The following appeared in a memorandum issued by the strategic planning department at
Omni Inc.
"Mesa Foods, a manufacturer of snack foods that currently markets its products within a
relatively small region of the country, has strong growth potential. Mesa enjoyed a 20 percent
increase in profits last year, and its best-selling product, Diabolique Salsa, has had increased
sales over each of the past three years. Since Omni Inc. is interested in reaching 14-to-25 year
olds, the age group that consumes the most snack food, we should buy Mesa Foods, and
concentrate in particular on marketing Diabolique Salsa throughout the country."
This Omni, Inc. memorandum recommends that Omni buy snack-food manufacturer Mesa
Foods and aggressively promote its brand of salsa nationwide. To support this
recommendation the memo relies on the exceptional profitability of Mesa's salsa during the
last three years, along with the fact that Mesa's overall profits were up last year. However, the
recommendation relies on a series of unsubstantiated assumptions, which render it
unconvincing as it stands.
First of all, the memo indicates that Omni is interested in selling to 14-to-25 year-olds.
Accordingly, the argument rests on the assumption that Mesa's snack foods appeal to this age
group. Yet, we are not informed what types of snack foods Mesa manufactures, aside from its
salsa. It is entirely possible that Mesa's foods, including its salsa, appeal primarily to other age
groups. If this is the case, the recommended acquisition would not serve Omni's goal.145
Secondly, the argument rests on the assumption that in the region where Mesa's products
are sold the preferences of consumers between the ages of 14 and 25 typify nationwide
preferences among this age group. If this is not the case, then it is entirely possible that Omni
would not sell enough Mesa snack foods, including its salsa, to earn a profit from its Mesa
operation. Thus, without more marketing information about the snack-food tastes of 14-to-25
year-olds nationwide it is difficult to assess the merit of the memo's recommendation.
Even if the memo's author can substantiate the foregoing assumptions, the author overlooks
the possibility that last year's 20% increase in Mesa's profits was an aberration, and that in
most other years Mesa has not been profitable. Also, the 20% increase might have been due
entirely to sales of Mesa's salsa, and aside from the profit from salsa sales Mesa's profitability
is actually declining. If either is the case, and if Mesa's salsa does not turn out to be popular
among 14-to-25 year-olds across the nation, then Omni is unlikely to profit from the
recommended course of action.
In condusion, the recommendation is not well supported. To convince me that the Mesa
Foods acquisition would be profitable Omni would need to provide clear statistical evidence
that Mesa's snack foods, and its salsa in particular, would appeal to 14-to-25 year-olds
nationwide. To better evaluate the recommendation, I would need more information about
Mesa's profitability over a longer time period, and about the extent to which Mesa's salsa
accounts for any such profitability.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 17, column 65, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'memos'' or 'memo's'?
Suggestion: memos'; memo's
...is difficult to assess the merit of the memos recommendation. Even if the memos auth...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
accordingly, actually, also, first, however, if, look, second, secondly, so, then, thus, well, in particular, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 19.6327345309 92% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.9520958084 77% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 31.0 28.8173652695 108% => OK
Preposition: 57.0 55.5748502994 103% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 16.3942115768 98% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2173.0 2260.96107784 96% => OK
No of words: 404.0 441.139720559 92% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.37871287129 5.12650576532 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.48327461151 4.56307096286 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.99944751146 2.78398813304 108% => OK
Unique words: 191.0 204.123752495 94% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.472772277228 0.468620217663 101% => OK
syllable_count: 659.7 705.55239521 94% => 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: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 5.0 1.67365269461 299% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 9.0 4.22255489022 213% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 19.7664670659 86% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 67.9307096598 57.8364921388 117% => OK
Chars per sentence: 127.823529412 119.503703932 107% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.7647058824 23.324526521 102% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.17647058824 5.70786347227 126% => OK
Paragraphs: 30.0 5.15768463074 582% => Less paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => 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: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.210290491991 0.218282227539 96% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0857756528749 0.0743258471296 115% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.061239778812 0.0701772020484 87% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0627554272499 0.128457276422 49% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0666567571735 0.0628817314937 106% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.8 14.3799401198 110% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.3550499002 100% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.22 12.5979740519 113% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.45 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 94.0 98.500998004 95% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 12.3882235529 85% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Maximum six paragraphs wanted.
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.