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 s

Essay topics:

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.

In the memo, it is stated that the Dura-Sock company can make more profit by ceasing to utilize its patented Endure manufacturing process. The vice president has come to this conclusion based on a study which dictates that the customers buy new socks every three months anyway, and according to a survey the customers are more interested in the variety of colors and styles the company offers. However, these studies and surveys do not tell the complete story as they are mere assumptions. Some more analyses need to be done before ruling out the said manufacturing process.

First of all, the credibility of the 'new study' that the vice president mentions remains unproven. The vice president assumes that the study was carried out with a very high degree of accuracy which is completely unfounded. What if the people responsible for the study did not do a credible job? The credence of the inquiry should also be taken into account. Furthermore, there is no mention of the sample space for the mentioned study. If the number of customers analysed was very small, then the result of the study is not representative of the overall customer base of the company. If either of these scenarios holds true, then the conclusion drawn significantly weakens.

Secondly, did the survey take into account consumers of all age group? It is possible that only young individuals took part in the survey which has the potential to influence its output heavily. As the memo suggests that the customers care more about the colors rather than the durability, and it being the trait of the young population to misplace their belongings and, therefore, buy new ones, it is not hard to see that the customers surveyed were young people. Moreover, young people tend to lay more focus on the trivial qualities of products like their color and looks over more important traits such as the durability. Bearing these facts in mind, it is not difficult to say that the survey may have included more of the younger generation. If these assumptions are indeed true, then they cast serious doubt on the conclusion drawn by the vice president.

In conclusion, the argument, as it stands now, is considerably flawed due to its reliance on several unwarranted assumptions. If the company does go forward with the vice president's decision of not using the Endure manufacturing process, then it could have a negative impact on the company's profits.

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Average: 5.5 (4 votes)
Essay Categories

Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 7, column 205, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...e vice presidents decision of not using the Endure manufacturing process, then it could ha...
^^^^^^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, anyway, first, furthermore, however, if, look, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, in conclusion, such as, first of all

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 19.6327345309 87% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 12.9520958084 39% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 11.1786427146 54% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 27.0 28.8173652695 94% => OK
Preposition: 48.0 55.5748502994 86% => 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: 2018.0 2260.96107784 89% => OK
No of words: 407.0 441.139720559 92% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.95823095823 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.49157444576 4.56307096286 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.70436848375 2.78398813304 97% => OK
Unique words: 221.0 204.123752495 108% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.542997542998 0.468620217663 116% => OK
syllable_count: 639.9 705.55239521 91% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 55.527987004 57.8364921388 96% => OK
Chars per sentence: 106.210526316 119.503703932 89% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.4210526316 23.324526521 92% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.52631578947 5.70786347227 132% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.67664670659 171% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.191416577749 0.218282227539 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0548491482306 0.0743258471296 74% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0621669814358 0.0701772020484 89% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.1253176817 0.128457276422 98% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0619160354697 0.0628817314937 98% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.6 14.3799401198 88% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.49 12.5979740519 91% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.6 8.32208582834 103% => OK
difficult_words: 101.0 98.500998004 103% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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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.

Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 2.0 out of 6
Category: Poor Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 407 350
No. of Characters: 1968 1500
No. of Different Words: 214 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.492 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.835 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.627 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 133 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 101 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 71 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 48 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.421 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.724 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.789 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.299 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.486 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.065 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5