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.
This is a letter from a homeowner to his friend. The writer compared the two leading real estate firms, Adams Realty and Fitch Realty. Although he included some figures to underpin him statement, there are also some assumptions and vague areas that need more clarity for his argument to hold.
First, the homeowner assumed that homes sell faster when listed on Adams Realty than when listed on Fitch Realty. He based his finding on his previous experience selling homes on both realties. However, that it took more than 4 months before he could sell his house on Fitch is not a very strong evidence that Fitch is a less effective realtor. There could have been other reasons the sale took more time. Perhaps the price placed on the housing property was too much for those that indicated interest. It could also be that the home is situated at a distant location from where the better market. And it is unfair to blame Fitch Realty for these. Their responsibility is to provide a platform for home sellers to put up properties for sale. They have not business manipulating the price and location of the properties.
Furthermore, the homeowner indicated that it took just about a month to sell a property on Adams, the previous year. Again, this is vague. The situation of this 10 years ago are most likely different from those of last year. Technology and information have become more wide spread today. It is possible that 10 years ago, both realties were not very technologically developed, taking much time (in months) to close a deal. As the realties became more developed, the time to close a deal became shorter. Therefore, it is unfair to judge Fitch Realty based on comparison between two very dissimilar periods of time. If the homeowner can include information of the duration of a deal on Adams Realty 10 years ago, it is possible that it took up to 5 months compared to 4 months at Fitch. Similarly, it probably took about 3 weeks to sell house on Adam’s Realty last year.
In addition to the different circumstance surrounding the different times, there is also some obscurity around the type, size, and quality of houses being sold. No information about the details and specifications of the houses are included in the letter. The house sold 10 years ago in Fitch was probably very large and spacious that it’s price was too high to pay. At the same time, it could have been too small that there was not much space in it. And the quality could have also been a factor under consideration that could have delayed the sale. In the same way, the house sold on Adams Realty last year, could have been the perfect choice for the buyer, closing the deal in under 1 month. Again, the realties are not to blame for this factors; they do not control the prices, type, space or quality of the houses on sale.
Another vague area is that the homeowner is just one person. He cannot generalise only from his findings. there are many other home sellers around who might insist that it takes less time to sell housing properties under Fitch Realty than any other. If the writer can collect more information from all other people, perhaps his argument would be considered. Until then, it all seems vague and unclear.
In conclusion, real estate is a very interesting business. To successfully, sell a home on a realty, many things are put into consideration. The size, type and quality of a house and some of them. The finding from the homeowner are not solid enough to indicate that Fitch Realty is a less effective realty. He needs more information and facts to prove this, before making a suggestion that his friend (and every other person) should use Adams Realty if he wants to sell a home much quickly and at a good price. Yes, more information is needed to clear the many vague areas.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
flaws:
The argument 1, 2, 3 are talking about the same thing. need to argue those too:
1. Adams has 40 real estate agents; in contrast, Fitch has 25, many of whom work only part-time.
2. 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.
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 38 15
No. of Words: 668 350
No. of Characters: 3042 1500
No. of Different Words: 258 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.084 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.554 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.393 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 180 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 118 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 82 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 49 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 17.579 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.583 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.395 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.25 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.427 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.081 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 7, column 741, Rule ID: THIS_NNS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'these'?
Suggestion: these
...gain, the realties are not to blame for this factors; they do not control the prices...
^^^^
Line 9, column 107, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: There
...nnot generalise only from his findings. there are many other home sellers around who ...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, furthermore, however, if, similarly, so, then, therefore, as to, in addition, in conclusion, in the same way
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 35.0 19.6327345309 178% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 20.0 13.6137724551 147% => OK
Pronoun: 57.0 28.8173652695 198% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 78.0 55.5748502994 140% => OK
Nominalization: 20.0 16.3942115768 122% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3145.0 2260.96107784 139% => OK
No of words: 668.0 441.139720559 151% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.70808383234 5.12650576532 92% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.08386624201 4.56307096286 111% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.48302846677 2.78398813304 89% => OK
Unique words: 271.0 204.123752495 133% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.405688622754 0.468620217663 87% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 991.8 705.55239521 141% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 16.0 4.96107784431 323% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 39.0 19.7664670659 197% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 22.8473053892 74% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 39.5903248263 57.8364921388 68% => OK
Chars per sentence: 80.641025641 119.503703932 67% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.1282051282 23.324526521 73% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.10256410256 5.70786347227 54% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 8.20758483034 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 17.0 4.67664670659 364% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.244169947085 0.218282227539 112% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0656473386094 0.0743258471296 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0852830274448 0.0701772020484 122% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.154021887326 0.128457276422 120% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0674548196276 0.0628817314937 107% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 9.3 14.3799401198 65% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 62.68 48.3550499002 130% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.7 12.197005988 71% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 9.74 12.5979740519 77% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.17 8.32208582834 86% => OK
difficult_words: 114.0 98.500998004 116% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 7.5 12.3882235529 61% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 11.1389221557 79% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
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.