The following appeared in a memo from the president of Bower Builders, a company that
constructs new homes.
"A nationwide survey reveals that the two most-desired home features are a large family
room and a large, well-appointed kitchen. A number of homes in our area built by our
competitor Domus Construction have such features and have sold much faster and at
significantly higher prices than the national average. To boost sales and profits, we should
increase the size of the family rooms and kitchens in all the homes we build and should make
state-of-the-art kitchens a standard feature. Moreover, our larger family rooms and kitchens
can come at the expense of the dining room, since many of our recent buyers say they do not
need a separate dining room for family meals."
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 president of Bower Builders has shown great concern about the firm’s development by suggesting the company imitate the current trend of larger rooms and kitchens. While this might be profitable for Bower Builders, the argument has failed to prove this. This is because the argument, which relies on confusing analogy, questionable assumptions, and lack of consideration for alternative factors, is largely vitiated by these blemishes.
To begin with, citing the greater sales of a competiting firm, Domus construction, the president assumes Domus construction is making great profit. This is flawed. There is no evidence in the argument relating sales to profitability. It might even be that Domus construction, which has been known to make great sales, is at the verge of liquidation, thereby succumbing to edifying any building without following proper regulations. Or perhaps the increased sales might be as a result of other factors such as brilliant advertisement, discount price, etc. To strengthen this argument, the president need to show other causes of Domus construction increased sales.
Apart from this, while quoting trend of big rooms and kitchens, the president assumes all Bower Builder clienteles can afford such structure. This might not be the case. In fact, a quorum of Bower Builder customers might not like colossal rooms and kitchens. Also, these customers, whom we know nothing about their pecuniary status, might not have the capacity to procure gargantuan edifices. It might also be that these customers’ land site might not be copious enough to sustain such structure. To improve this argument, the president will need to prove the buyers capacity. Else, the company might be ruined.
Lastly, while mentioning the preference of recent buyers, the president assumes old buys would also be interested in this ilk of design. This might be false. Old buyers, who are already innured to old designs of small rooms and kitchens, might not be willing to change their taste. Moreover, the president failed to state the amount of recent buyers who showed interest in large rooms. What if the number of buyers who despise large rooms surpass that of those who likes large rooms? This will ultimately lead to massive lose of customers for Bower Builders.
In summary, the president of Bower Builder has shown great altruism about the company by suggesting the company adopt a new trend of edifice. While this adoption might be beneficial, the president has failed to show this as he based his suggestion on blemished points. Therefore, it might not be advisable for Bower Builder, which is known with liliputian structures, to switch to constructing big rooms and kitchens.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 6 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 8 2
No. of Sentences: 24 15
No. of Words: 432 350
No. of Characters: 2202 1500
No. of Different Words: 207 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.559 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.097 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.619 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 153 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 120 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 82 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 55 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.119 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.542 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.317 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.502 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.088 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 561, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'buyers'' or 'buyer's'?
Suggestion: buyers'; buyer's
...t, the president will need to prove the buyers capacity. Else, the company might be ru...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, if, lastly, moreover, so, then, therefore, while, apart from, in fact, in summary, such as, as a result, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 19.0 12.9520958084 147% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 28.8173652695 97% => OK
Preposition: 55.0 55.5748502994 99% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2279.0 2260.96107784 101% => OK
No of words: 432.0 441.139720559 98% => OK
Chars per words: 5.27546296296 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.55901411391 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.76236367588 2.78398813304 99% => OK
Unique words: 218.0 204.123752495 107% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.50462962963 0.468620217663 108% => OK
syllable_count: 679.5 705.55239521 96% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 9.0 4.96107784431 181% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 25.0 19.7664670659 126% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 22.8473053892 74% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 47.8046022889 57.8364921388 83% => OK
Chars per sentence: 91.16 119.503703932 76% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.28 23.324526521 74% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.96 5.70786347227 87% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.67664670659 171% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.134302288537 0.218282227539 62% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0447972611453 0.0743258471296 60% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0470211407666 0.0701772020484 67% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0900954740719 0.128457276422 70% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.030151522643 0.0628817314937 48% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.1 14.3799401198 84% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 54.22 48.3550499002 112% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 12.197005988 81% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.05 12.5979740519 104% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.46 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 109.0 98.500998004 111% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 12.3882235529 69% => 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: 75.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.5 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.