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"Recently, butter has been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southwestern United States.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 is 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.
In the memorandum from the business manager of Happy Pancake House restaurants. The author (manager) concludes here that the use of butter in replacement of margarine in the restaurants has little or no impact on the customers. Also, he concludes that the customers are happy and do not complain when they are given margarine instead of butter. The manager also concludes that the customers do not have the sense to identify the difference between the butter and margarine. However, before this assertion can be properly evaluated, three questions should be answered.
First of all, the author (manager) claims that they replaced butter by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southern part of the United States and not to the other parts of the United States. The author has not mentioned why the change is only made in the southern part why not in northern, eastern, and western parts of the country. This may change the results of the reviews of the customers which is two percent according to the author. Also, did every customer reviewed the restaurant for the change isn't mentioned in the argument.
Secondly, the author claims that servers have reported that when customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. This statement does not provide full information about the customers and also, the count of such customers isn't mentioned in the argument. What if the customer didn't notice the change or the customer may be in a rush of something which could have been the reason for not arguing. Also, both butter and margarine are made of fats and almost look alike having the same color, texture, and might be the taste varied was negligible. This might be the reason why people were not able to identify the difference between butter and margarine.
Finally, the important thing which the author has not considered in his memorandum is - Does the margarine has some health effects or is it high in cholesterol level as compared to butter which may cause severe health problems in the coming future? Also, the author has not provided a systematic research study to evaluate his memorandum.
In conclusion, the argument, as it stands now, is considerably flawed due to reliance on several unwarranted assumptions. If the author is able to answer the above three questions and offer more evidence in the form of a systematic research study, then it will be possible to fully evaluate the viability of the replaced butter with the margarine.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 421 350
No. of Characters: 2039 1500
No. of Different Words: 187 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.53 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.843 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.544 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 153 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 107 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 83 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 52 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.389 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.48 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.778 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.345 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.573 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.115 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
In the memorandum from the business mana...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...d, three questions should be answered. First of all, the author manager claims ...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 534, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: isn't
... reviewed the restaurant for the change isnt mentioned in the argument. Se...
^^^^
Line 3, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...change isnt mentioned in the argument. Secondly, the author claims that servers...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 265, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: isn't
...s and also, the count of such customers isnt mentioned in the argument. What if the ...
^^^^
Line 3, column 318, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: didn't
...d in the argument. What if the customer didnt notice the change or the customer may b...
^^^^^
Line 4, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...fference between butter and margarine. Finally, the important thing which the a...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 117, Rule ID: DOES_NP_VBZ[1]
Message: Did you mean 'have'?
Suggestion: have
... his memorandum is - Does the margarine has some health effects or is it high in ch...
^^^
Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...arch study to evaluate his memorandum. In conclusion, the argument, as it stand...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 357, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...the replaced butter with the margarine.
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, however, if, look, may, second, secondly, so, then, in conclusion, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 19.0 19.6327345309 97% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 12.9520958084 69% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 19.0 28.8173652695 66% => OK
Preposition: 49.0 55.5748502994 88% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 16.3942115768 67% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2084.0 2260.96107784 92% => OK
No of words: 418.0 441.139720559 95% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.98564593301 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.52162009685 4.56307096286 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.62180066419 2.78398813304 94% => OK
Unique words: 191.0 204.123752495 94% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.456937799043 0.468620217663 98% => OK
syllable_count: 659.7 705.55239521 94% => 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: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 46.0351784435 57.8364921388 80% => OK
Chars per sentence: 115.777777778 119.503703932 97% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.2222222222 23.324526521 100% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.88888888889 5.70786347227 103% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 10.0 5.25449101796 190% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => 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: 0.268293693057 0.218282227539 123% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0941124788193 0.0743258471296 127% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.122994020219 0.0701772020484 175% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.143229387919 0.128457276422 111% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.115379716748 0.0628817314937 183% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.7 14.3799401198 95% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.3550499002 100% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.96 12.5979740519 95% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.53 8.32208582834 90% => OK
difficult_words: 73.0 98.500998004 74% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.