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 suggested that for a business to prosper, hiring people who require less than six hours of sleep is necessary. The author has reached this conclusion based on the results of a recent study which suggest that companies whose executives reported that they didn’t require more than six hours of sleep had higher profit margins and faster growth. However, the author is supporting his/her argument with three assumptions that, if not substantiated, severely weaken the persuasiveness of the argument.
Firstly, the author prematurely assumes that people who participated in the survey answered candidly. However, this is not be the case. It is possible that the executives who took part in the survey actually lied in order to not look bad compared to others. It is also possible that the executives who took part in the survey were under duress. If any of the above holds merit, the conclusion by the author doesn’t hold water.
Secondly, the author assumes unwarrantedly that the recent study was fairly conducted. However, this need not be the case. It is possible that the sample of executives who participated in the survey was a skewed sample of the total population. It is also possible that the study was heavily influenced by some companies. If any of these scenarios hold water, the conclusion by the author is severely weakened.
Finally, the author assumes there is a negative correlation between the firms success and the hours of sleep required by its employees. However, this need not be true. It is possible that a firm is succeeding because its products are now being favored by the consumers compared to others. It is also possible that the firms success is because of that individual firms recent partnership with other big firms. If any of these turns out to be true, the authors conclusion is severely weakened.
In conclusion, the suggestion that for a business to prosper, hire people who require less than six hours of sleep, as it stands now is severely flawed. If the author provides more evidence in order to address these assumptions, then it will be possible to fully evaluate the suggestion made by the author.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 2.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 366 350
No. of Characters: 1756 1500
No. of Different Words: 155 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.374 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.798 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.617 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 127 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 92 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 64 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 34 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18.3 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.708 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.8 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.349 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.539 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.099 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 124, Rule ID: BEEN_PART_AGREEMENT[2]
Message: Consider using a past participle here: 'been'.
Suggestion: been
...answered candidly. However, this is not be the case. It is possible that the execu...
^^
Line 13, column 73, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'firms'' or 'firm's'?
Suggestion: firms'; firm's
...e is a negative correlation between the firms success and the hours of sleep required...
^^^^^
Line 13, column 319, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'firms'' or 'firm's'?
Suggestion: firms'; firm's
...to others. It is also possible that the firms success is because of that individual f...
^^^^^
Line 13, column 452, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
... any of these turns out to be true, the authors conclusion is severely weakened. I...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, finally, first, firstly, however, if, look, second, secondly, so, then, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.6327345309 132% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 3.0 12.9520958084 23% => OK
Conjunction : 2.0 11.1786427146 18% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 22.0 13.6137724551 162% => OK
Pronoun: 34.0 28.8173652695 118% => OK
Preposition: 41.0 55.5748502994 74% => OK
Nominalization: 7.0 16.3942115768 43% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1830.0 2260.96107784 81% => OK
No of words: 363.0 441.139720559 82% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.04132231405 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.3649236973 4.56307096286 96% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.75279815544 2.78398813304 99% => OK
Unique words: 159.0 204.123752495 78% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.438016528926 0.468620217663 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 572.4 705.55239521 81% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 9.0 4.96107784431 181% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
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: 18.0 22.8473053892 79% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 47.4019778068 57.8364921388 82% => OK
Chars per sentence: 91.5 119.503703932 77% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.15 23.324526521 78% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.05 5.70786347227 88% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 6.88822355289 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 10.0 4.67664670659 214% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.115526356867 0.218282227539 53% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0366519536678 0.0743258471296 49% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0448276395747 0.0701772020484 64% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0706687133115 0.128457276422 55% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0364610852687 0.0628817314937 58% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.4 14.3799401198 79% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 53.21 48.3550499002 110% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 12.197005988 84% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.66 12.5979740519 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.92 8.32208582834 95% => OK
difficult_words: 78.0 98.500998004 79% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 12.3882235529 93% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.1389221557 83% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => 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.