The following appeared in a letter from the owner of the Sunnyside Towers apartment building to its manager.
"One month ago, all the showerheads on the first five floors of Sunnyside Towers were modified to restrict the water flow to approximately one-third of its original flow. Although actual readings of water usage before and after the adjustment are not yet available, the change will obviously result in a considerable savings for Sunnyside Corporation, since the corporation must pay for water each month. Except for a few complaints about low water pressure, no problems with showers have been reported since the adjustment. Clearly, restricting water flow throughout all the twenty floors of Sunnyside Towers will increase our profits further."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
The owner of Sunnyside Towers apartment has concluded that restricting waterflow through modifying showerheads in the building will result in an increase in profits for the Corporation. They have speculated that there will be considerable savings from modifying showerheads on the first five floors, and the only evidence they provide is the relatively low number of complaints on water pressure. In order to reach the owner's above conclusion, we need to determine the impact of water restriction on water use throughout the entire building, quantify the impact of potential cost savings on company profits, and take into account possible behavioral changes that may result from the changes.
We need to first determine the impact of water restriction on water use throughout th entire building. One of the biggest questions that need to be answered is whether modifying showerheads and restricting waterflow to one-third of its original flow decrease overall water use. Thus, the water readings of before and after the adjustment need to be made available in the decision-making, with data that covers at least a few months to smooth out any outliers. After obtaining the numbers, we also need to use the current and local price of water to determine if the decrease in water use have enough impact in the cost savings. If the building has a few giant swimmming pools as amenities, their water use will dwarf the prospective decrease in shower water use. In addition, we need to know if residences are uniform across the floors and what water-use facilities are equipped in these households. If most residents use bathtubs for baths, if there are substantial leakages that are not addressed, or if the higher floors have much less resident density, then the potential water savings will be less than expected.
Secondly, we need to evaluate the owner's statement of increased profits. A business's profits are defined as revenue less costs, and in this case, the component in question is the probable decrease in water costs that will drive an increase in profits, with no direct change in revenue. However, there are costs associated with the equipment and manual labor that go into changing the showerheads for each residence. In addition, customer complaints--which are expected to increase if the entire building reduces their water pressure--result in an increase in customer service and staffing costs. If the cost savings in water cannot outweigh these other costs, then profits could even decrease.
Lastly, we need to take into account any behavioral changes that may result from restricting shower head flows. Behavioral economics coined the term "Jevon's Paradox" to describe when people tend to use even more of a product when efficiency is perceived to be higher or the costs to be lower. For example, Americans are shown to drive more when gas prices are low and leave their lights on more when using efficient lightbulbs. In our case, Sunnyside Tower residents may choose to take longer showers if their water pressure is lower due to perceived lower costs or personal preference. In addition, they may also decide to purchase their own high flow showerheads if they are dissatisfied. Resident may even decide to leave the apartment if the building restricts their use of personal showerheads or lack appropriate response to complaints. All of the above behavioral changes will lead in a decrease in profits.
While restricting waterflow in showerheads may seem effective in reducing water costs and thus increasing profits, we need more answers and data to come to the owner's conclusion of definite profit increases. Only by evaluating both quantitative--water readings, cost of water, labor costs--and qualitative--residents' behavioral changes--evidence can we determine if the switch will be profitable to the corporation.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 24 15
No. of Words: 620 350
No. of Characters: 3162 1500
No. of Different Words: 262 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.99 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.1 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.717 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 230 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 189 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 144 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 90 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.833 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.32 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.792 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.334 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.518 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.177 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
The owner of Sunnyside Towers apartment ...
^^
Line 3, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...es that may result from the changes. We need to first determine the impact of...
^^
Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... savings will be less than expected. Secondly, we need to evaluate the owners...
^^
Line 5, column 37, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'owners'' or 'owner's'?
Suggestion: owners'; owner's
... Secondly, we need to evaluate the owners statement of increased profits. A busin...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...s, then profits could even decrease. Lastly, we need to take into account any...
^^
Line 7, column 856, Rule ID: ALL_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'all the'.
Suggestion: All the
...ack appropriate response to complaints. All of the above behavioral changes will lead in a...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 161, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'owners'' or 'owner's'?
Suggestion: owners'; owner's
...ed more answers and data to come to the owners conclusion of definite profit increases...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, however, if, lastly, may, second, secondly, so, then, third, thus, while, at least, for example, in addition
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 22.0 19.6327345309 112% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 25.0 12.9520958084 193% => OK
Conjunction : 17.0 11.1786427146 152% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 32.0 28.8173652695 111% => OK
Preposition: 93.0 55.5748502994 167% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3247.0 2260.96107784 144% => OK
No of words: 614.0 441.139720559 139% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.28827361564 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.977853291 4.56307096286 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.04386588466 2.78398813304 109% => OK
Unique words: 272.0 204.123752495 133% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.442996742671 0.468620217663 95% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1015.2 705.55239521 144% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 4.96107784431 202% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 4.0 8.76447105788 46% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 9.0 4.22255489022 213% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 22.8473053892 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 52.0440351743 57.8364921388 90% => OK
Chars per sentence: 135.291666667 119.503703932 113% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.5833333333 23.324526521 110% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.04166666667 5.70786347227 88% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 7.0 5.25449101796 133% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 8.20758483034 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.19363261396 0.218282227539 89% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0644225682058 0.0743258471296 87% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0582108139042 0.0701772020484 83% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.118661357503 0.128457276422 92% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0655640368728 0.0628817314937 104% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.3 14.3799401198 113% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 37.64 48.3550499002 78% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.197005988 116% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.7 12.5979740519 109% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.63 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 146.0 98.500998004 148% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 18.5 12.3882235529 149% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.1389221557 108% => 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: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.