The following appeared in a memo from a vice president of a large, highly diversified company.
"Ten years ago our company had two new office buildings constructed as regional headquarters for two regions. The buildings were erected by different construction companies — Alpha and Zeta. Although the two buildings had identical floor plans, the building constructed by Zeta cost 30 percent more to build. However, that building's expenses for maintenance last year were only half those of Alpha's. In addition, the energy consumption of the Zeta building has been lower than that of the Alpha building every year since its construction. Given these data, plus the fact that Zeta has a stable workforce with little employee turnover, we recommend using Zeta rather than Alpha for our new building project, even though Alpha's bid promises lower construction costs."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation 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 recommendation.
The prompt supports for the consideration of Zeta building rather than Alpha for new building projects. Though the vice president has showed some of the logical reasoning, certain logical flaws are inflicted with the premises that underlie the argument. Those conjectures are to be mentioned only followed by necessary clarifications.
To begin with - the one of the prime assumption is to consider the Zeta building becasue of its lower maintainance cost compared to Alpha. The question to be asked - is that maintainance of a building in any mean pertinent to the building a new one? Is it authentic enough to consider that as the maiantaince cost of Zeta builidng is lower so would be the one of the new building or even it will help somehow for the purpose? That the new building is a completely new project, it might not have nay significance with the maintainance of the Zeta building. It might be the case that the the new building may consider the factors that Zeta building has disregarded previously. For example - supposedly, the working environment and the suorrounding of the Zeta building may not be well planned and may be the maintainance is not up to the standard; that is why the mainatance cost is lower. It might be the case that the owner of the Zeta building is not much attentive towards the mainatainance of the building, causing chepaer cost. All of these might not be same for the new building to be made. May be the owner of the building will be more sincere towards the mainatance of it and as a result it will cost more; sparing the fact that theere is actually any significance of it with the regards to the Zeta building.
Coming to the second - the lower energy consumption of Zeta building might be significant for the new building making. Simplifying - the cost of energy for the new building will be less if is considered with regards to the Zeta building. What if the guarantee that the new building will require same amount of energy that the Zeta building is consuming? May be the working force of the new building is much bigger than the Zeta building and consequently may cause higher energy consumption. It might be the case that the consumers of energy of the Zeta building are much more sincere regaridng the usage of energy compared to the new building ones, who might be exorbitant in their use of energy. Also we can not disregard the possibility of faulty line that might cause the new building to be vulenerable to excess energy consumption, contrary to the Zeta building - might be devoid of any any limitation or insignificant ones.
The last and most important one is the assumption that - in spite of lower construction cost of Alpha building, Zeta building is advised to chosen becasue of its stable workforce. Might illuminate the fact that - what will be the use of a unskilled labour force if they can not work in a good manner and are not adept? What is the guarantee that the workforce prescribed in the making of Zeta building will be skilled enough to make the new building a success, even though they are stable? It stands good chacne that - the owner of the new projected building might not have any problems regarding the labour change over May be the case that the owner will be happy enough to work with efficient, timed, mannered labour force; unstable yet. Nowhere in the prompt has said anything about the efficiency of the stable workforce. So, more clearance is needed from the vice president get better view for making any decision.
So, the factors and points aforementioned - it might not be a good idea to come to any conclusion based on the reasoning and logics provided above. To need better view of the overall situation and future prospects necessary evidences are needed along with the answers of the questions asked - only then a conclusion can be made.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 12 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 15 2
No. of Sentences: 26 15
No. of Words: 665 350
No. of Characters: 3102 1500
No. of Different Words: 234 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.078 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.665 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.659 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 203 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 155 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 125 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 70 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.577 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.745 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.615 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.397 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.56 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.155 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 142, Rule ID: SOME_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'some'.
Suggestion: some
...s. Though the vice president has showed some of the logical reasoning, certain logical flaw...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 583, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: the
...eta building. It might be the case that the the new building may consider the factors t...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 583, Rule ID: DT_DT[1]
Message: Maybe you need to remove one determiner so that only 'the' or 'the' is left.
Suggestion: the; the
...eta building. It might be the case that the the new building may consider the factors t...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 1101, Rule ID: HE_VERB_AGR[8]
Message: The proper name in singular (May) must be used with a third-person verb: 'is'.
Suggestion: is
...me for the new building to be made. May be the owner of the building will be more ...
^^
Line 5, column 359, Rule ID: HE_VERB_AGR[8]
Message: The proper name in singular (May) must be used with a third-person verb: 'is'.
Suggestion: is
...hat the Zeta building is consuming? May be the working force of the new building i...
^^
Line 5, column 698, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Also,
...t be exorbitant in their use of energy. Also we can not disregard the possibility of...
^^^^
Line 5, column 888, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: any
... the Zeta building - might be devoid of any any limitation or insignificant ones. T...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 238, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
...the fact that - what will be the use of a unskilled labour force if they can not ...
^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, consequently, if, may, regarding, second, so, then, well, for example, as a result, in spite of, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 47.0 19.6327345309 239% => Less to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 32.0 12.9520958084 247% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 19.0 13.6137724551 140% => OK
Pronoun: 37.0 28.8173652695 128% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 76.0 55.5748502994 137% => OK
Nominalization: 22.0 16.3942115768 134% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3170.0 2260.96107784 140% => OK
No of words: 665.0 441.139720559 151% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.76691729323 5.12650576532 93% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.07814867018 4.56307096286 111% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.73548990317 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 241.0 204.123752495 118% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.362406015038 0.468620217663 77% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 997.2 705.55239521 141% => 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: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 26.0 19.7664670659 132% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 22.8473053892 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 47.8682239477 57.8364921388 83% => OK
Chars per sentence: 121.923076923 119.503703932 102% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.5769230769 23.324526521 110% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.84615384615 5.70786347227 85% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 8.0 5.25449101796 152% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 13.0 8.20758483034 158% => 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: 0.154184603285 0.218282227539 71% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0694479994243 0.0743258471296 93% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.044375466171 0.0701772020484 63% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.100871883493 0.128457276422 79% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0518492149796 0.0628817314937 82% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.8 14.3799401198 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 54.56 48.3550499002 113% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.68 12.5979740519 85% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.89 8.32208582834 95% => OK
difficult_words: 127.0 98.500998004 129% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.1389221557 108% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.