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 proposes Adams Realty is clearly superior than Fitch Realty for some reasons. He or She offer an interesting argument, but it suffers from some logical flaws and gaps in evidence. While the connections suggested are reasonable, there are many other possible scenarios that should discourage us from agreeing to the author's claim.
To begin with, the author assumes that more agents will lead to the firm's supreme and high proportion of part-time agents will lead to the firm's inferiority. Yet there is no reason to believe that numbers of workers and types of jobs will correspond to the company's ability. There are differences in the efficiency and work time among workers. One worker in Fitch, for example, may work more than five workers in Adams and the he or she may be more efficient than them in Adams. Furthermore ability of worker does not correspond to its type of employment. Today there are well-skilled labors who are actually part-time. For instance, the Apple's legendary leader Steve Jobs did excellent job during his part-time job in video games company. Thus we must ask, whether 40 workers in Adams really work more and efficiently than Fitch's 25 workers and whether part-times in Fitch are callow. Without access to the information the worker's ability and working times, we cannot determine whether Adams is better corporate than Fitch.
Let us assume, though, that Adams' 40 real estate agents indeed are more efficient than Fitch's agents. We are then prompted to ask whether Adams' higher average price of home sales implies Adams superiority. The real estate firm's performance should not be calculated by only one factor: the price of home sales. Instead, we should consider more variables such as the houses' location, interior, spaciousness, etc. Even though Adams sold home for higher price, Fitch's achievement could be better if Fitch sold house which was so unpopular to sell at good price. Without more detailed information about houses the company sold, we cannot answer which corporation is indeed better than other.
Finally, we cannot take if for granted that homes listed with Adams sell faster. The author assumes that homes sell faster, when they are listed in Adams, since it took more than 4 months to sell when listed with Fitch ten years ago whereas it took only one month when listed in Adams last year. However the time it takes to sell house is contingent on other variables: economic condition, house's popularity, etc. You will have to wait longer to sell house if economic condition is bad or house is disfavored by customers. Economic condition can change a lot during past ten years. Last year's economic condition could be a lot better than ten years before. Therefore it is not logical to say homes listed with Adams sell faster than other.
A close examination of all the assumptions made in the author's proposal reveals that it does not have enough justification to claim that Adams is better. The author should be more careful to claim which corporation is better than other before he or she gets more specific data and reports.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 00 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 25 15
No. of Words: 518 350
No. of Characters: 2530 1500
No. of Different Words: 248 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.771 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.884 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.414 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 180 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 116 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 73 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 51 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.72 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.656 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.56 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.304 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.304 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.226 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 54, Rule ID: SUPERIOR_THAN[1]
Message: The adjective superior is normally used with 'to'.
Suggestion: to
...oposes Adams Realty is clearly superior than Fitch Realty for some reasons. He or Sh...
^^^^
Line 1, column 100, Rule ID: HE_VERB_AGR[1]
Message: The pronoun 'She' must be used with a third-person verb: 'offers'.
Suggestion: offers
...itch Realty for some reasons. He or She offer an interesting argument, but it suffers...
^^^^^
Line 2, column 140, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'firms'' or 'firm's'?
Suggestion: firms'; firm's
...on of part-time agents will lead to the firms inferiority. Yet there is no reason to ...
^^^^^
Line 2, column 423, Rule ID: DT_PRP[1]
Message: Possible typo. Did you mean 'the' or 'he'?
Suggestion: the; he
...ork more than five workers in Adams and the he or she may be more efficient than them ...
^^^^^^
Line 2, column 479, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Furthermore,
...y be more efficient than them in Adams. Furthermore ability of worker does not correspond t...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 740, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Thus,
...s part-time job in video games company. Thus we must ask, whether 40 workers in Adam...
^^^^
Line 2, column 924, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'workers'' or 'worker's'?
Suggestion: workers'; worker's
.... Without access to the information the workers ability and working times, we cannot de...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 365, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'houses'' or 'house's'?
Suggestion: houses'; house's
...uld consider more variables such as the houses location, interior, spaciousness, etc. ...
^^^^^^
Line 4, column 296, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: However,
...e month when listed in Adams last year. However the time it takes to sell house is cont...
^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 657, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Therefore,
... be a lot better than ten years before. Therefore it is not logical to say homes listed w...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 56, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...tion of all the assumptions made in the authors proposal reveals that it does not have ...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, finally, furthermore, however, if, may, really, so, then, therefore, thus, well, whereas, while, for example, for instance, such as, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.6327345309 127% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 17.0 12.9520958084 131% => OK
Conjunction : 15.0 11.1786427146 134% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 33.0 28.8173652695 115% => OK
Preposition: 56.0 55.5748502994 101% => OK
Nominalization: 18.0 16.3942115768 110% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2573.0 2260.96107784 114% => OK
No of words: 518.0 441.139720559 117% => OK
Chars per words: 4.96718146718 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.77070365392 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.48617545838 2.78398813304 89% => OK
Unique words: 258.0 204.123752495 126% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.498069498069 0.468620217663 106% => OK
syllable_count: 809.1 705.55239521 115% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 4.96107784431 161% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
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: 34.8425421501 57.8364921388 60% => OK
Chars per sentence: 95.2962962963 119.503703932 80% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.1851851852 23.324526521 82% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.96296296296 5.70786347227 104% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 11.0 5.25449101796 209% => Less language errors wanted.
Sentences with positive sentiment : 18.0 8.20758483034 219% => Less positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.227830995415 0.218282227539 104% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0647870069143 0.0743258471296 87% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0817153281813 0.0701772020484 116% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.125654315117 0.128457276422 98% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0689271389314 0.0628817314937 110% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.6 14.3799401198 81% => 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: 11.55 12.5979740519 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.24 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 120.0 98.500998004 122% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.