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 argument makes several unstated assumptions and hence, is not well reasoned. While it may be true that Adams Realty is a superior real estate firm in comparison to Fitch Realty, the author's unsubstantiated argument utterly fails to weave a cogent case to prove it.
The author makes a crucial error in logic when it assumes that higher revenue translates into a higher profit margin. A firm could have lesser turnover and yet be more profitable. Say a firm with a million dollar in revenue and 25% profit margin is better off than a firm with double the revenue and 10% profit margin. Had the author also compared the profit margin of the two firms we could get a much clearer picture in terms of performance.
Also troubling is the argument's assumption that a lower count of employees or part-time employees indicates a firm's poor performance. Firms having lower headcount or part-timers may have lower employee cost. Also, a firm may hire highly experienced and credible workers as consultants or part-timers to reduce the cost. Had the argument factored in experience or expertise level of workers at both the firms, the argument would have been more cogent
Another unstated attribution the argument makes is that a higher average home sales indicate better performance. As discussed before, even a lower average sale could be more profitable. Additionally, the firm with the lower average sale may be focussed on areas where the average cost of a property is lower or there are fewer players to compete within the market. Thus, a higher average sale value could be a misleading indicator of performance.
One more area where the argument has fallacy is regarding the faster turn around time for selling property. Firstly, the comparison is made between two years with a gap of nine years and the real estate market conditions could be very different in two years. Secondly, the location of two flats could be in two different areas with very different supply and demand dynamics. Thirdly, the price of properties could have played a role is sale time. Hence, without these crucial data points, the author's argument cannot be substantiated.
To conclude, the author makes many unaddressed assumptions that seriously undermine its validity. Unless these underlying assumptions are addressed, the argument falls apart, the conclusion that Adams Realty is superior in comparison to Fitch Realty could be flawed.
Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Also,
...rer picture in terms of performance. Also troubling is the arguments assumption t...
^^^^
Line 5, column 23, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'arguments'' or 'argument's'?
Suggestion: arguments'; argument's
...f performance. Also troubling is the arguments assumption that a lower count of employ...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 109, Rule ID: A_PLURAL[1]
Message: Don't use indefinite articles with plural words. Did you mean 'a firm' or simply 'firms'?
Suggestion: a firm; firms
...loyees or part-time employees indicates a firms poor performance. Firms having lower he...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 494, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
... without these crucial data points, the authors argument cannot be substantiated. To...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, hence, if, may, regarding, second, secondly, so, third, thirdly, thus, well, while
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 22.0 19.6327345309 112% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 13.6137724551 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 13.0 28.8173652695 45% => OK
Preposition: 39.0 55.5748502994 70% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 16.3942115768 98% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2035.0 2260.96107784 90% => OK
No of words: 397.0 441.139720559 90% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.12594458438 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.46372701284 4.56307096286 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.73411740394 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 198.0 204.123752495 97% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.498740554156 0.468620217663 106% => OK
syllable_count: 647.1 705.55239521 92% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 0.0 4.96107784431 0% => OK
Article: 15.0 8.76447105788 171% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 46.1561209375 57.8364921388 80% => OK
Chars per sentence: 101.75 119.503703932 85% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.85 23.324526521 85% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.45 5.70786347227 95% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.134535767294 0.218282227539 62% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0418407836667 0.0743258471296 56% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.074303262608 0.0701772020484 106% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0915556835711 0.128457276422 71% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0849564592228 0.0628817314937 135% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.7 14.3799401198 88% => 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: 12.47 12.5979740519 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.48 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 98.0 98.500998004 99% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 12.3882235529 85% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => 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.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Also,
...rer picture in terms of performance. Also troubling is the arguments assumption t...
^^^^
Line 5, column 23, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'arguments'' or 'argument's'?
Suggestion: arguments'; argument's
...f performance. Also troubling is the arguments assumption that a lower count of employ...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 109, Rule ID: A_PLURAL[1]
Message: Don't use indefinite articles with plural words. Did you mean 'a firm' or simply 'firms'?
Suggestion: a firm; firms
...loyees or part-time employees indicates a firms poor performance. Firms having lower he...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 494, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
... without these crucial data points, the authors argument cannot be substantiated. To...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, hence, if, may, regarding, second, secondly, so, third, thirdly, thus, well, while
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 22.0 19.6327345309 112% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 13.6137724551 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 13.0 28.8173652695 45% => OK
Preposition: 39.0 55.5748502994 70% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 16.3942115768 98% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2035.0 2260.96107784 90% => OK
No of words: 397.0 441.139720559 90% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.12594458438 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.46372701284 4.56307096286 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.73411740394 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 198.0 204.123752495 97% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.498740554156 0.468620217663 106% => OK
syllable_count: 647.1 705.55239521 92% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 0.0 4.96107784431 0% => OK
Article: 15.0 8.76447105788 171% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 46.1561209375 57.8364921388 80% => OK
Chars per sentence: 101.75 119.503703932 85% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.85 23.324526521 85% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.45 5.70786347227 95% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.134535767294 0.218282227539 62% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0418407836667 0.0743258471296 56% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.074303262608 0.0701772020484 106% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0915556835711 0.128457276422 71% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0849564592228 0.0628817314937 135% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.7 14.3799401198 88% => 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: 12.47 12.5979740519 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.48 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 98.0 98.500998004 99% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 12.3882235529 85% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => 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.