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.
In the given argument, the homeowner hastily suggests his friend approach Adams Realty if he wants to sell his home. The author provides some incomplete facts to prove his point. Let's look at some details of the suggestions made by the author to his friend and help him reach a well-informed decision.
The author states that, because the number of real estate agents in Adam's is greater than the Fitch, so Adam's must sell the home faster. However, the selling of a home depends on the efficiency and marketing skills of the agents and not their count. For all we know, it is even possible that the Fitch hires only expertise with an MBA in Marketing from a reputed university and a relevant work experience whereas the Adams recruits Freshers and Interns with no experience at all. Therefore, Fitch's agents, even working part-time can be more efficient than Adams's agents.
Now, the author also tries to relate the fact about the revenue earned by the firms, with the ability to sell the homes faster. We have been given the revenue earned for the complete year. We can't deny a possibility that the Adams sold the houses worth the revenue in the entire year whereas the Fitch, due to some issues, had to close down for few months and generated the revenue in just 5 months. In this case, obviously the Fitch shows great efficiency.
Later, the author gives his friend a comparison of his experiences with both the firms which spanned in a period of 10 years. Now, if you see a decade is a very long time for things to change and improve. It may be possible before 10 years Fitch didn't have an efficient workforce as it has now. Also, the possibility that the property the author sold with Fitch was in the outskirts of the city or very old construction or even with some legal issues can't be denied. It can also be a reason for the Fitch to take longer to sell the property. Whereas, the Property, the author sold with Adams was located at a prime location and at an affordable price. Hence, it got sold faster.
Since, the author made a hasty conclusion that the real estate agents at Adams are better than the Fitch, addressing the possibilities mentioned above and get the exact details required will help the author's friend to make an informed decision to hire agents to sell his property.
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: 19 15
No. of Words: 410 350
No. of Characters: 1853 1500
No. of Different Words: 207 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.5 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.52 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.343 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 123 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 74 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 50 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 30 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.579 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.913 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.737 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.322 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.484 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.135 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 180, Rule ID: LETS_LET[1]
Message: Did you mean 'Let's'?
Suggestion: Let's
...me incomplete facts to prove his point. Lets look at some details of the suggestions...
^^^^
Line 4, column 192, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
...evenue earned for the complete year. We cant deny a possibility that the Adams sold ...
^^^^
Line 6, column 247, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: didn't
...t may be possible before 10 years Fitch didnt have an efficient workforce as it has n...
^^^^^
Line 6, column 452, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
...truction or even with some legal issues cant be denied. It can also be a reason for ...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, hence, however, if, look, may, so, therefore, well, whereas
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 11.0 19.6327345309 56% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 12.9520958084 39% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 6.0 13.6137724551 44% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 25.0 28.8173652695 87% => OK
Preposition: 48.0 55.5748502994 86% => OK
Nominalization: 5.0 16.3942115768 30% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1898.0 2260.96107784 84% => OK
No of words: 409.0 441.139720559 93% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.64058679707 5.12650576532 91% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.49708221141 4.56307096286 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.39091552873 2.78398813304 86% => OK
Unique words: 213.0 204.123752495 104% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.520782396088 0.468620217663 111% => OK
syllable_count: 586.8 705.55239521 83% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.4 1.59920159681 88% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 62.5512975081 57.8364921388 108% => OK
Chars per sentence: 99.8947368421 119.503703932 84% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.5263157895 23.324526521 92% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.42105263158 5.70786347227 60% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 8.20758483034 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 6.88822355289 29% => 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: 0.204403129145 0.218282227539 94% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0593224927823 0.0743258471296 80% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0677648022103 0.0701772020484 97% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.1207386433 0.128457276422 94% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0583513853569 0.0628817314937 93% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.2 14.3799401198 78% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 67.08 48.3550499002 139% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.1 12.197005988 75% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 9.63 12.5979740519 76% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.0 8.32208582834 96% => OK
difficult_words: 86.0 98.500998004 87% => 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: 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.