The following appeared in a memo at XYZ company.
"When XYZ lays off employees, it pays Delany Personnel Firm to offer those employees assistance in creating résumés and developing interviewing skills, if they so desire. Laid-off employees have benefited greatly from Delany's services: last year those who used Delany found jobs much more quickly than did those who did not. Recently, it has been proposed that we use the less expensive Walsh Personnel Firm in place of Delany. This would be a mistake because eight years ago, when XYZ was using Walsh, only half of the workers we laid off at that time found jobs within a year. Moreover, Delany is clearly superior, as evidenced by its bigger staff and larger number of branch offices. After all, last year Delany's clients took an average of six months to find jobs, whereas Walsh's clients took nine."
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.
According to the memo, the author suggests that the company use Delany Personnel servies rather than Walsh's serivces for the laid-off employess because 8 years ago, only half of the laid-off employees found jobs within in a year. Moreover, Delany is superior as it has bigger staff and larger number of offices and last year, Delany's clients got the jobs in six months on average where as Walsh's clients took nine months. However, the author seems to have fallaciously assumed a few things that can play a critical role in evaluating the recommendation.
Firstly, the author mentions the inefficay of the Walsh services based on what had happened 8 years ago. The author inaptly assumes that the scenario is same even in the contemporary times. However, there is a possibility that the services provided by Walsh have improved based on their performance in the past years. Or perhaps, the has been a overhaul of the management of the firm to alleviate the services by manifold. If any of the above scenarios turn out to be true, then the author recommendation would prove to be futile for the laid-off employees. Secondly, the author factitiously assumes that larger the number of employees, better the serivces provided by the firm. However, in the current times of technological boom, it is possible to carry out work with least amount of plodding work. It is plausible that Walsh is using using state of the art technology to provide their services and hence has fewer employees than Delany Personnel. If this turns out to be true, then the author's claim that Delany is better than Walsh for it has more manpower does not hold water.
Moreover, the author also spuriously assumes that Delany has an advantage over Walsh as they outweigh Walsh in terms of branches they operate. However, this is a facial assumption; inasmuch as the author does not provide any information on the business model of the the firms. Delany might not be keeping up with the technological advances happening around and hence need a lot of branches to serve different parts of the country which would entail it to operate at higher costs. This leads to charging the clients more than Walsh. On the contrary, Walsh must be able to provide its services at a cheaper cost than Delany for it has equipped the employees with the latest technology that enables the firm operate efficiently throughout the country with less number of braches and lesser investment which enables it to provide services at a lower cost. Additionally, the author fatuous gauges the efficacy of the firms based on the average months its clients take to find a new job. The author assumes that both the firms handle the same kind of job profiles. However, there is a possibility that Delany handles job profiles different for those of Walsh's and hence Delany appears to have an upper hand. But, it is plausible that Walsh is good at providing serivces to the job profiles that the company XYX laid-off employees' have. If either of the above assumptions of the author does not hold true, then the author's recommendation would have an effect contrary to what is anticipated by the author of the memo.
In conclusion, the argument, as it stands, is unpersuasive as it relies on a series of unwarrented assumptions. If the author provides clarification on his/her unstated assumptions mentioned in the passage, one would be in better position to evaluate the effects of the recommendation.
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: 24 15
No. of Words: 583 350
No. of Characters: 2806 1500
No. of Different Words: 244 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.914 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.813 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.658 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 203 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 151 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 104 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 52 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.292 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.094 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.792 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.333 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.463 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.084 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 381, Rule ID: WHERE_AS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'whereas'?
Suggestion: whereas
...s got the jobs in six months on average where as Walshs clients took nine months. Howeve...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 344, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
...he past years. Or perhaps, the has been a overhaul of the management of the firm ...
^
Line 3, column 766, Rule ID: THE_SUPERLATIVE[3]
Message: A determiner is probably missing here: 'with the least'.
Suggestion: with the least
... boom, it is possible to carry out work with least amount of plodding work. It is plausibl...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 832, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: using
...ing work. It is plausible that Walsh is using using state of the art technology to provide ...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 844, Rule ID: STATE_OF_THE_ART[1]
Message: Did you mean 'state-of-the-art'?
Suggestion: state-of-the-art
... is plausible that Walsh is using using state of the art technology to provide their services an...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 263, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: the
...ny information on the business model of the the firms. Delany might not be keeping up w...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 263, Rule ID: DT_DT[1]
Message: Maybe you need to remove one determiner so that only 'the' or 'the' is left.
Suggestion: the; the
...ny information on the business model of the the firms. Delany might not be keeping up w...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 1409, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...the author does not hold true, then the authors recommendation would have an effect con...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, hence, however, if, moreover, second, secondly, so, then, in conclusion, kind of, on the contrary
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 35.0 28.8173652695 121% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 86.0 55.5748502994 155% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 16.3942115768 73% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2865.0 2260.96107784 127% => OK
No of words: 582.0 441.139720559 132% => OK
Chars per words: 4.92268041237 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.91168771031 4.56307096286 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.71846773736 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 259.0 204.123752495 127% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.445017182131 0.468620217663 95% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 891.0 705.55239521 126% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 22.8473053892 105% => OK
Sentence length SD: 53.6660034897 57.8364921388 93% => OK
Chars per sentence: 119.375 119.503703932 100% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.25 23.324526521 104% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.16666666667 5.70786347227 91% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 8.0 5.25449101796 152% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 11.0 4.67664670659 235% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.150100225667 0.218282227539 69% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0452907994382 0.0743258471296 61% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.059667047001 0.0701772020484 85% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0939249369284 0.128457276422 73% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0633721889698 0.0628817314937 101% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.9 14.3799401198 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 55.58 48.3550499002 115% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.55 12.5979740519 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.19 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 124.0 98.500998004 126% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 11.1389221557 104% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.