The following appeared in a memo from a vice president of a manufacturing company.
"During the past year, workers at our newly opened factory reported 30 percent more on-the-job accidents than workers at nearby Panoply Industries. Panoply produces products very similar to those produced at our factory, but its work shifts are one hour shorter than ours. Experts say that fatigue and sleep deprivation among workers are significant contributing factors in many on-the-job accidents. Panoply's superior safety record can therefore be attributed to its shorter work shifts, which allow its employees to get adequate amounts of rest."
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument.
The argument that the new company should mimic Panoply company in shortening its work hour shift by one hour makes a number of unwarranted assumptions regarding the assumption that what works best for Panoply will also be effective for the company, panoply’s shorter work shift led to the company’s low record of on-the-job accident, and the assumption that all panoply workers uses the shorter work shift to get adequate amount of rest. Taken as a whole, these unstated assumptions render the argument highly suspect. Indeed, if these unstated assumptions do not hold, the argument totally falls apart.
Firstly, the argument assumes panoply’s shorter work shift led to the company’s low record of on-the-job accident. There is no evidence in the statement indicating that the one hour less work shift is the only safety measure panoply puts in place to reduce the amount of on-the-job accident. Panoply might have strict regulations regarding accidents in the company such reduction of an employee’s salary when ever such employee is found feckless on duty. Thus, if panoply had other regulations that led to the low account of on-the-job, then the argument is invalid.
Secondly, the argument assumes all workers of panoply uses the shorter work shift to get adequate amount of rest. Some panoply workers might use the one hour work shift to focus on other things they were unable to do during the normal working hour such as maintaining the machines used in production, correcting some faults in the machines or performing other activities apart from resting. Additionally, the argument never states implicitly that panoply workers use their work shift to rest even if the one hour work shift might have been intended for them to rest. Thus, panoply’s shorter work shift might not contribute to the company’s superior safety record.
Thirdly, the argument Ignores the disadvantage of the one hour shift on the company’s profit. The argument fail to check the total profit earned by the panoply company. The shorter work shift will lead to a shorter production time which might in turn, lead to a shorter income. Thus, assuming that immitating panoply’s shorter work shift will still be profitable might seem risky.
Lastly, the argument fails to present the true number behind the 30-percent increase in on-the-job accident. If the true number behind this percentage is a small increment of say, 5 more people experiencing accident, then adopting Panoply’s policy might not worth it. On the other hand, if the real number behind the 30-percent increase is large, for example, 50 more people experience accident, then, adopting panoply’s policy might be the way out.
In conclusion, the argument that immitating Panoply’s shorter work hour shift policy makes a number of unwarranted assumptions that seriously weakens it validity. Unless these assumptions are addressed, the argument totally falls part. Thus, the new company might be making a major mistake by doing adopting Panoply’s policy of shorter work hour shift.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 10 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 6 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 486 350
No. of Characters: 2486 1500
No. of Different Words: 202 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.695 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.115 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.558 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 186 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 144 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 96 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 59 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.143 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 13.695 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.762 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.405 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.621 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.163 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, if, lastly, regarding, second, secondly, so, still, then, third, thirdly, thus, apart from, for example, in conclusion, in short, such as, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 19.6327345309 66% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.9520958084 100% => OK
Conjunction : 2.0 11.1786427146 18% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 19.0 28.8173652695 66% => OK
Preposition: 57.0 55.5748502994 103% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2579.0 2260.96107784 114% => OK
No of words: 486.0 441.139720559 110% => OK
Chars per words: 5.30658436214 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.69525374022 4.56307096286 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.7083012379 2.78398813304 97% => OK
Unique words: 207.0 204.123752495 101% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.425925925926 0.468620217663 91% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 774.9 705.55239521 110% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 4.96107784431 20% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 81.6222425335 57.8364921388 141% => OK
Chars per sentence: 122.80952381 119.503703932 103% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.1428571429 23.324526521 99% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.71428571429 5.70786347227 153% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 15.0 6.88822355289 218% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.67664670659 21% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.147991387912 0.218282227539 68% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0588186674227 0.0743258471296 79% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0338340520527 0.0701772020484 48% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0931265838025 0.128457276422 72% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0269569886135 0.0628817314937 43% => 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: 15.2 14.3799401198 106% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.3550499002 100% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.81 12.5979740519 110% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.86 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 95.0 98.500998004 96% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 12.3882235529 105% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.