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 marketing at Dura-Sock Inc, in his memo argues that ending the Endure manufacturing process would help to increase the profits. The vice president’s argument is based on a new study which says that the Endure process is not efficacious and also according to a survey data, customers prefer color and appearance. The argument seems reasonable at cursory glance, however, careful examination of evidence reveals that the argument is not defensible because it lacks below mentioned evidences.
Firstly, evidence is needed to prove the durability of socks. The author fails to provide any sort of evidence that corroborate the author’s point that the socks last for two years in all conditions. For example, what if some customers use socks in extreme conditions in which socks are likely to wear out quickly? In this case the argument collapses if the durability is proved to be less than two years. Further, evidence is needed to prove that customers are buying new socks every three months because old socks are worn out. There could be many reasons why an average customer buys new socks every three months. For instance, it could be possible that, socks are worn out quickly because of mishandling or a customer likes socks very much that he/she is buying socks for others. So, these scenarios indicate the failure of author to to analyze the reason behind buying new socks frequently and the argument made on this basis becomes invalid. Moreover, there is no evidence of credibility/comprehensiveness of survey and the studies conducted.
Secondly, we need evidence to show that all customers of Dura-Sock prefer color and appearance over durability. But, the survey considers only people of northeastern united states. It could be possible that, customers in other parts of country prefer long lasting socks over flashy looking socks. Author does not mention about price of different types of socks. What if long lasting socks are costly compared to other types of socks in northeastern united stated? It is clear that customers will buy cheaper one. If, author provides data about price of the socks and opinion of customers from all parts of country, the argument becomes strong.
Thirdly, there is no evidence that, stopping the Endure manufacturing process will result in higher profits. If a company wants to earn more profit, there are many factors that should be taken into account. What if in the future, the company increases price of socks to recoup the losses occurred from Endure process? Or what if the quality of socks deteriorate? It is also possible that people prefer socks from other companies over the time. In all these cases, customers will not buy socks of Dura-Sock company. Although, Endure process is stopped, the profit is not likely to increase. Therefore, author should provide evidence to support his argument that, ending Endure process will lead to increased profit.
To conclude, because of the aforementioned reasons, the argument stands flawed. More evidence like some statistical data is needed to to evaluate the argument presented. Thus, before stopping Endure manufacturing process, Dura-Socks company should gather more data and do complete research before taking decisions based on the vice president’s argument.
Comments
e-rater score report
Out of topic
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: ??? out of 6
Category: Poor Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 7 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 30 15
No. of Words: 530 350
No. of Characters: 2685 1500
No. of Different Words: 236 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.798 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.066 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.566 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 210 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 147 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 95 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 54 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 17.667 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.15 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.667 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.303 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.475 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.104 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 82, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...ock Inc, in his memo argues that ending the Endure manufacturing process would help to inc...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 221, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...is based on a new study which says that the Endure process is not efficacious and also acc...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 335, 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.
... customers prefer color and appearance. The argument seems reasonable at cursory gl...
^^^
Line 3, column 836, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: to
...cenarios indicate the failure of author to to analyze the reason behind buying new so...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 46, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...ly, there is no evidence that, stopping the Endure manufacturing process will result in hi...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 132, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: to
...ce like some statistical data is needed to to evaluate the argument presented. Thus, ...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, however, if, look, moreover, second, secondly, so, therefore, third, thirdly, thus, for example, for instance, sort of
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.6327345309 127% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 11.1786427146 81% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 13.6137724551 125% => OK
Pronoun: 29.0 28.8173652695 101% => OK
Preposition: 72.0 55.5748502994 130% => OK
Nominalization: 24.0 16.3942115768 146% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2770.0 2260.96107784 123% => OK
No of words: 528.0 441.139720559 120% => OK
Chars per words: 5.24621212121 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.79356345386 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.80024431572 2.78398813304 101% => OK
Unique words: 243.0 204.123752495 119% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.460227272727 0.468620217663 98% => OK
syllable_count: 874.8 705.55239521 124% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 30.0 19.7664670659 152% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 22.8473053892 74% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 39.0634810988 57.8364921388 68% => OK
Chars per sentence: 92.3333333333 119.503703932 77% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.6 23.324526521 75% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.83333333333 5.70786347227 85% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.20758483034 134% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => 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: 0.267416633813 0.218282227539 123% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0788674677891 0.0743258471296 106% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0697243898186 0.0701772020484 99% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.169111865575 0.128457276422 132% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0504885188634 0.0628817314937 80% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.1 14.3799401198 84% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 45.76 48.3550499002 95% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.87 12.5979740519 102% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.07 8.32208582834 97% => OK
difficult_words: 120.0 98.500998004 122% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 12.3882235529 93% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 11.1389221557 79% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => 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.