The following appeared in a newsletter offering advice to investors.
"Over 80 percent of the respondents to a recent survey indicated a desire to reduce their intake of foods containing fats and cholesterol, and today low-fat products abound in many food stores. Since many of the food products currently marketed by Old Dairy Industries are high in fat and cholesterol, the company's sales are likely to diminish greatly and company profits will no doubt decrease. We therefore advise Old Dairy stockholders to sell their shares, and other investors not to purchase stock in this company."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the advice 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 advice.
It is stated that over a majority of the population intend to reduce the intake of foods high in fats and cholesterol. And since the products of Old Dairy Industries are high in cholesterol and fat, it is predicted by the newsletter that the profits of the company will decrease. Furthermore, the newsletter advises investors to sell any shares pertaining to that company and offers other investors not to invest in this industry. Many fatal assumptions are present and a few unanswered questions are there which when taken for granted could end the investors in losses.
Firstly, stating statistics as evidence in an argument is shaky. Because the authenticity of the statistics is unknown. Moreover, for the argument to prove a point, it could answer questions such as, How many people participated in the survey? How varied the chosen sample was? Were the people chosen following a healthy diet? It could be that people who follow a healthy diet were asked to answer a survey. In such situations, people apparently will tend to reduce their junk food intake. And the main cause for the invalidity of statistical evidence is that it can never be known, the number of people who gave a genuine reply to the questions asked.
Furthermore, there is no specified location of where Old Dairy Industries is located and the people surveyed were located. Answering questions like Where are the majority of the sample chosen for the survey located? It is plausible that the location of Old Dairy Industries and people chosen for the survey were not matching at all. People from different cities could have been surveyed. And there is no evidence of how many products the people surveyed are purchasing from Old Dairy Industries. All the people surveyed might be purchasing only a meagre amount of products from Old Dairy Industries, so, even if they reduce their purchases this would not affect the overall sales of the industry.
Lastly, it is mentioned that a majority of the products are products rich in fats and cholesterol. There is a high probability that other products not rich in fat and cholesterol could have a boost in their sales. It is nowhere specified that the sales of other products are less in number. So, another question could be Sales regarding foods rich in fats and foods that are not rich in fats? If sales of other products could at least recover a small amount of loss due to the foods rich in fat, then there is no reason why investors should not invest. Provided, the statistics regarding all the sales are given, then further conclusions can be made regarding investment.
To elucidate, if the above questions go answered, no reasonable conclusion can be drawn and the suggestion by the newsletter would be null and void.
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: 25 15
No. of Words: 467 350
No. of Characters: 2232 1500
No. of Different Words: 192 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.649 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.779 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.605 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 154 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 108 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 87 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 57 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18.68 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.39 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.44 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.293 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.511 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.12 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 66, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “Because” 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.
...cs as evidence in an argument is shaky. Because the authenticity of the statistics is u...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 302, Rule ID: AFFORD_VBG[1]
Message: This verb is used with infinitive: 'to follow'.
Suggestion: to follow
...osen sample was? Were the people chosen following a healthy diet? It could be that people...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 276, Rule ID: ADJECTIVE_IN_ATTRIBUTE[1]
Message: A more concise phrase may lose no meaning and sound more powerful.
Suggestion: less
...ed that the sales of other products are less in number. So, another question could be Sales re...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
apparently, first, firstly, furthermore, if, lastly, moreover, regarding, so, then, at least, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 35.0 19.6327345309 178% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 16.0 12.9520958084 124% => OK
Conjunction : 14.0 11.1786427146 125% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 28.8173652695 83% => OK
Preposition: 55.0 55.5748502994 99% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 16.3942115768 67% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2291.0 2260.96107784 101% => OK
No of words: 467.0 441.139720559 106% => OK
Chars per words: 4.90578158458 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.64867537961 4.56307096286 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.68084298344 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 196.0 204.123752495 96% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.419700214133 0.468620217663 90% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 712.8 705.55239521 101% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 3.0 8.76447105788 34% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => 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: 25.0 19.7664670659 126% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 22.8473053892 79% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 40.8193287549 57.8364921388 71% => OK
Chars per sentence: 91.64 119.503703932 77% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.68 23.324526521 80% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.04 5.70786347227 71% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => 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: 0.227168767224 0.218282227539 104% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.069876565529 0.0743258471296 94% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0711093484486 0.0701772020484 101% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.124358152775 0.128457276422 97% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0883933377204 0.0628817314937 141% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.0 14.3799401198 76% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 61.67 48.3550499002 128% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.1 12.197005988 75% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.2 12.5979740519 89% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.61 8.32208582834 91% => OK
difficult_words: 91.0 98.500998004 92% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.1389221557 83% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.