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 discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
The vice president of Dura-sock for marketing seemingly provide a cogent conclusion on the preference of discontinuing the production of the Endure socks. Any budget cut will increase the cost of production and the overall income of the company might increase at first. However, the vice president does not provide reliable data on which the conclusion is drawn. No comparison is made regarding the reliability of the socks with the actual standard that is desired by the customers, and the survey of the customers from northeastern United States cities is superficial and incomplete to support the conclusion. For now, three evidences are needed to evaluate the arguments made by the vice president of Dura-sock.
Endurance of a product is one of the most important aspect of quality that needs to be maintained to ensure desired sales of the product. The company has actually pursued this aspect and it is a great thing to do. The purchase trend of the customers does not directly reflect the quality of the product. Perhaps, the customers buy the socks from Dura-sock because they want to follow the trend or they are satisfied with the products and they want to collect more. The vice president also does not mention the profile of these customers that can affect the socks usage and life-time. Most of the customers, probably, are using the socks for heavy and laborious jobs that make even the strongest materials available break apart upon repeated usage in three months. This can be the case when the customers are physically active, like athletes or field engineers. When the company want to increase the endurance, then they must first evaluate the designated two years warrant of the product based on the Endure manufacturing technologies. Probably, the intended usage is everyday life and casual activities like going to the malls or the jobs in the office. Another variable needs to be considered is the comparison with the competitors that produce the same type of product. Using the same indicators for comparison, if the result favors the endurance of the Endure socks, then abandoning the high quality process will reduce the endurance and the sales of the product will decline in the long run. The vice president must collect the evidences for this endurance evaluation to ensure that the intended action in the future will not be bad for the company.
The survey on the customers from northeastern United States is questionable because of the lack of details of the data. The customers say that they choose the Endure socks due to appearance and availability in the market, yet it does not mean the quality is not a factor in deciding which product that they should buy. Moreover, those customers might purchase the socks in every two years, just like the predicted endurance level of the product. If that is the case, then there is no reason for the company to stop the Endure manufacturing process because their customers in this area are happy with the product. The customers also may think that the quality and endurance of the socks they buy is the major factor of choice, and this condition will grant the Endure as the best products based on customers’ opinions. Thus, the vice president must get into the survey deeply enough so they can conclude more carefully and save the opportunities that the company already has all the time.
The last thing to consider is the impact of decision made by the vice president. The company, after getting the evidences from the first and second paragraphs, must take into account the share of sales of Endure socks compared to the overall products sold in the market. If this product is the main source of income, then they must carefully decide the best option to take, avoiding any bad choices in the future. From the passage, we can learn that the customers are actually satisfied and glad with the product. Therefore, the vice president must leave the previous stance and pursue the more logical one.
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: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 28 15
No. of Words: 670 350
No. of Characters: 3243 1500
No. of Different Words: 263 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.088 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.84 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.513 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 225 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 171 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 117 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 85 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.929 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.473 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.536 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.312 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.44 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.062 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 138, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...ence of discontinuing the production of the Endure socks. Any budget cut will increase the...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 558, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'socks'' or 'sock's'?
Suggestion: socks'; sock's
... of these customers that can affect the socks usage and life-time. Most of the custom...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 998, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...o years warrant of the product based on the Endure manufacturing technologies. Probably, t...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 1354, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
..., if the result favors the endurance of the Endure socks, then abandoning the high quality...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 121, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...use of the lack of details of the data. The customers say that they choose the Endu...
^^^
Line 5, column 156, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...ata. The customers say that they choose the Endure socks due to appearance and availabilit...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 516, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...re is no reason for the company to stop the Endure manufacturing process because their cus...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 757, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...f choice, and this condition will grant the Endure as the best products based on customers...
^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, first, however, if, may, moreover, regarding, second, so, then, therefore, thus
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.6327345309 127% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 19.0 12.9520958084 147% => OK
Conjunction : 20.0 11.1786427146 179% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 33.0 28.8173652695 115% => OK
Preposition: 83.0 55.5748502994 149% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3311.0 2260.96107784 146% => OK
No of words: 670.0 441.139720559 152% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.94179104478 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.08766726615 4.56307096286 111% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.58780361624 2.78398813304 93% => OK
Unique words: 274.0 204.123752495 134% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.408955223881 0.468620217663 87% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1054.8 705.55239521 149% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 15.0 8.76447105788 171% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 28.0 19.7664670659 142% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 44.8601426431 57.8364921388 78% => OK
Chars per sentence: 118.25 119.503703932 99% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.9285714286 23.324526521 103% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.39285714286 5.70786347227 59% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 8.0 5.25449101796 152% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 16.0 8.20758483034 195% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.226148466868 0.218282227539 104% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0691811596379 0.0743258471296 93% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.04530670824 0.0701772020484 65% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.161789888077 0.128457276422 126% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0416097072777 0.0628817314937 66% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.8 14.3799401198 96% => 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: 11.67 12.5979740519 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.98 8.32208582834 96% => OK
difficult_words: 136.0 98.500998004 138% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => 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: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.