The following appeared in a memorandum from the planning department of an electric power company.
"Several recent surveys indicate that home owners are increasingly eager to conserve energy. At the same time, manufacturers are now marketing many home appliances, such as refrigerators and air conditioners, that are almost twice as energy efficient as those sold a decade ago. Also, new technologies for better home insulation and passive solar heating are readily available to reduce the energy needed for home heating. Therefore, the total demand for electricity in our area will not increase—and may decline slightly. Since our three electric generating plants in operation for the past twenty years have always met our needs, construction of new generating plants will not be necessary."
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 passage, the planning department of an electric power company argues that construction of new generating plants will not be necessary based on recent household surveys that reflect a trend in conserving energy, the advent of new products that are more energy-efficient, and the emergence of technologies for energy reduction. The author concludes that the demand for electricity will decrease and current power plants are sufficient to provide adequate electricity. Nevertheless, several unfounded assumptions are made throughout the argument, rendering it unconvincing as it stands.
The first assumption that the author makes is that electricity demand only comes from households. The planning department concludes that the total demand for electricity in the area will not increase because homeowners are increasingly eager to conserve energy. However, there might be other establishments in the area that might have a significant demand for electricity. Movie theaters, restaurants, schools, and other facilities all need electricity to function properly. Many factories, especially aluminum plants, need large amounts of electricity to generate currents and refine metals. Hence, the decrease in household electricity demand might be offset by the large demand for other establishments.
Citing recent surveys, the author argues that households' increasing inclination to conserve energy implies that energy demand would decrease. Yet this claim is based on the assumption that the number of households remained constant throughout the years. It is simple math that total demand is a function of individual demand and the total number of individuals. Even if individuals are more willing to conserve energy, a larger population increase could still increase the total demand for energy consumption.
Finally, the author assumes that the demand for home appliances remained the same throughout the years. However, if the demand for home appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners increased, then their energy reduction might not contribute to total energy consumption. If households started to use those home appliances prodigally, such as turning on air conditioners for a long period, the demand for electricity might also increase.
In conclusion, the author needs to corroborate the above assumptions to make a valid conclusion.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 17 15
No. of Words: 348 350
No. of Characters: 1965 1500
No. of Different Words: 162 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.319 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.647 4.6
Word Length SD: 3.047 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 159 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 114 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 95 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 69 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.471 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.465 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.529 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.371 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.597 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.114 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 57, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...rveys, the author argues that households increasing inclination to conserve energ...
^^
Line 9, column 15, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...y might also increase. In conclusion, the author needs to corroborate the abov...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, hence, however, if, nevertheless, so, still, then, in conclusion, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 12.0 19.6327345309 61% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 13.6137724551 95% => OK
Pronoun: 19.0 28.8173652695 66% => OK
Preposition: 33.0 55.5748502994 59% => More preposition wanted.
Nominalization: 15.0 16.3942115768 91% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2018.0 2260.96107784 89% => OK
No of words: 348.0 441.139720559 79% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.79885057471 5.12650576532 113% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.31911543099 4.56307096286 95% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.1598901145 2.78398813304 114% => OK
Unique words: 170.0 204.123752495 83% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.488505747126 0.468620217663 104% => OK
syllable_count: 628.2 705.55239521 89% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.8 1.59920159681 113% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 4.96107784431 20% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 19.7664670659 86% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 54.4025747406 57.8364921388 94% => OK
Chars per sentence: 118.705882353 119.503703932 99% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.4705882353 23.324526521 88% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.88235294118 5.70786347227 103% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.20265590421 0.218282227539 93% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0685725742484 0.0743258471296 92% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0605955318689 0.0701772020484 86% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.105716994878 0.128457276422 82% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0599122864418 0.0628817314937 95% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.1 14.3799401198 112% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 34.26 48.3550499002 71% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.5 12.197005988 111% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 16.36 12.5979740519 130% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.12 8.32208582834 110% => OK
difficult_words: 99.0 98.500998004 101% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 15.0 12.3882235529 121% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.9071856287 84% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.