The following appeared as part of an article in a business magazine.
"A recent study rating 300 male and female advertising executives according to the average number of hours they sleep per night showed an association between the amount of sleep the executives need and the success of their firms. Of the advertising firms studied, those whose executives reported needing no more than six hours of sleep per night had higher profit margins and faster growth. On the basis of this study, we recommend that businesses hire only people who need less than six hours of sleep per night."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation 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 recommendation.
The author of the article concludes that in order for the businesses to be successful, they should hire only the executies who would need less than six hours of sleep per night. The author comes to this conclusion based on a study rating of 300 male and female advertising executives which revealed that executives requiring no more than six hours of sleep had higher profit margins and faster growth. However, before the argument can be properly evaluated, one would require answers to the following questions.
Firstly, how credible is the study based on which the conclusion is drawn? The author does not provide any detail about the study that was carried out which would serve to guage the accuracy of the finding. There is a possibility that the sample chosen for the study was very small and was not a representative sample of the population. Futher, it is possible that the sample chosen was a biased sample and there was an inherent fallacy in the finding of the study. Thus, if the above shortcomings are present in the study, then the author's conclusion does not hold water.
Secondly, are there any other factors apart from sleep that would affect the performance of the executives? The author prematurely assumes that the performance of the executives is solely dependent upon the number of hours of sleep and nothing else. However, this may not be true. Perhaps, the executives who reported less than six hours of sleep and were succussful had better education than those executives who reported otherwise and were not successful. Or the inherent intellectual capabilites also played a vital role in the way the executives performed. If the above mentioned factors also have a significant impact on the performance of the executives, then the author's conclusion is significantly weakened.
Finally, how can one be sure if the participants are telling the truth? The author fallaciously assumes that the executives who participated in the study are unquestionable of their veracity. There is a possibility that in order to appear highly capable person with least amount of rest or to aggrandize their self-esteem, the successful executives lied about the number of hours they slept. On the contrary, they might have slept for the same duration as not highly successful executive or even more. If the above scenario has any merit, then the author's conclusion falls flat on its face.
Therefore, the argument, as it stands, is unpersuasive as the author does not provide any information addressing the above posed questions. One will be in a better position to evaluate the recommendation if the author can provide answers to the above questions, perhaps in a detailed manner leaving no room for ambiguity.
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|---|---|---|---|
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Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 2 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 9 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 449 350
No. of Characters: 2228 1500
No. of Different Words: 205 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.603 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.962 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.765 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 150 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 111 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 84 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 61 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.381 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.422 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.571 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.33 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.544 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.097 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 534, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...ings are present in the study, then the authors conclusion does not hold water. ...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 574, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...authors conclusion does not hold water. Secondly, are there any other factors ap...
^^^^^^^
Line 6, column 671, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...performance of the executives, then the authors conclusion is significantly weakened. ...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 262, Rule ID: THE_SUPERLATIVE[3]
Message: A determiner is probably missing here: 'with the least'.
Suggestion: with the least
...n order to appear highly capable person with least amount of rest or to aggrandize their s...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 549, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
... above scenario has any merit, then the authors conclusion falls flat on its face. T...
^^^^^^^
Line 11, column 271, Rule ID: IN_A_X_MANNER[1]
Message: Consider replacing "in a detailed manner" with adverb for "detailed"; eg, "in a hasty manner" with "hastily".
...answers to the above questions, perhaps in a detailed manner leaving no room for ambiguity.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, first, firstly, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, thus, apart from, on the contrary
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 20.0 28.8173652695 69% => OK
Preposition: 49.0 55.5748502994 88% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 16.3942115768 67% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2285.0 2260.96107784 101% => OK
No of words: 449.0 441.139720559 102% => OK
Chars per words: 5.08908685969 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.60321845022 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.8414326868 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 210.0 204.123752495 103% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.467706013363 0.468620217663 100% => OK
syllable_count: 736.2 705.55239521 104% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 44.8955451835 57.8364921388 78% => OK
Chars per sentence: 108.80952381 119.503703932 91% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.380952381 23.324526521 92% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.7619047619 5.70786347227 101% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.235931620269 0.218282227539 108% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0625844322023 0.0743258471296 84% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0699773449754 0.0701772020484 100% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.121616086763 0.128457276422 95% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0930658889634 0.0628817314937 148% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.2 14.3799401198 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.24 12.5979740519 97% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.23 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 101.0 98.500998004 103% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.