The following appeared in a memo from the vice president of marketing at Dura-Sock, Inc.
"A recent study of our customers suggests that our company is wasting the money it spends on its patented Endure manufacturing process, which ensures that our socks are strong enough to last for two years. We have always advertised our use of the Endure process, but the new study shows that despite our socks' durability, our average customer actually purchases new Dura-Socks every three months. Furthermore, our customers surveyed in our largest market, northeastern United States cities, say that they most value Dura-Socks' stylish appearance and availability in many colors. These findings suggest that we can increase our profits by discontinuing use of the Endure manufacturing process."
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 marketing at Dura-Sock, states that the company is wasting the money due to their patented Endure producing process, which allow them to manufacture socks with long life span, two years. He elaborates on this argument with the findings customers surveys, and he suggests that they can increase their profit through discounting use of the Endure manufacturing process. However, before this recommendation is properly evaluated, the arguer should clarify some assumptions which are unwarranted.
First of all, the vice president states that their customers survey in the northeastern United States cities showed that clients give more importance fot style and color of the products rather than its durability. However, this findings of the study is valuable, we cannot be sure that they are credible, since we do not know about the demographic characteristics of the participants. It is possible that the majority of customers of the survey are adolescants and their judgements are superficial to generalize all of the customers. Moreover, there is a possibility that most of the participants are women, and their taste and preference may be different from the men. As a result of these points, it is clear that lacking details and unwarranted assumptions of weaken the argument.
Secondly, the author of the argument mentions that they chose northeastern United States cities for survey, where their largest market, however, it is not clear that most of their clients live in the northeastern United States cities. It is possible that they live in the southern, and they shop in the northeastern part of the country because of lower tax rates of northeastern region. If this scenario has merit, then it means that the original argument is weakened, and the arguer needs to add new survey conducted on the clients live in the southern cities of the United States.
Lastly, the writer says that accordinf to a new study their customers buy socks in every three months, even though their advertising campaigns based on durability of the products. Nevertheless, this study is not strong enough o make generalization about the preference of the clients. Because, it is not clear that clients throw away their old socks in every three months, and it is possible that they buy one sock every three months in order to follow fahion rather than buy eight socks per two years. Further, time and duration of the study did not mention by the vice presidents, which can affect the drawn consequences. There is a possibility that this new study conducted between the Thanksgiving and the Christmas period, as a result, results of the study showed that people shop in every three months. If either one of these claims is valid, then it means that the original argument is weakened.
In conclusion, this argument of the vice president has flawns as it is stated. The arguer needs to support his assumptions with details such as participants’ features of surveys, time and duration of the studies, Moreover, he requires to give specific evidence to increase strengthen of his arguement.
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: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 506 350
No. of Characters: 2527 1500
No. of Different Words: 223 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.743 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.994 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.734 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 181 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 125 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 96 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 58 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 26.632 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.862 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.684 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.337 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.337 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.104 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 357, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...their profit through discounting use of the Endure manufacturing process. However, before ...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 223, Rule ID: THIS_NNS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'these'?
Suggestion: these
...ts rather than its durability. However, this findings of the study is valuable, we c...
^^^^
Line 2, column 512, Rule ID: ALL_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'all the'.
Suggestion: all the
...udgements are superficial to generalize all of the customers. Moreover, there is a possibi...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 235, Rule ID: ALLOW_TO[1]
Message: Did you mean 'giving'? Or maybe you should add a pronoun? In active voice, 'require' + 'to' takes an object, usually a pronoun.
Suggestion: giving
...n of the studies, Moreover, he requires to give specific evidence to increase strengthe...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
first, however, if, lastly, may, moreover, nevertheless, second, secondly, so, then, in conclusion, such as, as a result, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 23.0 19.6327345309 117% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 12.9520958084 39% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 22.0 13.6137724551 162% => OK
Pronoun: 61.0 28.8173652695 212% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 61.0 55.5748502994 110% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 16.3942115768 98% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2593.0 2260.96107784 115% => OK
No of words: 506.0 441.139720559 115% => OK
Chars per words: 5.12450592885 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.7428307748 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.8518936974 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 233.0 204.123752495 114% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.4604743083 0.468620217663 98% => OK
syllable_count: 785.7 705.55239521 111% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 11.0 4.96107784431 222% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 5.0 1.67365269461 299% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 26.0 22.8473053892 114% => OK
Sentence length SD: 46.3695859821 57.8364921388 80% => OK
Chars per sentence: 136.473684211 119.503703932 114% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.6315789474 23.324526521 114% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.05263157895 5.70786347227 124% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.171675547228 0.218282227539 79% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0521818427758 0.0743258471296 70% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0769242904338 0.0701772020484 110% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0976406189399 0.128457276422 76% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0948107788304 0.0628817314937 151% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.0 14.3799401198 111% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 45.09 48.3550499002 93% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 12.197005988 110% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.71 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.33 8.32208582834 100% => OK
difficult_words: 109.0 98.500998004 111% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.1389221557 111% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.