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 that Adams Realty is more superior to Finch Realty is based on faulty assumptions.The homeowner tried to convince his friend that one could sell his home quickly and at a good price by using Adam Realty.While the line of reasoning is somewhat persuasive, it committed Biased sample fallacy and therefore it is not logically sound.
First of all, the argument commits Biased sample fallacy.The argument is based on the assumption that these two firms have equal professional skills, thus there is a strong question about the efficiency of the employees in these companies. It may be the fact that agents of Finch are comparatively more efficient than Adams and despite the fact that the number if agents are less, they are able to sell more houses than Adams.Many agents of Finch work only part-time which make these agent gain more clients from outside the work circle, which indeed provides better outcomes for Finch.
Second, the homeowner is also presents the revenue factor between these companies falsely. The homeowner assume that the number of houses sold by the two companies are same, which lacks evidence. It is possible that Adams sold 10 houses worth $168000 each and Finch sold 20 houses worth $144000 each, which in turn presents the fact that Finch earned more revenue than Adams.
Thirdly, the homeowner compares the recent statistics with ten years old data.The author suggests that it took four more for Finch to sell a house and one month for Adams. The author seems unconvincing as despite the fact that Finch takes four months it provides better deal as it takes time for better scrutiny and provide the agents with fruitful results. It is also unfair, as the field of real estate
Sees drastic changes over the period of time, so to compare the two firms on the basis of ten years old data seems unfair.
In sum, the argument is neither sound nor convincing since it overlook many possibilities that must be addressed to strengthen its statement. If it presents evidence regarding above stated conditions, the claim seems unconvincing.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 2 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 2 2
No. of Sentences: 12 15
No. of Words: 352 350
No. of Characters: 1688 1500
No. of Different Words: 180 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.331 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.795 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.325 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 112 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 71 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 52 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 30 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 29.333 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 16.178 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.667 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.347 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.697 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.061 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 96, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: The
...h Realty is based on faulty assumptions.The homeowner tried to convince his friend ...
^^^
Line 1, column 217, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: While
...nd at a good price by using Adam Realty.While the line of reasoning is somewhat persu...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 58, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: The
... argument commits Biased sample fallacy.The argument is based on the assumption tha...
^^^
Line 3, column 427, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: Many
...are able to sell more houses than Adams.Many agents of Finch work only part-time whi...
^^^^
Line 3, column 479, Rule ID: THIS_NNS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'this agent' or 'these agents'?
Suggestion: this agent; these agents
...of Finch work only part-time which make these agent gain more clients from outside the work...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 106, Rule ID: MASS_AGREEMENT[2]
Message: Possible agreement error - use third-person verb forms for singular and mass nouns: 'assumes'.
Suggestion: assumes
... these companies falsely. The homeowner assume that the number of houses sold by the t...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 259, Rule ID: CD_NN[1]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun 'Finch' seems to be countable, so consider using: 'finches'.
Suggestion: Finches
...ams sold 10 houses worth 68000 each and Finch sold 20 houses worth 44000 each, which ...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 79, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: The
...cent statistics with ten years old data.The author suggests that it took four more ...
^^^
Line 8, column 32, Rule ID: PERIOD_OF_TIME[1]
Message: Use simply 'period'.
Suggestion: period
... estate Sees drastic changes over the period of time, so to compare the two firms on the bas...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, if, look, may, regarding, second, so, then, therefore, third, thirdly, thus, while, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 19.6327345309 81% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 3.0 12.9520958084 23% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 29.0 28.8173652695 101% => OK
Preposition: 36.0 55.5748502994 65% => OK
Nominalization: 9.0 16.3942115768 55% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1735.0 2260.96107784 77% => OK
No of words: 347.0 441.139720559 79% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.0 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.31600926901 4.56307096286 95% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.49774957054 2.78398813304 90% => OK
Unique words: 187.0 204.123752495 92% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.538904899135 0.468620217663 115% => OK
syllable_count: 520.2 705.55239521 74% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 11.0 19.7664670659 56% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 31.0 22.8473053892 136% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 85.9146222366 57.8364921388 149% => OK
Chars per sentence: 157.727272727 119.503703932 132% => OK
Words per sentence: 31.5454545455 23.324526521 135% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.90909090909 5.70786347227 174% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 9.0 5.25449101796 171% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 6.88822355289 29% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.164101033685 0.218282227539 75% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0520589476551 0.0743258471296 70% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0540749090103 0.0701772020484 77% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0750840070529 0.128457276422 58% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0573329027456 0.0628817314937 91% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.9 14.3799401198 124% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.47 48.3550499002 100% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.197005988 116% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.31 12.5979740519 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.81 8.32208582834 106% => OK
difficult_words: 80.0 98.500998004 81% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 18.0 12.3882235529 145% => OK
gunning_fog: 14.4 11.1389221557 129% => OK
text_standard: 18.0 11.9071856287 151% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 70.83 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.25 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.