The following memorandum is from the business manager of Happy Pancake House restaurants.
"Recently, butter has been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southwestern United States. This change, however, has had little impact on our customers. In fact, only about 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. Furthermore, many servers have reported that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. Clearly, either these customers do not distinguish butter from margarine or they use the term 'butter' to refer to either butter or margarine."
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument.
The memorandum provided above is from the business manager of Happy Pancake House restaurants. The business manager has come to a conclusion that the customers of the restaurant are either unaware of the difference between margarine and butter or they use the term 'butter' to refer to butter or margarine. This conclusion is based upon a few evidences that the business manager has provided. The evidence look legible during the first reading, but a closer look could unearth a few alternate theories or assumptions that could put the business manager's conclusion in a precarious situation.
Firstly, the arguer has stated the the number of customers who have complained about such a change is approximately two percent. The arguer therefore assumes that ninty-eight out of a hundred customers are satisified with the change. Such a comparison is inaccurate because comparison is being done between a percentage and a whole number. Such a comparison is based upon unequal quantities which could lead to discrepancy in the outcome. What if, the two percent accounts to over a million people that have complained about such a change. This is a particularly large number which puts the business manager's conclusion under scrutiny. This could prove that the customers are able to clerly distinguish the change from butter to margarine.
Secondly, the arguer suggests that the customers who ask for butter do not complain if they are given margarine instead. Such an information has come to the business manager via the servers of the restaurant. It could be possible that the customers vent their disappointment when they are not served butter. But the servers ignore these complains and it does not reach the top officals of Happy Pancake House restaurant. It could also be possible that customers have come to realization that they will no longer receive butter in their food and hence, do not possess the will to even complain about their predicament. This could again mean that the customers are well aware of the difference between butter and margarine.
Lastly, the arguer states that butter has been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants in southwestern United States. It could be possible that the people living in the aforementioned region have not tasted butter for majority of their life. So probably, it could mean that the shift from margarine to butter is not something that they really care about. However, it can be possible that if such a course of action is attempted somewhere else. The customers might be aware of the difference between butter and margarine.
In sum, it can be said that the business manager of Happy Pancake House restaurant has based his conclusion on various assumptions that could have alternate explanations and possibilities to it. Therefore, the conclusion of the arguer cannot be categorically accepted unless he or she takes into account, the possible unstated assumptions, listed in the paragraphs above.
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: 24 15
No. of Words: 481 350
No. of Characters: 2447 1500
No. of Different Words: 201 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.683 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.087 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.786 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 182 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 135 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 101 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 73 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.042 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.535 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.5 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.33 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.514 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.08 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 405, Rule ID: MASS_AGREEMENT[2]
Message: Possible agreement error - use third-person verb forms for singular and mass nouns: 'looks'.
Suggestion: looks
...ness manager has provided. The evidence look legible during the first reading, but a...
^^^^
Line 1, column 544, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'managers'' or 'manager's'?
Suggestion: managers'; manager's
...assumptions that could put the business managers conclusion in a precarious situation. ...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 32, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: the
...tion. Firstly, the arguer has stated the the number of customers who have complained...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 32, Rule ID: DT_DT[1]
Message: Maybe you need to remove one determiner so that only 'the' or 'the' is left.
Suggestion: the; the
...tion. Firstly, the arguer has stated the the number of customers who have complained...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 601, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'managers'' or 'manager's'?
Suggestion: managers'; manager's
...ly large number which puts the business managers conclusion under scrutiny. This could p...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, hence, however, if, lastly, look, really, second, secondly, so, therefore, well
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 16.0 12.9520958084 124% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 23.0 13.6137724551 169% => OK
Pronoun: 43.0 28.8173652695 149% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 55.0 55.5748502994 99% => OK
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: 2497.0 2260.96107784 110% => OK
No of words: 481.0 441.139720559 109% => OK
Chars per words: 5.19126819127 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.68313059816 4.56307096286 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.84601033217 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 209.0 204.123752495 102% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.434511434511 0.468620217663 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 792.9 705.55239521 112% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 4.96107784431 202% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 2.70958083832 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 39.6084131074 57.8364921388 68% => OK
Chars per sentence: 104.041666667 119.503703932 87% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.0416666667 23.324526521 86% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.41666666667 5.70786347227 77% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.268125973925 0.218282227539 123% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.090495813845 0.0743258471296 122% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.124968852444 0.0701772020484 178% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.169950707993 0.128457276422 132% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0752692602979 0.0628817314937 120% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.0 14.3799401198 90% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.82 12.5979740519 102% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.78 8.32208582834 93% => OK
difficult_words: 96.0 98.500998004 97% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 12.3882235529 85% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.