The following appeared in a letter from the owner of the Sunnyside Towers apartment complex to its manager.
"One month ago, all the showerheads in the first three buildings of the Sunnyside Towers complex were modified to restrict maximum water flow to one-third of what it used to be. 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. I predict that modifying showerheads to restrict water flow throughout all twelve buildings in the Sunnyside Towers complex will increase our profits even more dramatically."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the prediction and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the prediction.
In the letter, the owner of Sunnyside Towers apartment complex suggests that restricting the water flow for all buildings in the complex will increase profits by reducing their water consumption. Although, this argument holds water, it is based on several unwarranted assumptions, that if not confounded, dramatically weaken the persuasiveness of the argument. Thus, the following three questions need to be addressed.
Firstly, did the readings for water usage actually change? It can also be possible that the water readings did not change significantly after reducing the water pressure. Perhaps, because of the decreased water pressure, people spend more time in the shower, thus compensating for the water that would’ve been saved. If that is the scenario, decreasing water pressure will have no effect on the reading of water usage, and the argument will lose its ground.
Secondly, Is the owner sure that none of the people staying at the complex, will leave the complex because of the dissatisfaction due to low pressures of water? It is possible that the people staying at the apartment complex are extremely dissatisfied with the low pressure of water, and decide to leave the apartment. If people leave the apartment, the owner will probably lose more money than what he saves from reducing the water flow. If that is the case, the argument loses its validity.
Thirdly, do the people staying at Sunnyside Tower complex use showers to bathe everyday? It is possible that majority of people at Sunnyside Tower Complex don’t use the shower at all and use buckets instead. Since a bucket can hold a fixed volume of water, changing pressure will have no effect on the water consumption. The bucket will also take longer to fill, and one would have to before he can take a bath, which might cause dissatisfaction. If this is the case, the argument made byd the owner is substantially weakened.
Although, the argument made by the owner of Sunnyside towers is reasonable, more data is needed before a firm conclusion is reached. If the owner is able to answer the three questions, it will be possible to full evaluate the validity of the argument.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
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: 18 15
No. of Words: 360 350
No. of Characters: 1748 1500
No. of Different Words: 158 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.356 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.856 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.645 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 117 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 91 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 69 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 33 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.191 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.722 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.36 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.575 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.154 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 13, column 80, Rule ID: EVERYDAY_EVERY_DAY[3]
Message: 'Everyday' is an adjective. Did you mean 'every day'?
Suggestion: every day
...side Tower complex use showers to bathe everyday? It is possible that majority of people...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, first, firstly, if, second, secondly, so, third, thirdly, thus
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 19.6327345309 87% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.9520958084 116% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 11.1786427146 36% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 21.0 28.8173652695 73% => OK
Preposition: 39.0 55.5748502994 70% => OK
Nominalization: 15.0 16.3942115768 91% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1831.0 2260.96107784 81% => OK
No of words: 358.0 441.139720559 81% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.11452513966 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.34981470047 4.56307096286 95% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.81191698423 2.78398813304 101% => OK
Unique words: 166.0 204.123752495 81% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.463687150838 0.468620217663 99% => OK
syllable_count: 570.6 705.55239521 81% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 38.8336512465 57.8364921388 67% => OK
Chars per sentence: 101.722222222 119.503703932 85% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.8888888889 23.324526521 85% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.33333333333 5.70786347227 76% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 8.20758483034 24% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 12.0 6.88822355289 174% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.265757539283 0.218282227539 122% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0914614800394 0.0743258471296 123% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0929626648388 0.0701772020484 132% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.166320386041 0.128457276422 129% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0847683413325 0.0628817314937 135% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.6 14.3799401198 88% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 52.19 48.3550499002 108% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.36 12.5979740519 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.06 8.32208582834 97% => OK
difficult_words: 79.0 98.500998004 80% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => 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.