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 presented concludes that the Adams firm is clearly superior to Fitch, based in a series of assumptions as speed of selling, number of employees and revenues amount. However, the basis for this conclusions needs examination, as it doesn't seem independent from the author's subjectivity.
First, it is assumed that the number of people employed is a valid indicator, implicitly saying that a bigger company is synonym of success. this is not necessarily true,as the author is merely assuming that these extra 15 employees are sales people. they could be as well doing clerical jobs, in which case they would be more of an indicator of lack of efficiency.
assuming that these 15 extra people are actively selling, that could easily explain adams' superior earning. In that case, it seems unfair to compare two companies that are not in the same tier. It would be more balanced to compare firms that have the same or similar number of employees, in which case the conclusion would be more founded.
Secondly, the speed of the selling process per se does not indicate success. The author doesn't clarify at any point the state of preservation, location or price of the homes he sold through both realty companies. The sell through adams could have gone faster simply because that house was in a better zone, was cheaper or needed fewer repairs that the one he advertised through Fitch. Once more, it is not an valid basis for concluding that one firm is superior to the other.
If we were extend more on this, Adams' superior sales could also be explained because they focus on easy sales in just a narrow sector of the market. In the long-term, this could be a bad strategy as the lack of options that this signifies could lead to market saturation, with an eventual decrease in the number of sales. Fitch could be betting in a more ample market, in which case the potential for growth seems more assured.
The conclusion presented in the text has the flaw of being forced, as the arguments are not entirely objective. The author made a number of assumptions, some of them unfair, leaving out factors that could actually point to opposite results in this analysis.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 15 15
No. of Words: 377 350
No. of Characters: 1754 1500
No. of Different Words: 184 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.406 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.653 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.415 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 117 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 85 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 54 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 31 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.133 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 11.966 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.333 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.333 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.636 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.121 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 202, Rule ID: THIS_NNS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'these'?
Suggestion: these
...revenues amount. However, the basis for this conclusions needs examination, as it do...
^^^^
Line 1, column 244, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...is conclusions needs examination, as it doesnt seem independent from the authors subje...
^^^^^^
Line 1, column 277, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
... as it doesnt seem independent from the authors subjectivity. First, it is assumed t...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 142, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: This
...a bigger company is synonym of success. this is not necessarily true,as the author i...
^^^^
Line 3, column 170, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma
Suggestion: , as
...of success. this is not necessarily true,as the author is merely assuming that thes...
^^^
Line 3, column 252, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: They
...se extra 15 employees are sales people. they could be as well doing clerical jobs, i...
^^^^
Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Assuming
... an indicator of lack of efficiency. assuming that these 15 extra people are activel...
^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 36, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
.... assuming that these 15 extra people are actively selling, that could easily ...
^^
Line 5, column 91, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...selling, that could easily explain adams superior earning. In that case, it seem...
^^
Line 5, column 124, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...n adams superior earning. In that case, it seems unfair to compare two companies...
^^
Line 5, column 234, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...er. It would be more balanced to compare firms that have the same or similar numb...
^^
Line 7, column 89, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...e does not indicate success. The author doesnt clarify at any point the state of prese...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 407, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'a' instead of 'an' if the following word doesn't start with a vowel sound, e.g. 'a sentence', 'a university'
Suggestion: a
...sed through Fitch. Once more, it is not an valid basis for concluding that one fir...
^^
Line 9, column 12, Rule ID: BEEN_PART_AGREEMENT[1]
Message: Consider using a past participle here: 'extended'.
Suggestion: extended
...is superior to the other. If we were extend more on this, Adams superior sales coul...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, first, however, if, second, secondly, so, well
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 23.0 19.6327345309 117% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 11.1786427146 36% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 17.0 13.6137724551 125% => OK
Pronoun: 34.0 28.8173652695 118% => OK
Preposition: 47.0 55.5748502994 85% => 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: 1812.0 2260.96107784 80% => OK
No of words: 374.0 441.139720559 85% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.8449197861 5.12650576532 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.3976220399 4.56307096286 96% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.52354295353 2.78398813304 91% => OK
Unique words: 194.0 204.123752495 95% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.51871657754 0.468620217663 111% => OK
syllable_count: 558.0 705.55239521 79% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => 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: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 19.7664670659 86% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 29.7932901575 57.8364921388 52% => The essay contains lots of sentences with the similar length. More sentence varieties wanted.
Chars per sentence: 106.588235294 119.503703932 89% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.0 23.324526521 94% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.64705882353 5.70786347227 64% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 14.0 5.25449101796 266% => Less language errors wanted.
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
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: 0.10715268922 0.218282227539 49% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0350993350995 0.0743258471296 47% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0420403855922 0.0701772020484 60% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0583611492747 0.128457276422 45% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0483178075825 0.0628817314937 77% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.4 14.3799401198 86% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 57.61 48.3550499002 119% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.79 12.5979740519 86% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.65 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 93.0 98.500998004 94% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.