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"Recently, butter has been replaced by margarine in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 author concludes that Happy Pancake House restaurants’ decision to replace butter by margarine has had nearly no impacts on their customers. This conclusion is mainly based on the fact that only about 2 percent of customers have complained about this change and the report from the servers which mentioning that many customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. However, alternative possibilities are not fully addressed, rendering this theory open to doubt.
The author mentions that there are merely 2 percent of customers have complained about the margarine and infers that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. Apparently, behind the inference lies the assumptions that the data ’2 percent’ means that there are only a few people complaining and the dishes ordered by the customers generally use butter or margarine as original material. Nevertheless, alternative explanations could challenge this interpretation. It is entirely possible that this 2 percent of customers may have a deep and wide impact because the customer base number may be several millions. Therefore, the 2 percent of customers may be tens of thousands people. Even though this 2 percent of customers are only dozens of people, it is hasty to infer that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. It is possible that the majority of the dishes in the shop do not contain butter or margarine, which may engender that the proportion of complaints regarding the food including margarine is much higher than expected since these complaints are all about the several dishes containing margarine. Consequently, most people who actually ordered the food with margarine may not be satisfied with the change. Without the exact data according to the number of complaints and the attitudes of people who really order the dishes with margarine being given, the interpretation does not hold water.
The author also reveals the report by the servers that many customers who ask for butter do not complain when given margarine instead and abruptly argues that either these customers do not distinguish butter from margarine or they use the term ‘butter’ to mean either butter or margarine. Clearly, the author acquiesces that the report from servers is reliable and representative. However, perhaps the servers do not tell the truth and conceal the fact due that they are afraid of being condemned or they want to defend the interests of the restaurant. It is also probable that the customers have complained to the managers rather than the servers. Hence, the argument mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph is unconvincing because the report may not be reliable and representative without these possibilities being eliminated.
On the basis that there are actually a few people complaining about the margarine and the report as well as the argument mentioned before is also reliable, it is still far-fetched to conclude that there is little effect on the customers when the butter is replaced by the margarine without considering the alternative explanations. Never can we neglect the possibility that the customers do not complain just because they are too polite to grumble rather than being satisfied. It is also probable that they may consider the complaint as something troublesome, so they are reluctant to complain but they will never come to this restaurant for a second time. Hence, this change may be dramatically influential. Under the aforementioned scenarios, the conclusion is tenuous.
Overall, although the proposed explanations might justify the conclusion, the author should check some alternative explanations to challenge the proposed explanations. More considerations might be recommended to bolster the argument and the conclusion.
Comments
Essay evaluation 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: 608 350
No. of Characters: 3149 1500
No. of Different Words: 240 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.966 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.179 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.856 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 239 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 177 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 136 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 102 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.333 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 13.309 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.625 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.309 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.501 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.099 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 45, Rule ID: THERE_RE_MANY[3]
Message: Possible agreement error. Did you mean 'percents'?
Suggestion: percents
...author mentions that there are merely 2 percent of customers have complained about the ...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, apparently, but, consequently, hence, however, if, may, nevertheless, really, regarding, second, so, still, therefore, well, as well as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 36.0 19.6327345309 183% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 17.0 11.1786427146 152% => OK
Relative clauses : 29.0 13.6137724551 213% => Less relative clauses wanted (maybe 'which' is over used).
Pronoun: 48.0 28.8173652695 167% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 63.0 55.5748502994 113% => 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: 3245.0 2260.96107784 144% => OK
No of words: 608.0 441.139720559 138% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.33717105263 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.9656475924 4.56307096286 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.02813473297 2.78398813304 109% => OK
Unique words: 253.0 204.123752495 124% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.416118421053 0.468620217663 89% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1012.5 705.55239521 144% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 4.96107784431 161% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 22.8473053892 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 77.0519192745 57.8364921388 133% => OK
Chars per sentence: 135.208333333 119.503703932 113% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.3333333333 23.324526521 109% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.29166666667 5.70786347227 110% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 13.0 6.88822355289 189% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.145775511823 0.218282227539 67% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0462393610828 0.0743258471296 62% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0603186778448 0.0701772020484 86% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0908634682099 0.128457276422 71% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0775125172555 0.0628817314937 123% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.4 14.3799401198 114% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 37.64 48.3550499002 78% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.197005988 116% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.99 12.5979740519 111% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.28 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 131.0 98.500998004 133% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.1389221557 108% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
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.