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.
In the memorandum at Humana University, it is stated by the President that it is required to initiate and actively promote online degree in the university in order to increase the students enrollment and alleviate the costs of maintaining buildings. The President has come to this conclusion based on the significant changes seen by the Omni University in terms of expenditure because of online enrolment. However, before this recommendation is properly evaluated, following assumptions need to be proved.
First of all, the President assumes that Human University and Omni University are roughly comparable. It is possible that both the Universities are not similar at all. For an instance, courses in the Omni University might have the flexibility to shift to an online course. In other words, these courses might have no practical studies requirement and hence it was possible for the university to adopt online classes. Whereas, if the majority of the courses at Humana university require practical studies, then initiating online classes will have no benefits at all. Therefore, if the above scenario has merit, then conclusion drawn in the argument is weakened and requires more evidence.
Secondly, the President assumes that increase in online enrolment will deficit the maintenance costs. There is no proper evidence mentioned for the prior and last years’ exact data for the maintenance of buildings in the Omni university. It might be possible that the Omni University had very high maintenance costs in the prior years and in the last year it was decreased to a moderate one. It might also be possible that the prior year’s maintenance would have made the building significantly better that it didn’t require much of the maintenance in the last year. And hence based on the data mentioned in the memorandum about Omni university, initiating online enrolment at Humana to cut down the maintenance costs will have zero impact.
Lastly, even if we assume that the increase in online enrolment will decrease the maintenance costs. It is possible that it may increase other costs at university, since online classes need proper online connectivity and servers, they might have to employ some engineers to monitor and ensure the seamless connectivity. In addition, also might need to prepare teachers for the online classes. If this is the case, then online enrolment might lower the building maintenance costs but can give rise to other maintenance costs.
In conclusion, the argument as it stands now, is considerably flawed due to its reliance on the unwarranted assumptions. If the President is able to provide more evidence to the above stated assumptions -perhaps through a detailed survey- it will then only be possible to evaluate the viability of the argument.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 4 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 447 350
No. of Characters: 2283 1500
No. of Different Words: 187 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.598 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.107 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.836 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 166 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 133 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 106 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 68 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.35 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.715 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.7 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.352 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.352 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.135 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 181, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'students'' or 'student's'?
Suggestion: students'; student's
...the university in order to increase the students enrollment and alleviate the costs of m...
^^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 327, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'studies'' or 'study's'?
Suggestion: studies'; study's
..., these courses might have no practical studies requirement and hence it was possible f...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 121, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...eliance on the unwarranted assumptions. If the President is able to provide more e...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, hence, however, if, lastly, may, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, whereas, in addition, in conclusion, first of all, in other words
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 19.6327345309 92% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 18.0 12.9520958084 139% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 13.6137724551 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 28.0 28.8173652695 97% => OK
Preposition: 59.0 55.5748502994 106% => OK
Nominalization: 26.0 16.3942115768 159% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2342.0 2260.96107784 104% => OK
No of words: 446.0 441.139720559 101% => OK
Chars per words: 5.25112107623 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.5955099915 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.91458088186 2.78398813304 105% => OK
Unique words: 194.0 204.123752495 95% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.434977578475 0.468620217663 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 774.0 705.55239521 110% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 4.0 8.76447105788 46% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 45.8779903658 57.8364921388 79% => OK
Chars per sentence: 117.1 119.503703932 98% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.3 23.324526521 96% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.75 5.70786347227 136% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
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: 0.279512643423 0.218282227539 128% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0962626889933 0.0743258471296 130% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.069342893553 0.0701772020484 99% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.15646338849 0.128457276422 122% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0959996524582 0.0628817314937 153% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.4 14.3799401198 100% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 40.69 48.3550499002 84% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.1 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.47 12.5979740519 107% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.3 8.32208582834 100% => OK
difficult_words: 101.0 98.500998004 103% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.5 12.3882235529 101% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => 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.