The following is part of a memorandum from the president of Humana University.
"Last year the number of students who enrolled in online degree programs offered by nearby Omni University increased by 50 percent. During the same year, Omni showed a significant decrease from prior years in expenditures for dormitory and classroom space, most likely because online instruction takes place via the Internet. In contrast, over the past three years, enrollment at Humana University has failed to grow and the cost of maintaining buildings has increased. Thus, to increase enrollment and solve the problem of budget deficits at Humana University, we should initiate and actively promote online degree programs like those at Omni."
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 memorandum by the president of Humana University suggests that Humana University should imitate Omni University's online degree programs in order to boost the school enrollment and reduce the expenditure for residential houses and classrooms. However, such a suggestion is based on several untested assumptions and inadequate evidence about the nearby university's success in the rising number of online students and the substantial drop in the school's maintenance expenditure. There are three questions about the proposed assumptions and evidence that we need to answer before reaching into a solid and reliable conclusion,
Firstly, are these two universities comparable? In other words, does Humana University share the same programs and characteristics as Omni University? It is possible that Omni mainly provides courses in STEM areas, which makes Omni more suitable to transition to virtual education. Yet Humana may provide mostly art and social science programs, which need more face-to-face interactions and therefore hinders Humana's programs to go online. If the above scenario is true, then the conclusion does not hold water.
Secondly, what is the developmental cost for a new online educational system? The new expenditure spent on promoting online programs for Humana could be even higher than the expected cost savings from maintaining buildings, in which case higher spending in total will ensue. For this reason, a detailed budgeting plan is needed for us to consider whether initiating online programs is worthwhile.
Lastly, how much impact do online degree programs have on Omni's dropping cost in dormitory and classrooms? The memorandum assumes the transition to virtual programs is the most likely cause of the cut in expenditure. Nevertheless, there is no evidence to back up this statement. It is likely that Omni's number of offline students has been significantly decreasing these years, which in turn caused the cut in the cost of maintaining buildings. Therefore, systematic research is needed to figure out all the factors that impact Omni's building maintenance fee.
In conclusion, we need a comprehensive comparative analysis of the two schools, a budget plan for developing an online educational system, and thorough research for Omni's building maintenance situation to better evaluate the suggested recommendation.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 17 15
No. of Words: 356 350
No. of Characters: 1965 1500
No. of Different Words: 201 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.344 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.52 4.6
Word Length SD: 3.01 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 164 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 116 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 99 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 62 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.941 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.667 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.588 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.311 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.55 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.096 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 448, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'schools'' or 'school's'?
Suggestion: schools'; school's
...tudents and the substantial drop in the schools maintenance expenditure. There are thre...
^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... into a solid and reliable conclusion, Firstly, are these two universities com...
^^^
Line 6, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...tiating online programs is worthwhile. Lastly, how much impact do online degre...
^^^
Line 8, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...impact Omnis building maintenance fee. In conclusion, we need a comprehensive ...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
first, firstly, however, if, lastly, may, nevertheless, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, while, in conclusion, in other words
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 19.6327345309 71% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.9520958084 54% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 13.6137724551 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 14.0 28.8173652695 49% => OK
Preposition: 41.0 55.5748502994 74% => OK
Nominalization: 15.0 16.3942115768 91% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2006.0 2260.96107784 89% => OK
No of words: 356.0 441.139720559 81% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.63483146067 5.12650576532 110% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.34372677135 4.56307096286 95% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.0831745257 2.78398813304 111% => OK
Unique words: 204.0 204.123752495 100% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.573033707865 0.468620217663 122% => OK
syllable_count: 639.0 705.55239521 91% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.8 1.59920159681 113% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 19.7664670659 81% => 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: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 60.3950212662 57.8364921388 104% => OK
Chars per sentence: 125.375 119.503703932 105% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.25 23.324526521 95% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.1875 5.70786347227 143% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.287340800565 0.218282227539 132% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0913467888405 0.0743258471296 123% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0887080875549 0.0701772020484 126% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.146943126792 0.128457276422 114% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0768701649182 0.0628817314937 122% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.2 14.3799401198 113% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 32.22 48.3550499002 67% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.197005988 116% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 15.67 12.5979740519 124% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.56 8.32208582834 115% => OK
difficult_words: 109.0 98.500998004 111% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 20.5 12.3882235529 165% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 16.0 11.9071856287 134% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.