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 memo states that the plan of stopping using the Endure manufacturing process for Dura-Sock production. However, I suggest that the following three specific evidences are needed to evaluate.
First of all, the customers think that the cost for patent need to be cut down. Since the customers may not be the experts of business administration, how dare they think the patented fee for law agency is a waste? It is a common sense that one of the advantages of a successful industry is to patent its own technology. The patented technology in a company can secure its competition to other rival. If above is true, then the original argument does not hold water.
Second, buying new Dura-Socks every three months does not imply that the durability of Dura-Socks is only three month. Customer behavior is complicated, hence the reasons of buying a product frequently may not be the product is easily damaged. Isn't it possible that a customer think the socks are in good quality, and he or she chooses the socks as Christmas presents for all of the relatives? Or maybe he or she recommends other friend to buy Dura-Socks and ask his or her friend to use his or her membership. If the above scenario is true, then the argument from vice president of marketing is absolutely weakened.
Last but not the last, the customers' opinion from northeastern United States cities can not represent all of the customers for Dura-Sock, Inc. Admittedly, the customers opinion from largest market share may be important. However, what is the original data? The distribution of customers' market share may also be key factor to make conclusion. For example, if the largest market share is ten percent, and the other market share can be 9 percent or less. But the remaining market share which is not the largest may consist of ninety percent of the entire market share. The finding should be analyzed with more statistic method before making any suggestion.
The memo from vice present of marketing at Dura-Sock has flawed perspective due to several unwarranted evidences, the evidences are needed to be provided before the memo is conducted.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 359 350
No. of Characters: 1725 1500
No. of Different Words: 188 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.353 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.805 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.666 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 126 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 92 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 67 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 47 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18.895 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.672 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.632 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.284 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.528 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.097 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 49, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
... states that the plan of stopping using the Endure manufacturing process for Dura-Sock pro...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 113, Rule ID: CD_NN[1]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun 'month' seems to be countable, so consider using: 'months'.
Suggestion: months
... durability of Dura-Socks is only three month. Customer behavior is complicated, henc...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 245, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: Isn't
...y not be the product is easily damaged. Isnt it possible that a customer think the s...
^^^^
Line 5, column 373, Rule ID: ALL_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'all the'.
Suggestion: all the
...ses the socks as Christmas presents for all of the relatives? Or maybe he or she recommend...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 28, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'customers'' or 'customer's'?
Suggestion: customers'; customer's
...weakened. Last but not the last, the customers opinion from northeastern United States...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 103, Rule ID: ALL_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'all the'.
Suggestion: all the
... United States cities can not represent all of the customers for Dura-Sock, Inc. Admittedl...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 160, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'customers'' or 'customer's'?
Suggestion: customers'; customer's
...ers for Dura-Sock, Inc. Admittedly, the customers opinion from largest market share may b...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 178, Rule ID: THE_SUPERLATIVE[2]
Message: A determiner is probably missing here: 'from the largest'.
Suggestion: from the largest
... Inc. Admittedly, the customers opinion from largest market share may be important. However,...
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, hence, however, if, may, second, so, then, for example, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.9520958084 77% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 7.0 13.6137724551 51% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 20.0 28.8173652695 69% => OK
Preposition: 37.0 55.5748502994 67% => OK
Nominalization: 7.0 16.3942115768 43% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1777.0 2260.96107784 79% => OK
No of words: 358.0 441.139720559 81% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.96368715084 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.34981470047 4.56307096286 95% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.76162633368 2.78398813304 99% => OK
Unique words: 185.0 204.123752495 91% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.516759776536 0.468620217663 110% => OK
syllable_count: 562.5 705.55239521 80% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 4.96107784431 40% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 22.8473053892 74% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 32.1578528512 57.8364921388 56% => The essay contains lots of sentences with the similar length. More sentence varieties wanted.
Chars per sentence: 88.85 119.503703932 74% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.9 23.324526521 77% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.3 5.70786347227 75% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 8.0 5.25449101796 152% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.20758483034 134% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => 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: 0.262266274016 0.218282227539 120% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0759354811276 0.0743258471296 102% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0555124472789 0.0701772020484 79% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.154782376445 0.128457276422 120% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0372020061523 0.0628817314937 59% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.9 14.3799401198 76% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 54.22 48.3550499002 112% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 12.197005988 81% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.19 12.5979740519 89% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.18 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 84.0 98.500998004 85% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 12.3882235529 69% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 11.1389221557 79% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => 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.