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 the Sunnyside Towers apartment complex predicts that modification of the showerheads to restrict water flow throughout all the twelve buildings in the Sunnyside Towers complex will increase their profits more substantially. The owner has reached to this prediction due to the fact that the corporation has to pay for water each month and if they can restrict the use of water, they will make more profit. However, before evaluating the argument, answers to these following three questions must be provided.
First of all, is the water flow amount which was used previously a significant amount? The owner assumes that this amount is a huge amount and reducing it to one-third of the previous amount causes reduction by a substantial amount. However, this may not be the case. It is quite possible that the previous amount of water flow was not very high. It was of a very little amount. For example, if the amount of water flow was only 100 units per second, then reducing it to 33 units per second is not a significant decrease than if the previous amount of water flow was 1000 units per second. The argument fails to provide evidence for this and so is seriously flawed.
Secondly, does water usage depends on flow rate only? The owner, without any evidence, assumes that no other factor except the flow rate is responsible for water usage. In reality, this may not be true. Perhaps the residents may use water for a long time and waste them. It is very likely that they are now using more than before. If this is the case, then reducing the water flow will have a negligible amount of effect. The argument fails to consider this case and so it is seriously weakened.
Finally, will the showers operate as expected in the upcoming future with the modification to restrict water? The owner prematurely assumes that there is no possibility of such a problem. However, this may not happen. It is possible that performance of the shower will deteriorate due to the low flow of water than expected. As time goes on, they will face severe operating issues in near future. In order to repair and maintain them properly, the corporation will have to pay a lot of money in a month. If this has merit, then the argument will not hold water.
In conclusion, the argument, as it stands, is seriously flawed as it relies on unwarranted assumptions which may be proved to be invalid. If the author is able to provide satisfactory answers for the stated three questions and provide more evidences for supporting these, then the argument can be considered for evaluation and predict that restricting water flow will increase profit of the corporation significantly. Otherwise it will remain seriously flawed as it is on surface.
Comments
e-rater score 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: 27 15
No. of Words: 473 350
No. of Characters: 2218 1500
No. of Different Words: 190 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.664 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.689 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.573 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 149 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 105 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 78 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 46 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 17.519 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.994 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.593 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.28 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.455 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.061 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 28, Rule ID: DOES_NP_VBZ[1]
Message: Did you mean 'depend'?
Suggestion: depend
...y flawed. Secondly, does water usage depends on flow rate only? The owner, without a...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 419, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Otherwise,
...rofit of the corporation significantly. Otherwise it will remain seriously flawed as it i...
^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
finally, first, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, third, as to, for example, in conclusion, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.6327345309 132% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 18.0 12.9520958084 139% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 38.0 28.8173652695 132% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 50.0 55.5748502994 90% => OK
Nominalization: 18.0 16.3942115768 110% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2285.0 2260.96107784 101% => OK
No of words: 473.0 441.139720559 107% => OK
Chars per words: 4.83086680761 5.12650576532 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.66353547975 4.56307096286 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.65559983559 2.78398813304 95% => OK
Unique words: 208.0 204.123752495 102% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.439746300211 0.468620217663 94% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 723.6 705.55239521 103% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 9.0 4.96107784431 181% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 27.0 19.7664670659 137% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 22.8473053892 74% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 63.0997859774 57.8364921388 109% => OK
Chars per sentence: 84.6296296296 119.503703932 71% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.5185185185 23.324526521 75% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.2962962963 5.70786347227 75% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 13.0 6.88822355289 189% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.192303472486 0.218282227539 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0489559299578 0.0743258471296 66% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0849237422675 0.0701772020484 121% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.119715311061 0.128457276422 93% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.114429228631 0.0628817314937 182% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.1 14.3799401198 70% => 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: 10.44 12.5979740519 83% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.92 8.32208582834 95% => OK
difficult_words: 103.0 98.500998004 105% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => 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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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.