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 argument that Dura-sock should halt the use of Endure manufacturing process makes a number of unwarranted assumptions that needs to be examined. Taken as a whole, these unstated assumptions render the argument highly suspect. Indeed, if these unstated assumptions do not hold true, the argument totally falls apart.
Firstly, the argument fails to show any correlation between the frequent advert of Endure process and the customers’ purchase of dura-socks every three months. The company advertises the use of a process and not a product and expects the product sales to increase. This is flawed because the advert is directed towards the process and not the product. Thus, the author needs to check if the products are advertised alongside the process. if the product are advertised with the the process, the claim that the process should be discontinued is valid.
Secondly, the argument assumes because customers purchase socks every three months, the socks are not durable. Nothing in the argument shows what the customers use the socks for. The average customers might be retailers that resells the socks to final consumers. Also, the average customers might be athletes that uses the socks on a regular basis, thereby leading to the rapid wear and tear of the socks. Thus, the author needs to check why the customers buy socks every three months. If it is seen that the socks worn out easily without regular use, then the claim that the manufacturing process should be discontinued is valid.
Lastly, the argument fails to show how the survey in northeastern United States cities was carried out. Nothing in the argument descibes the bases of the survey. How many customers were surveyed? At what period of the year were the customers surveyed. To adopt the result of this survey, the author needs to check this fact. Unless this enquiries are answered, the result of the survey remains invalid.
In conclusion, the argument that Dura-sock should halt the use of Endure manufacturing process makes numerous unstated assumptions that seriously weaken its validity. Unless these unwarranted assumptions are addressed, the argument totally falls apart. Thus, the company might be making a major mistake by doing eliminating Endure manufacturing process.
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: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 22 15
No. of Words: 363 350
No. of Characters: 1853 1500
No. of Different Words: 154 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.365 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.105 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.586 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 143 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 106 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 65 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 37 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 16.5 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.486 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.455 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.338 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.571 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.152 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 439, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: If
...s are advertised alongside the process. if the product are advertised with the the...
^^
Line 3, column 474, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: the
...ess. if the product are advertised with the the process, the claim that the process sho...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 474, Rule ID: DT_DT[1]
Message: Maybe you need to remove one determiner so that only 'the' or 'the' is left.
Suggestion: the; the
...ess. if the product are advertised with the the process, the claim that the process sho...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 333, Rule ID: THIS_NNS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'these'?
Suggestion: these
...author needs to check this fact. Unless this enquiries are answered, the result of t...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, firstly, if, lastly, second, secondly, so, then, thus, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 19.0 19.6327345309 97% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.9520958084 54% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 11.1786427146 45% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 9.0 13.6137724551 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 18.0 28.8173652695 62% => OK
Preposition: 34.0 55.5748502994 61% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 16.3942115768 67% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1913.0 2260.96107784 85% => OK
No of words: 363.0 441.139720559 82% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.26997245179 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.3649236973 4.56307096286 96% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.66467379943 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 159.0 204.123752495 78% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.438016528926 0.468620217663 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 579.6 705.55239521 82% => 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: 17.0 8.76447105788 194% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 15.0 22.8473053892 66% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 34.1457456657 57.8364921388 59% => The essay contains lots of sentences with the similar length. More sentence varieties wanted.
Chars per sentence: 83.1739130435 119.503703932 70% => OK
Words per sentence: 15.7826086957 23.324526521 68% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.52173913043 5.70786347227 62% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 8.20758483034 37% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 11.0 6.88822355289 160% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.67664670659 192% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.176137192064 0.218282227539 81% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0590089324498 0.0743258471296 79% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0506162499716 0.0701772020484 72% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.104565326449 0.128457276422 81% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0493334031611 0.0628817314937 78% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.3 14.3799401198 79% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 56.25 48.3550499002 116% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.1 12.197005988 75% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.99 12.5979740519 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.03 8.32208582834 96% => OK
difficult_words: 84.0 98.500998004 85% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.0 11.1389221557 72% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.9071856287 67% => The average readability is low. Need to imporve the language.
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.