The following appeared in a letter from a car owner to a friend.
”Of the two leading brands of automobiles launched in past year, Prancer cars are clearly more superior to the competing Acer cars. Prancer cars boast aesthetically pleasing design and a fuel economy of 30 kms per gallon. In the past quarter alone, 5000 Prancer cars were sold. Acer cars, on the other hand have received only a few positive reviews regarding their overall performance. I have personally test driven both brands, and I strongly recommend that you buy a Prancer car for superior performance at an affordable price.”
In a letter to a friend, a car owner lists several reasons why a Prancer car is superior to an Acer car and recommends the friend to buy the former. While the reasons seem logical prima facie, on closer inspection, it becomes clear they are based on several flawed assumptions, three of which are detailed below.
To begin with, the car owner avers that Prancer cars have a pleasing aesthetic and a fuel economy of 30 kms per gallon. Here, the owner presumes that these factors are a priority to their friend, and will persuade them to buy a Prancer car. However, there is no mention of the friend stating that these are the desired specifications. Firstly, aesthetics are subjective; while the car seems attractive to the owner, their friend might disagree. Further, the fuel economy of Acer cars is not mentioned at all. It is hard to compare the two brands, given that the information is incomplete. Acers cars might have even better mileage, in which case Prancer cars are not superior in this respect.
Additionally, the car owner cites sales data regarding Prancer cars, stating that in the last quarter, 5000 of them were sold. The owner categorically assumes, however, that this number is impressive. But no sales data regarding Acer or other brands is provided for the friend's perusal. Moreover, it is assumed that this number is indicative of the brand's overall sales performance without considering other factors to which it might be imputed. For example, the last quarter could have been holiday season, during which discounts are often offered and the public is more susceptible to over-purchasing. In order to evaluate the significance of Prancer's sales, the owner must produce more detailed information and consider any other factors that might have contributed to the so-called impressive sales.
Subsequently, the car owner juxtapositions Prancer's sales with reviews of Acer cars. These metrics are not comparable. The owner assumes that since Acer cars have only a few positive reviews, their performance does not measure up to that of Prancer cars. However, there is no evidence provided to come to this conclusion. Reviews are not perfectly reliable indicators of customer experience, in that they might be biased, written by competitors to deter prospective customers, or simply not representative of all the customers who have purchased the product. For their reasoning to be rational, the car owner must provide solid backing evidence, including sales data of Acer cars, and a reliable survey of both brands.
In conclusion, while the car owner has stated numerous reasons why they think Prancer cars are superior to Acers, the reasoning followed to come to this conclusion is based on several unwarranted assumptions that have no supporting proof. To evaluate the recommendation of purchasing a Prancer car, crucial pieces of evidence stated above must be provided, and further analysis made in light of the new information.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 13 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 481 350
No. of Characters: 2409 1500
No. of Different Words: 219 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.683 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.008 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.728 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 166 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 141 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 83 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 54 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.913 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.314 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.478 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.315 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.315 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.065 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 616, Rule ID: HAVE_PART_AGREEMENT[2]
Message: Possible agreement error -- use past participle here: 'bettered', 'welled'.
Suggestion: bettered; welled
... incomplete. Acers cars might have even better mileage, in which case Prancer cars are...
^^^^^^
Line 3, column 270, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'friends'' or 'friend's'?
Suggestion: friends'; friend's
...cer or other brands is provided for the friends perusal. Moreover, it is assumed that t...
^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 85, Rule ID: THIS_NNS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'this metrics' or ''?
Suggestion: This metrics;
...ancers sales with reviews of Acer cars. These metrics are not comparable. The owner assumes t...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, firstly, however, if, moreover, regarding, so, while, for example, in conclusion, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.9520958084 77% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 13.6137724551 125% => OK
Pronoun: 33.0 28.8173652695 115% => OK
Preposition: 62.0 55.5748502994 112% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 16.3942115768 79% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2472.0 2260.96107784 109% => OK
No of words: 481.0 441.139720559 109% => OK
Chars per words: 5.13929313929 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.68313059816 4.56307096286 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.83421440558 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 233.0 204.123752495 114% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.484407484407 0.468620217663 103% => OK
syllable_count: 783.0 705.55239521 111% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 5.0 1.67365269461 299% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 9.0 4.22255489022 213% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 52.8035557604 57.8364921388 91% => OK
Chars per sentence: 107.47826087 119.503703932 90% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.9130434783 23.324526521 90% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.65217391304 5.70786347227 82% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 15.0 8.20758483034 183% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.408904580355 0.218282227539 187% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.130498461043 0.0743258471296 176% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.11993408669 0.0701772020484 171% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.257498746756 0.128457276422 200% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.101277131873 0.0628817314937 161% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.2 14.3799401198 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.53 12.5979740519 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.83 8.32208582834 106% => OK
difficult_words: 128.0 98.500998004 130% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 12.3882235529 105% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.