The following appeared as part of an article in a business magazine.
"A recent study rating 300 male and female Mentian 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 6 hours of sleep per night had higher profit margins and
faster growth. These results suggest that if a business wants to prosper, it should
hire only people who need less than 6 hours of sleep per night."
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 of the article suggests that they should hire only people who need less than 6 hours of sleep per night for having a good business. He or she is providing the following evidence to support his or her claim; a study of 300 men and female advertising executives combined to compare their amount of sleep to the success of their firms. The reasoning of the argument is flawed, as it is based upon unsustained assumptions.
Firstly, the study doesn't give the exact number of males and females studied for the research which can give an accurate idea about what the required sleep is for success in the firm. Also, body habits and behavior are different from person to person so we can't compare males and females in such aspects. The study should have been done separately for men and female to get the relevant information.
Secondly, the studied results state that 6 hours of sleep per night is more than enough for higher profit margins and faster growth won't be able to justify everything. The evidence doesn't have the count or the size of the organization. On what are the basis of profit margins and faster growth are evaluated?
It can be different from business to business. All such organizations will have different profit margins and growth rates. Perhaps, they should add the figures which help the article.
The argument is weak since neither the conclusion sound nor is the suggestion legitimate. Had there been substantial evidence, perhaps, the argument would have sounded more credible, but is it's absent it sounds indefensible.
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: 2 2
No. of Sentences: 14 15
No. of Words: 267 350
No. of Characters: 1267 1500
No. of Different Words: 150 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.042 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.745 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.455 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 89 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 62 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 39 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 21 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.071 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.868 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.286 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.319 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.551 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.057 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 20, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...ined assumptions. Firstly, the study doesnt give the exact number of males and fema...
^^^^^^
Line 3, column 258, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
...e different from person to person so we cant compare males and females in such aspec...
^^^^
Line 5, column 182, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...ble to justify everything. The evidence doesnt have the count or the size of the organ...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, if, second, secondly, so, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 15.0 19.6327345309 76% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 5.0 13.6137724551 37% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 15.0 28.8173652695 52% => OK
Preposition: 25.0 55.5748502994 45% => More preposition wanted.
Nominalization: 9.0 16.3942115768 55% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1298.0 2260.96107784 57% => More number of characters wanted.
No of words: 264.0 441.139720559 60% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.91666666667 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.03089032464 4.56307096286 88% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.56808125306 2.78398813304 92% => OK
Unique words: 149.0 204.123752495 73% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.564393939394 0.468620217663 120% => OK
syllable_count: 398.7 705.55239521 57% => syllable counts are too short.
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 14.0 19.7664670659 71% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 18.0 22.8473053892 79% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 46.9128588612 57.8364921388 81% => OK
Chars per sentence: 92.7142857143 119.503703932 78% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.8571428571 23.324526521 81% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.28571428571 5.70786347227 75% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => 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: 0.215162018773 0.218282227539 99% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0565010747187 0.0743258471296 76% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0669641530356 0.0701772020484 95% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.100495014286 0.128457276422 78% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0824107391468 0.0628817314937 131% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.2 14.3799401198 78% => 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: 11.26 12.5979740519 89% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.88 8.32208582834 95% => OK
difficult_words: 56.0 98.500998004 57% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.1389221557 83% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.