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 in this statement claims that the university should hire Aleph construction and not Gimmel builders to build a new dormitory with lowest overall cost. There are couple of facts provided which would support his or her claim. However, the expert seems to have neglected quite a few unwarranted assumptions. This raises some doubts about the expert’s claim.
First of all, the author has made a comparison of Gimmel Builders dormitory and Aleph Construction’s dormitory which was constructed five years ago. The expert assumes that the everything still remains same as it was five years ago. The comparison becomes irrelevant as in a period of five years many things would change ranging from the materials, costs of materials to engineers, architects and much more. Without comparing the current situation of both the construction groups it may not be viable to hire Aleph construction. There are numerous possibilities of changes after five years and if they hire Aleph construction based on facts and data from five years ago the expert’s claim may weaken.
Secondly, the expert talks about the initial costs and maintenance costs of the two dormitories. Just because the initial cost of Aleph construction was lower does not provide a strong ground for hiring them. The expert doesn’t provide with any numbers about the maintenance of the Gimmel Builders constructed dormitory and only the initial cost of building. There is a possibility that after five years the maintenance that would be required by the dormitory built by Gimmel would have the same initial cost as that of Aleph but the maintenance cost would still remain the same and less than Aleph construction. If such is the case and it proves to be true the expert’s idea of hiring Aleph construction would backfire causing them to spend more and not less.
Furthermore, there is no mention about the current conditions of the two dormitories. The expert assumes that since the dormitories built five years ago were nearly identical the condition would also remain the same. However this might not be true. The dormitory built by Aleph construction would be in a very bad condition with only a few more years before it deteriorates, while on the other hand the dormitory built by Gimmel Builders is still in pristine condition with no significant flaws and still has many more years before it starts deteriorating. The expert’s claim again would not hold water if the above mentioned condition is true. It would have adverse effects on the quality and condition on the new dormitory for trying to settle for lowest overall cost.
As of now, just because of a single factor of maintenance cost being lower the entire proposed idea to hire Aleph Construction is flawed without any further evidences. As of now there are many excluded variables which have a direct link to the experts claim. If there are more irrefutable and unwavering facts and evidences presented in support of Aleph Construction, the experts claim would then have merit.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 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: 500 350
No. of Characters: 2476 1500
No. of Different Words: 204 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.729 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.952 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.66 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 157 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 114 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 81 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 64 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.739 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.355 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.609 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.33 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.526 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.109 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 137, Rule ID: THE_SUPERLATIVE[2]
Message: A determiner is probably missing here: 'with the lowest'.
Suggestion: with the lowest
...immel builders to build a new dormitory with lowest overall cost. There are couple of facts...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 179, Rule ID: DT_PRP[1]
Message: Possible typo. Did you mean 'the' or 'everything'?
Suggestion: the; everything
...five years ago. The expert assumes that the everything still remains same as it was five years...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 218, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: However,
...e condition would also remain the same. However this might not be true. The dormitory b...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, furthermore, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, still, then, while, first of all, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.9520958084 116% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 13.6137724551 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 20.0 28.8173652695 69% => OK
Preposition: 59.0 55.5748502994 106% => OK
Nominalization: 24.0 16.3942115768 146% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2553.0 2260.96107784 113% => OK
No of words: 499.0 441.139720559 113% => OK
Chars per words: 5.11623246493 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.72634191566 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.85386221462 2.78398813304 103% => OK
Unique words: 208.0 204.123752495 102% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.416833667335 0.468620217663 89% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 786.6 705.55239521 111% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 4.96107784431 40% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => 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: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 60.8361398909 57.8364921388 105% => OK
Chars per sentence: 111.0 119.503703932 93% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.6956521739 23.324526521 93% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.30434782609 5.70786347227 93% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 11.0 6.88822355289 160% => 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: 0.30266983786 0.218282227539 139% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0968252880738 0.0743258471296 130% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0890381165305 0.0701772020484 127% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.183986865227 0.128457276422 143% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0686103547738 0.0628817314937 109% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.5 14.3799401198 94% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.42 12.5979740519 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.56 8.32208582834 91% => OK
difficult_words: 91.0 98.500998004 92% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 7.5 12.3882235529 61% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.9071856287 67% => The average readability is low. Need to imporve the language.
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.