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 instruction in the online
programs 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 along with our budget deficit. To address these problems, Humana University will begin immediately to create and
actively promote online degree programs like those at Omni. We predict that instituting these online degree programs will help Humana both increase its
total enrollment and solve its budget problems."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the prediction and the argument on which it is
based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the prediction.
In the memo written by the President of Humana University, it has been suggested that the Humana Univeristy should start actively promoting online degree programs like those at Omni, to increase its total enrollment and resolve its budget issues. The President comes to this conclusion based on the increase in the enrollment of students at Omni university in online degree programs and the descrease in their expenditure. The argument seems valid at first, but as we look depper into it, we find many flaws. To comment on the reasonability of the argument, three questions need to be answered.
Are Omni and Hamuna uiversities comparable? It is possible that Omni university provides more degree options, which attracts more students to enroll with them. It is also possible that Omni univeristy is located in a region which has a large population and hence, more enrollment. It is also possible that Omni provides courses which can be easily studied online and require no physical classes. If any of the above scenarios stand true, the argument does not hold water.
Are the conditions of Hamuna university from three years ago still the same? It is possible that in the past three years, the quality of education has improved in the Hamuna univeristy and there has been a significant increase in the number of admissions. It might also be possible that Hamuna University only started three years ago and hence, did not have a lot of enrollments. In such a scenario, due to the large inital cost, there might also have been a budget deficit. If either of the above scenarios are true, the conclusion of the argument is significantly weakened.
Did the Omni University only see a growth in the number of enrollments because of their online courses? It is possible that a University in the one of the nearby small towns was closed. This might cause students from that area to enroll in online courses due to the long distance. It is also possible that the univeristy recently introduced the option of online lectures for their existing students. The students might have opted for the online lectures and enrolled in them. This would have no impact on the actual number of enrollments in the university. In these cases, the conclusion of the argument is not valid.
The argument as it stands, is severely flawed due to its reliance on the unstated assumptions. The argument can be strengthened if the Principal answers the above mentioned three questions and provides more information on the degrees offered by Omni Univeristy, the actual change in the number of enrollments in it and the current statistics of the Hamuna Unversity.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 3 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 7 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 442 350
No. of Characters: 2147 1500
No. of Different Words: 186 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.585 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.857 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.67 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 154 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 112 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 93 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 50 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.217 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.423 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.435 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.322 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.51 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.122 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 282, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
... population and hence, more enrollment. It is also possible that Omni provides cou...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, hence, if, look, so, still, then
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 12.9520958084 69% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 35.0 28.8173652695 121% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 63.0 55.5748502994 113% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 16.3942115768 98% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2204.0 2260.96107784 97% => OK
No of words: 442.0 441.139720559 100% => OK
Chars per words: 4.98642533937 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.58517132086 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.74838366015 2.78398813304 99% => OK
Unique words: 188.0 204.123752495 92% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.425339366516 0.468620217663 91% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 720.9 705.55239521 102% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 11.0 4.96107784431 222% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 54.3332850112 57.8364921388 94% => OK
Chars per sentence: 95.8260869565 119.503703932 80% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.2173913043 23.324526521 82% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.17391304348 5.70786347227 38% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => 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: 0.306956773569 0.218282227539 141% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0870737170514 0.0743258471296 117% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0803562666064 0.0701772020484 115% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.163116810701 0.128457276422 127% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0460549200112 0.0628817314937 73% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.7 14.3799401198 81% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 52.19 48.3550499002 108% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.66 12.5979740519 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.19 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 101.0 98.500998004 103% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.