The following appeared in a memo from the new vice president of Sartorian, a company that manufactures men's clothing.
"Five years ago, at a time when we had difficulty obtaining reliable supplies of high-quality wool fabric, we discontinued production of our popular alpaca overcoat. Now that we have a new fabric supplier, we should resume production. Given the outcry from our customers when we discontinued this product and the fact that none of our competitors offers a comparable product, we can expect pent-up consumer demand for our alpaca coats. This demand and the overall increase in clothing prices will make Sartorian's alpaca overcoats more profitable than ever before."
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.
In the argument, the author concludes by recommending Sartorian to resume production of the once popular overcoat with the reason that a new fabric supplier has emerged. While this conclusion may hold water, it rests on three unwarranted assumptions that must addressed before the recommendation can be made.
Firstly, the author argues that the outcry faced five years ago when the alpaca overcoat was discontinued still holds value today. Moreover, he assumes that demand of the coat from five years ago will still remain today. Over the years we have seen that fashion evolves rather quickly and what is fashionable today may not be fashionable tommorow. Furthermore, the author argues that the product faces no competition today; a possible explanation could be that the overcoat is no longer fashionable and thus has low demand and as a consequence there is low production from other companies. Hence, the author must provide evidence of demand existing today in a capacity that is similar or higher than the past.
Secondly, the author argues that the new fabric supplier will be able to meet the demand of the overcoat, however he fails to mention the quality and sustainability of production of the new supplier. It is possible that the old fabric supplier provided higher quality wool which is why there was a big market for the overcoats produced. Also, the author assumes that new supplier will be able to provide the quantity of wool that is required to sustainably maintain the production of alpaca overcoats .The author must provide evidence that the supplier will be able to supply high quality wool in high quantity for significant period of time. If this is not the case then, it is possible that there would be less demand or the past could be repeated and the production of the alpaca overcoats could be hampered.
Thirdly, Over the years, we have also seen that products such as coats and jackets made from animal skins have been strongly discouraged by the government by adding heavy taxes. This could imply that the cost of production of the wool will be higher than previously. In additon, the author also mentions that there is an overall increase in clothing prices, this however, does not translate to consumer demand. Moreover, it is possible that production costs have gone high and are the main reason for increase in prices and can not be attributed to demand. An implication of this would be that the demand for alpaca overcoats would be significantly lower than from five years ago when the product would have been cheap and accessible. The author must provide clear evidence that the demand for alpaca coats would still exist if the prices were increased.
Finally, as it stands the author's argument is weak and the aforementioned concerns must be addressed before the company can take a decision.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 7 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 475 350
No. of Characters: 2316 1500
No. of Different Words: 198 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.668 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.876 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.562 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 162 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 112 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 85 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 42 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 26.389 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.44 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.778 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.356 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.573 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.135 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 310, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... before the recommendation can be made. Firstly, the author argues that the outc...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 501, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Don't put a space before the full stop
Suggestion: .
...ntain the production of alpaca overcoats .The author must provide evidence that th...
^^
Line 5, column 503, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: The
...ain the production of alpaca overcoats .The author must provide evidence that the s...
^^^
Line 5, column 628, Rule ID: PERIOD_OF_TIME[1]
Message: Use simply 'period'.
Suggestion: period
...y wool in high quantity for significant period of time. If this is not the case then, it is po...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 813, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...the alpaca overcoats could be hampered. Thirdly, Over the years, we have also se...
^^^^^^
Line 9, column 27, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...ncreased. Finally, as it stands the authors argument is weak and the aforementioned...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, firstly, furthermore, hence, however, if, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, still, then, third, thirdly, thus, while, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 32.0 19.6327345309 163% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 24.0 12.9520958084 185% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 23.0 13.6137724551 169% => OK
Pronoun: 34.0 28.8173652695 118% => OK
Preposition: 42.0 55.5748502994 76% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2368.0 2260.96107784 105% => OK
No of words: 475.0 441.139720559 108% => OK
Chars per words: 4.98526315789 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.66845742379 4.56307096286 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.62774120162 2.78398813304 94% => OK
Unique words: 204.0 204.123752495 100% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.429473684211 0.468620217663 92% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 733.5 705.55239521 104% => 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: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 26.0 22.8473053892 114% => OK
Sentence length SD: 51.189704067 57.8364921388 89% => OK
Chars per sentence: 131.555555556 119.503703932 110% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.3888888889 23.324526521 113% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.61111111111 5.70786347227 151% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => 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: 0.163050309921 0.218282227539 75% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0585931355495 0.0743258471296 79% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0403829479065 0.0701772020484 58% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0858568657508 0.128457276422 67% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0377150069153 0.0628817314937 60% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.3 14.3799401198 106% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 53.55 48.3550499002 111% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.96 12.5979740519 95% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.15 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 97.0 98.500998004 98% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.1389221557 111% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 66.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4 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.