The following appeared in a letter from a homeowner to a friend.
"Of the two leading real estate firms in our town—Adams Realty and Fitch Realty—Adams Realty is clearly superior. Adams has 40 real estate agents; in contrast, Fitch has 25, many of whom work only part-time. Moreover, Adams' revenue last year was twice as high as that of Fitch and included home sales that averaged $168,000, compared to Fitch's $144,000. Homes listed with Adams sell faster as well: ten years ago I listed my home with Fitch, and it took more than four months to sell; last year, when I sold another home, I listed it with Adams, and it took only one month. Thus, if you want to sell your home quickly and at a good price, you should use Adams Realty."
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.
The author claims that Adams rental company is superior to Fitch company since it has more branches, made higher profit last year, sold more expensive houses and currently sold the author's house sooner than he expected. A casual reading of the statement seems convincing but a careful inspection brings about several loopholes in the argument.
First, the author assumes that because Adams has more branches than Fitch and its employees work part-time jobs it is superior to Fitch. My first objection to this assumption is that what is the meaning of "superior" from the author's perspective? Is this means more branches? Or more working hours? Or even this means making higher fortunes and selling more houses. The author must clarify the meaning of 'superior" unless the assumptions may not be strong enough for comparing two companies.
Secondly, the author claims that since Adams has more branches and work more hours than Fitch, it is superior to Fitch. However, it is probable that despite its fewer branches, Fitch company has more customers than Adams. Indeed, maybe Fitch's branches are in downtown and city centers, so these branches are more crowded than Adams. Besides, less working times is not a reasonable factor for comparing two companies because maybe Fitch's workers are more productive than thoes of Adams despite the fact that they work less than Adam's workforces.
Third, the author assumes that since Adam sold expensive houses and it made higher fortune than Fitch, it is superior to Fitch. This assumption is based on vague evidence. For instance, there is no evidence about the number of houses which were sold by Fitch and Adams. It is nor implausible that Fitch sold more houses than Adams but in less prices. Therefore, the average price and profit of Adams became more than those of Fitch, but Fitch's performance was better than Adams. Indeed, there is no direct relationship between the average price of sold houses and superiority of companies.
finally, the author makes a comparison between two companies in two different years. to be more specific, the author claims that ten years ago, Fitch company sold his house after four months but this year, Adams company sold his house only after one month, therefore Adams company is preferred to Fitch company. This assumption is completely falsified because it compares performance of Fitch company in ten years ago to Adams company's performance in this year. There is o evidence that shows us how was the performance of Adams ten years ago. Maybe at that time, Adams company was able to sell houses after six months so Fitch's performance was better than Adams. Moreover, it is possible that this year Fitch company could sell author's house in less than one month.
In conclusion, this argument is based on vague and untenable assumptions which weaken its validity. To substantiate verifiability of his claim, the author should clarify the meaning of term "superior" and provide strong evidence about the number of customers and sold houses in each of the two companies . Besides, he must compare the overall performance of two companies in the same period.
Comments
e-rater score 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: 25 15
No. of Words: 517 350
No. of Characters: 2563 1500
No. of Different Words: 201 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.768 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.957 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.401 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 180 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 131 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 84 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 50 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.68 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.492 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.68 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.367 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.367 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.156 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 236, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...eaning of 'superior' from the authors perspective? Is this means more branche...
^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 338, Rule ID: FEWER_LESS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'fewer'? The noun prices is countable.
Suggestion: fewer
...itch sold more houses than Adams but in less prices. Therefore, the average price an...
^^^^
Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Finally
...d houses and superiority of companies. finally, the author makes a comparison between ...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 85, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: To
...n two companies in two different years. to be more specific, the author claims tha...
^^
Line 6, column 313, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Don't put a space before the full stop
Suggestion: .
...sold houses in each of the two companies . Besides, he must compare the overall pe...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
besides, but, finally, first, however, if, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, therefore, third, for instance, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 12.9520958084 39% => OK
Conjunction : 19.0 11.1786427146 170% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 43.0 28.8173652695 149% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 54.0 55.5748502994 97% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2649.0 2260.96107784 117% => OK
No of words: 517.0 441.139720559 117% => OK
Chars per words: 5.12379110251 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.76839952204 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.65621421938 2.78398813304 95% => OK
Unique words: 210.0 204.123752495 103% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.406189555126 0.468620217663 87% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 816.3 705.55239521 116% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 4.96107784431 202% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 27.0 19.7664670659 137% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 52.2087715801 57.8364921388 90% => OK
Chars per sentence: 98.1111111111 119.503703932 82% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.1481481481 23.324526521 82% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.62962962963 5.70786347227 81% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 13.0 4.67664670659 278% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.17417465172 0.218282227539 80% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0649779991998 0.0743258471296 87% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0560621578351 0.0701772020484 80% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.106847055206 0.128457276422 83% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0464633837194 0.0628817314937 74% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.3 14.3799401198 86% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 52.19 48.3550499002 108% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.42 12.5979740519 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.3 8.32208582834 88% => OK
difficult_words: 89.0 98.500998004 90% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 12.3882235529 73% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.9071856287 84% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.