost Gimmel Builders
approximately 20 percent more to construct their dormitory. Aleph’s dormitory, however, has required
approximately 10 percent more in maintenance costs per year over the past five years. Therefore, to
construct their new dormitory with the lowest overall cost, the local university should hire Aleph
Construction.
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions in the expert’s claim. Be
sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the
argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
The expert suggested that the local university should hire Aleph construction without stating clearly why there was a difference in the nearly identical building. A lot of reasons that are not clearly stated may have accounted for the difference in construction price of these buildings, the author need to state them clearly as many of these assumptions maybe unwarranted.
The expert stated clearly that the buildings were nearly identical and it cost Gimmel 20 percent more to construct their dormitory. This simply means that the buildings were not the same. There must have been different structural members in the building which would make it cost more. I have personally seen buildings that are identical outside but the inside would be totally different. The difference in this buildings could have been in structural members, extra rooms in the building or even design. Another thing that wasn’t stated is the soil type. The soil for Gimmel building might have been a water logged soil that must have required water draining and soil filling during construction. The author automatically assumed that since they were almost identical, Aleph should be hired not taking into consideration all the differences that might have caused the difference in construction price.
Also, it was stated that over the last five years, Aleph dormitory has required 10 percent more in maintenance cost per year. If this dormitory has required 10 percent more, we do not know if the maintenance cost would eventually be too much at the long run. Furthermore, for it to require more maintenance cost, it might mean that the dormitory was not properly constructed at the initial stage and they are now making up for it during maintenance. The company might have used sub-standard materials or not filled the soil properly causing the building blocks to soak in water and constantly peel away the paint of the building. Before the author can conclude that Aleph should be hired again, he needs to explain in details why their building has caused 10 percent more to maintain and calculate properly if this amount won’t make the overall cost more.
These buildings were constructed five years ago, a lot might have changed for both companies over the years. Aleph might have acquired their own personal equipments if they had to rent equipments to use during the construction of the dormitory five years ago which may have caused the difference in their price. Gimmel Builders on the other hand may have restructured their company and ensure that profit is fully maximized in case they had to reduce their profit just to get the contract at that time. Also, it could be that they compromised on quality causing more maintenance fee for the building which they might have decided not to do again.
The expert also didn’t take into account other construction companies that are available to pick from. Surely there must have been many other construction companies five years ago and even many more now. These other companies might even be more be more affordable than the two considered. Also, the author didn’t state clearly the kind of dormitory to be constructed. We do not know if it’s identical with any of the two previously constructed or totally different. It could even be a steel structure that Aleph construction does not have a skilled structural Engineer for that might cause them to hire one which will incur more cost for them. These assumptions made by the expert have failed to address crucial issues that might prove the validity of his argument.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 9 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 26 15
No. of Words: 595 350
No. of Characters: 2915 1500
No. of Different Words: 236 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.939 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.899 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.575 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 180 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 136 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 100 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 76 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.885 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.097 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.5 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.317 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.5 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.144 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 407, Rule ID: THIS_NNS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'these'?
Suggestion: these
...be totally different. The difference in this buildings could have been in structural...
^^^^
Line 10, column 238, Rule ID: PHRASE_REPETITION[1]
Message: This phrase is duplicated. You should probably leave only 'be more'.
Suggestion: be more
...e now. These other companies might even be more be more affordable than the two considered. Als...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, furthermore, if, may, so, another thing, kind of, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.6327345309 132% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 28.0 12.9520958084 216% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 23.0 13.6137724551 169% => OK
Pronoun: 57.0 28.8173652695 198% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 56.0 55.5748502994 101% => OK
Nominalization: 20.0 16.3942115768 122% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2990.0 2260.96107784 132% => OK
No of words: 591.0 441.139720559 134% => OK
Chars per words: 5.05922165821 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.93056706295 4.56307096286 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.62193756392 2.78398813304 94% => OK
Unique words: 247.0 204.123752495 121% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.4179357022 0.468620217663 89% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 912.6 705.55239521 129% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 12.0 4.96107784431 242% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 26.0 19.7664670659 132% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 48.1827911286 57.8364921388 83% => OK
Chars per sentence: 115.0 119.503703932 96% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.7307692308 23.324526521 97% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.0 5.70786347227 53% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 6.88822355289 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 18.0 4.67664670659 385% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.303862280211 0.218282227539 139% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0983348665337 0.0743258471296 132% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0792961963947 0.0701772020484 113% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.180241566967 0.128457276422 140% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0350781623248 0.0628817314937 56% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.8 14.3799401198 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 57.61 48.3550499002 119% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.36 12.5979740519 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.29 8.32208582834 88% => OK
difficult_words: 96.0 98.500998004 97% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.