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 of the given letter recommends his/her friend that Adams Realty should one's choice if they wish to sell their home. The author bases this conclusion based on several hurried assumptions that need to be evaluated.
The author states that Adams has 40 real estate agents while Fitch has 25. He believes that this plays an important role in deciding which firm is better. The author however doesn't evaluate the fact that even though Adams has more number of employees it is possible that they don't work with dedication. The employees at Fitch could be working only part-time but they might be doing effective and productive work in that time. Thus the author here doesn't accurately provide a conclusion.
The author further states that Adams' revenue for last year was twice that of Fitch, averaging at $168000 while Fitch's at $144,000. However, the author provides vague data by giving averages and no supporting evidence as to where it has been obtained. Additionally, right conclusions cannot be drawn on the basis of data for a single year as probably the sales may have gone up or down due to fluctuation in the market. We also need to note that even though Adams had a successful home sales, Finch could have had better sales outside the town. Thus, merely stating vague, limited data doesn't justify the argument.
The author then tries to convince by mentioning that Adams sell faster as compared to Fitch. He bases this conclusion on the fact that ten years ago when the author had listed his/her home at Fitch it took more than four months while recently at Adams it took one month. This fails to make a convincing argument as the author wrongfully compares his experience from 10 years ago to his recent experience. It is possible that now at Fitch the service has improved and would take lesser time now. It is also necessary to point out that 10 years ago the market could have been simply down due to which it took so long to sell and that now has improved greatly. The author hence, doesn't consider all facts before hastily drawing conclusions.
Taking into consideration the above assumptions taken by the author it seems that the conclusions drawn are not thoroughly thought and require to be evaluated. The author makes several assumptions that need to be addressed by his/her friend before coming to a conclusion.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 10 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 410 350
No. of Characters: 1903 1500
No. of Different Words: 207 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.5 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.641 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.377 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 120 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 75 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 54 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 35 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.5 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.996 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.7 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.342 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.531 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.113 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 1, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...umptions that need to be evaluated. The author states that Adams has 40 real es...
^^^
Line 3, column 175, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...hich firm is better. The author however doesnt evaluate the fact that even though Adam...
^^^^^^
Line 3, column 277, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...r of employees it is possible that they dont work with dedication. The employees at ...
^^^^
Line 3, column 427, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Thus,
...ctive and productive work in that time. Thus the author here doesnt accurately provi...
^^^^
Line 3, column 448, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...work in that time. Thus the author here doesnt accurately provide a conclusion. The...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 582, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...hus, merely stating vague, limited data doesnt justify the argument. The author the...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 72, Rule ID: COMP_THAN[3]
Message: Comparison requires 'than', not 'then' nor 'as'.
Suggestion: than
...ce by mentioning that Adams sell faster as compared to Fitch. He bases this conclu...
^^
Line 7, column 677, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...has improved greatly. The author hence, doesnt consider all facts before hastily drawi...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, hence, however, if, may, so, then, thus, while, as to
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 19.6327345309 71% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 21.0 13.6137724551 154% => OK
Pronoun: 44.0 28.8173652695 153% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 46.0 55.5748502994 83% => OK
Nominalization: 8.0 16.3942115768 49% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1947.0 2260.96107784 86% => OK
No of words: 402.0 441.139720559 91% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.84328358209 5.12650576532 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.47771567384 4.56307096286 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.42944166982 2.78398813304 87% => OK
Unique words: 217.0 204.123752495 106% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.539800995025 0.468620217663 115% => OK
syllable_count: 587.7 705.55239521 83% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 2.70958083832 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 0.0 4.22255489022 0% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 34.2191101579 57.8364921388 59% => The essay contains lots of sentences with the similar length. More sentence varieties wanted.
Chars per sentence: 97.35 119.503703932 81% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.1 23.324526521 86% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.2 5.70786347227 56% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 8.0 5.25449101796 152% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 6.88822355289 29% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.67664670659 171% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.176566246225 0.218282227539 81% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0586649202196 0.0743258471296 79% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0880792618375 0.0701772020484 126% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0988878313896 0.128457276422 77% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0639160561012 0.0628817314937 102% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.4 14.3799401198 79% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 59.64 48.3550499002 123% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 12.197005988 81% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.79 12.5979740519 86% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.65 8.32208582834 92% => OK
difficult_words: 77.0 98.500998004 78% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 7.5 12.3882235529 61% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => 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.