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 a memorandum from the president of Humana University, the president concludes that creating and actively promoting online degree programs like those at Omni University will address the failed growth in enrollment at Humana University, the increasing cost of maintaining buildings and the budget deficit. This conclusion is based on the fact that Last year in which, Omni University saw an increase by 50 per cent in the number of students who enrolled in online degree programs, it also saw a significant decrease from prior years in expenditures for dormitory and classroom space. However, to decide whether the prediction and the argument on which it is based are reasonable, three questions must be answered.
Firstly, Is Humana University comparable to Omni University? Are they in the same ranking level? Do they teach have the same category of courses? Perhaps, Omni University is ranked way higher the Humana and hence every student wants to study there. Also, there is a possibility that the courses offered in both universities are not similar. Humana university may offer art courses which appeals more to the students in the vicinity why Omni University offers advanced calculus courses which the students within the vicinity has great apathy for. If either of these scenarios is true, then the president's prediction is significantly weakened.
Secondly, will the faculties at Humana University be able to take courses online? Are they as much driven by technology as the faculties in Omni University? There is a possibility that the faculties at Humana University are archaic and incorrigible. They may still be focused on teaching with old fashioned techniques which cannot be brought online. Also, it is possible that taking courses online requires some special set of skills which are abstruse for Humana University faculties. If the above is true, then the president's argument does not hold water.
Finally, even if Humana University is comparable to Omni University and the faculties in Humana University be able to take courses online, will instituting online degree programs not even further decrease total enrollment? The president assumes that online degree programs will increase its total enrollment. Perhaps taking online programs might skew the focus of the university staff away from the in-class degree program and hence distort the workflow is that area. Also, the staff strength at present might not properly manage both in-class and online degrees. If it is true that the number of staff is very low would not be sufficient to run both programs, them the creation of these online degree programs will do little or nothing to help Humana increase its total enrollment and solve its budget problems.
In conclusion, it is possible that immediately instituting these online degree programs will help Humana both increase its total enrollment and solve its budget problems, however, the argument has it stands now is considerably flawed due to unwarranted assumptions. If the president can answer these three questions above and offer more evidence, then it will be possible to fully evaluate the viability of the proposed 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: 23 15
No. of Words: 503 350
No. of Characters: 2619 1500
No. of Different Words: 220 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.736 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.207 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.723 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 205 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 150 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 118 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 70 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.87 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.348 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.739 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.326 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.515 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.099 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 594, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'presidents'' or 'president's'?
Suggestion: presidents'; president's
...er of these scenarios is true, then the presidents prediction is significantly weakened. ...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 518, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'presidents'' or 'president's'?
Suggestion: presidents'; president's
...culties. If the above is true, then the presidents argument does not hold water. Finall...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 145, Rule ID: DID_BASEFORM[1]
Message: The verb 'will' requires the base form of the verb: 'institute'
Suggestion: institute
...ty be able to take courses online, will instituting online degree programs not even further...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, first, firstly, hence, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, still, then, in conclusion, of course, it is true
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 29.0 19.6327345309 148% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.9520958084 116% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 32.0 28.8173652695 111% => OK
Preposition: 53.0 55.5748502994 95% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 16.3942115768 79% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2677.0 2260.96107784 118% => OK
No of words: 503.0 441.139720559 114% => OK
Chars per words: 5.32206759443 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.73578520332 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.79719479843 2.78398813304 100% => OK
Unique words: 227.0 204.123752495 111% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.451292246521 0.468620217663 96% => OK
syllable_count: 868.5 705.55239521 123% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 77.7022332436 57.8364921388 134% => OK
Chars per sentence: 116.391304348 119.503703932 97% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.8695652174 23.324526521 94% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.52173913043 5.70786347227 97% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.20758483034 134% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 6.88822355289 29% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 10.0 4.67664670659 214% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.421761395481 0.218282227539 193% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.12504600809 0.0743258471296 168% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0946212679679 0.0701772020484 135% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.241604702372 0.128457276422 188% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.104985111083 0.0628817314937 167% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.6 14.3799401198 102% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 41.7 48.3550499002 86% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.197005988 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.58 12.5979740519 108% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.26 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 114.0 98.500998004 116% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 20.0 12.3882235529 161% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => 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.