The following appeared in a memo from the vice president of marketing at Dura-Socks, Inc.
"A recent study of Dura-Socks 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 the socks' durability, our customers, on average, actually purchase new Dura-Socks every three months. Furthermore, 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 questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
Dura-Socks’ vice president argues that a certain manufacturing process should be stopped to increase the profit of the company. VP suggests that because of the short period of customers buying their socks and customers’ answers of a survey providing that they value styles and colors over other characteristics. However, in order for his or her recommendation to hold water, there are several questions which must be answered.
First of all, does customers buying new socks on relatively short period amount of time (3 months on average) mean that they don’t need durable socks which can stand for two years? If Dura-socks does not last long, will customers re-purchase those in such a short period of time? It is more reasonable to say that customers re-purchased Dura-Socks because they were satisfied with its quality. On the other hand, if Dura-Socks lasted for only 3 months, customers would be more likely to not buy it again after three months and try other socks. In order to justify the author’s argument, there should be more data on how customers would behave when the socks’ durability decreases.
Second of all, what were the other options which customers could choose on what they value the most? How was those options accumulated results? For instance, Dura-Socks’ durability simply might not have been in as one of the options to choose from, eventually leading to an inaccurate survey. Another possible survey result is that the second most valued option was durability and it might not had huge difference between numbers of who valued stylish appearance and variety of colors. If such was the case, then the author’s suggestion is significantly weakened and we can not ignore the importance of the durability.
Lastly, does discontinuing use of Endure manufacturing process ensure increase in profits? Dura-Socks’ factory lines and equipment might be set to follow the Endure manufacturing process and it can cost vast amount of expenditure on getting new equipment and reconfiguring the manufacturing process. Such an abrupt cease of manufacturing process might lead to decrease in profits, especially in a short-term period.
Therefore, the vice president’s argument is significantly flawed and need more evidence to support his or her idea. There should be a systematic approach on surveying the customers and more detailed data on its results should be provided. Also, alteration of the manufacturing process’s cost and profit have to be carefully calculated to simulate its effect. After these data and simulations are put together, then whether to stop the Endure manufacturing process will lead to increase in profits can be decided.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 11 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 427 350
No. of Characters: 2186 1500
No. of Different Words: 214 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.546 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.119 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.87 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 164 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 118 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 81 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 62 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.35 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.575 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.6 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.315 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.55 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.121 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 263, Rule ID: PERIOD_OF_TIME[1]
Message: Use simply 'period'.
Suggestion: period
...omers re-purchase those in such a short period of time? It is more reasonable to say that cust...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 155, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...es and equipment might be set to follow the Endure manufacturing process and it can cost v...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 432, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
... are put together, then whether to stop the Endure manufacturing process will lead to incr...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 514, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... to increase in profits can be decided.
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, however, if, lastly, second, so, then, therefore, for instance, first of all, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 20.0 12.9520958084 154% => OK
Conjunction : 15.0 11.1786427146 134% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 26.0 28.8173652695 90% => OK
Preposition: 53.0 55.5748502994 95% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 16.3942115768 73% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2258.0 2260.96107784 100% => OK
No of words: 426.0 441.139720559 97% => OK
Chars per words: 5.30046948357 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.54310108192 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.00442340323 2.78398813304 108% => OK
Unique words: 218.0 204.123752495 107% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.511737089202 0.468620217663 109% => OK
syllable_count: 697.5 705.55239521 99% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 4.96107784431 20% => OK
Article: 1.0 8.76447105788 11% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 38.3289707662 57.8364921388 66% => OK
Chars per sentence: 112.9 119.503703932 94% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.3 23.324526521 91% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.4 5.70786347227 95% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.20758483034 134% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 6.88822355289 29% => More negative sentences wanted.
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: 0.255979545066 0.218282227539 117% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0828574741441 0.0743258471296 111% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0564493405813 0.0701772020484 80% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.14926465402 0.128457276422 116% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0500776896249 0.0628817314937 80% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.2 14.3799401198 99% => OK
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: 13.46 12.5979740519 107% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.64 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 107.0 98.500998004 109% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 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.