The following appeared in a memo from the vice president of a food distribution company with food storage warehouses in several cities.
"Recently, we signed a contract with the Fly-Away Pest Control Company to provide pest control services at our warehouse in Palm City, but last month we discovered that over $20,000 worth of food there had been destroyed by pest damage. Meanwhile, the Buzzoff Pest Control Company, which we have used for many years in Palm City, continued to service our warehouse in Wintervale, and last month only $10,000 worth of the food stored there had been destroyed by pest damage. Even though the price charged by Fly-Away is considerably lower, our best means of saving money is to return to Buzzoff for all our pest control services."
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 vice president of food distribution company comes to the conclusion that their company should switch the contract of pest control services from Fly-Away Pest Control Company to Buzzoff Pest Control Company. The author comes to this conclusion by comparing the amount of damages caused by pests in warehouses present in Palm City and Wintervale. Before we assess the validity of this argument, the author should provide evidence against the three assumptions stated below.
Firstly, the author assumes that the damages caused in Palm City warehouse were not because of an anomaly. There could be multiple reasons which escalated the damages. Maybe, the weather of the Palm city facilitated the growth of pest in the warehouse. It is also possible that the refrigeration at the warehouse was malfunctioning for a period of time, which led to the increase in infestation of the pest in the warehouse. if either of the above possibilities holds true then author's contention fail to hold water.
Secondly, the author assumes that there is no differentiating factor between warehouses in Palm City and Wintervale. Perhaps, the size of the former warehouse is vast in comparison to the latter, which justifies the amount of damages observed at each warehouse. It is also possible that the former warehouse is situated near a forest area which intensifies the amount of pest infiltration in the warehouse in comparison the latter. The author's assumption is likely to suffer in either of the aforementioned cases.
Lastly, the author assumes that it is cost effective strategy to switch contract from Fly-Away to Buzzoff. However, it is probable that in the long run the cost of pest control service outrun the cost of food that is damaged. It may also be possible that Buzzoff company may charged extra for providing service in Palm City, as their nearest center is far away from the city. The author's premise is severely undermined in either case.
In conclusion, the recommendation from vice president may be correct. However, as it stands now, three presumptions undermine the validity of the result. To make their case more compelling, the author must back up the aforementioned premises with proof.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 358 350
No. of Characters: 1808 1500
No. of Different Words: 168 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.35 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.05 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.798 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 141 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 105 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 67 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 43 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.889 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.881 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.5 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.336 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.557 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.088 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 339, Rule ID: PERIOD_OF_TIME[1]
Message: Use simply 'period'.
Suggestion: period
... the warehouse was malfunctioning for a period of time, which led to the increase in infestati...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 426, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: If
...festation of the pest in the warehouse. if either of the above possibilities holds...
^^
Line 3, column 426, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “if” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...festation of the pest in the warehouse. if either of the above possibilities holds...
^^
Line 5, column 437, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...warehouse in comparison the latter. The authors assumption is likely to suffer in eithe...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, however, if, lastly, may, second, secondly, so, then, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 19.6327345309 81% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.9520958084 54% => OK
Conjunction : 2.0 11.1786427146 18% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 13.0 13.6137724551 95% => OK
Pronoun: 21.0 28.8173652695 73% => OK
Preposition: 58.0 55.5748502994 104% => OK
Nominalization: 9.0 16.3942115768 55% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1854.0 2260.96107784 82% => OK
No of words: 358.0 441.139720559 81% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.17877094972 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.34981470047 4.56307096286 95% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.85964224323 2.78398813304 103% => OK
Unique words: 168.0 204.123752495 82% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.469273743017 0.468620217663 100% => OK
syllable_count: 585.9 705.55239521 83% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 22.8473053892 79% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 39.8752208896 57.8364921388 69% => OK
Chars per sentence: 97.5789473684 119.503703932 82% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.8421052632 23.324526521 81% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.94736842105 5.70786347227 87% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 12.0 6.88822355289 174% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.354186414165 0.218282227539 162% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0901138326179 0.0743258471296 121% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.106538490255 0.0701772020484 152% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.184656709117 0.128457276422 144% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.120658627936 0.0628817314937 192% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.4 14.3799401198 86% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 53.21 48.3550499002 110% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 12.197005988 84% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.76 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.37 8.32208582834 101% => OK
difficult_words: 87.0 98.500998004 88% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.1389221557 83% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.