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.
The author beleives that the consumption in power in an area will be same or may decarease and construcation of new producation plants will not be necessary for managing power supply. While he reason for his statement, he makes some unstated assumption which may not be true, and cause serious impact on the legitimacy of the conclusion. Some of these being, he assumes that no new houses were added to the area; existing houses replaced all their old gadgets with new ones or no one bought new appliances; The survey conducted on which his assumption are based may be biased or of a small demographic.
The author basis his words on a surveys conducted which show people are eager to conserve energy. Though it is not mentioned that the survery was conducted in the area which is in consideration, and if it was indeed in the area- did everyone get to participate in the survey? These question are unanswered which makes the result and basing anything on the survery ambiguous. Rather the author should conduct a proper survery or refer to a well accepted survey of the area on the relevant subject matter.
The author assumes that no new housed were build in the givne area over the period of past two decades so no new power plant will be required as the power consumption will remain more or less similar. This however has no basis, human population is ever growing and new houses are building constantly, and demand for power may be greater than ever. In the recent years the power plants may have maxed out their potential production, and need for a new one may be inevitable. So, it is unwise by the author to think that power requirement with decrease with time even if people use electricity judiciously. For, example earlier the areas may have 600 houses with 3 power plants, but after a deacde it may have 1200 houses, so now the power plants have double load on them to sustain the supply of power.
Though new appliances which need less energy are being advertised by manufacturers, it doesn't ensure how less power will be consumed in the future. People may not be able to replace their old equiment with new ones as it can be very costly and everyone cannot afford it. The new equiment may be availble in certain areas and not in the area concerned with. So, assuming that new equipment will reduce power supply is not correct. Indeed people will add even more electrical equipment to their homes for luxury, comfort and amenity. Which will increase load on the existing power grid. The author mentions how new better insulation and passive heating systems are available now, people may install these in old houses which didn't have any heating earlier and start to use it a lot thinking it is cheap on the bills. Ultimately increasing power usage.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 8 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 14 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 487 350
No. of Characters: 2236 1500
No. of Different Words: 226 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.698 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.591 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.421 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 152 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 93 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 64 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 40 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.35 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 11.087 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.7 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.336 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.498 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.105 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 194, Rule ID: HE_VERB_AGR[1]
Message: The pronoun 'he' must be used with a third-person verb: 'reasons'.
Suggestion: reasons
...ary for managing power supply. While he reason for his statement, he makes some unstat...
^^^^^^
Line 3, column 31, Rule ID: A_PLURAL[1]
Message: Don't use indefinite articles with plural words. Did you mean 'a survey' or simply 'surveys'?
Suggestion: a survey; surveys
...aphic. The author basis his words on a surveys conducted which show people are eager t...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 376, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Rather,
...sing anything on the survery ambiguous. Rather the author should conduct a proper surv...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 39, Rule ID: WERE_VBB[1]
Message: Did you mean 'where' or 'we'?
Suggestion: where; we
... The author assumes that no new housed were build in the givne area over the period...
^^^^
Line 7, column 88, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...e being advertised by manufacturers, it doesnt ensure how less power will be consumed ...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 431, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Indeed,
...ill reduce power supply is not correct. Indeed people will add even more electrical eq...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 533, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “Which” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
... homes for luxury, comfort and amenity. Which will increase load on the existing powe...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 724, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: didn't
...e may install these in old houses which didnt have any heating earlier and start to u...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, however, if, may, so, well, while, more or less
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 29.0 19.6327345309 148% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 24.0 12.9520958084 185% => OK
Conjunction : 18.0 11.1786427146 161% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 30.0 28.8173652695 104% => OK
Preposition: 48.0 55.5748502994 86% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2292.0 2260.96107784 101% => OK
No of words: 485.0 441.139720559 110% => OK
Chars per words: 4.72577319588 5.12650576532 92% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.69283662038 4.56307096286 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.4895607317 2.78398813304 89% => OK
Unique words: 233.0 204.123752495 114% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.480412371134 0.468620217663 103% => OK
syllable_count: 729.9 705.55239521 103% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 5.0 1.67365269461 299% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 22.8473053892 105% => OK
Sentence length SD: 57.3911796359 57.8364921388 99% => OK
Chars per sentence: 114.6 119.503703932 96% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.25 23.324526521 104% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.6 5.70786347227 46% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 8.0 5.25449101796 152% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
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: 0.0982749437621 0.218282227539 45% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0406641481752 0.0743258471296 55% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0325004256471 0.0701772020484 46% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.062872257431 0.128457276422 49% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.017361439573 0.0628817314937 28% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.0 14.3799401198 90% => Automated_readability_index is low.
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: 10.45 12.5979740519 83% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.6 8.32208582834 103% => OK
difficult_words: 116.0 98.500998004 118% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 18.0 12.3882235529 145% => 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.