The following is a recommendation from the personnel director to the president of Acme Publishing Company.
"Many other companies have recently stated that having their employees take the Easy Read Speed-Reading Course has greatly improved productivity. One graduate of the course was able to read a 500-page report in only two hours; another graduate rose from an assistant manager to vice president of the company in under a year. Obviously, the faster you can read, the more information you can absorb in a single workday. Moreover, Easy Read would cost Acme only $500 per employee—a small price to pay when you consider the benefits. Included in this fee is a three-week seminar in Spruce City and a lifelong subscription to the Easy Read newsletter. Clearly, to improve productivity, Acme should require all of our employees to take the Easy Read course."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the advice 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 advice.
The argument here states about a course which is assumed to help the employees to increase their efficiency. Though some statements might be plausible but most of the claim is wrong here.
Firstly, it is mentioned here that many of the companies' employees have been able to increase their productivity. The statement can't be reliable because no specific percentage or number of people is illustrated here. Moreover, here is no information about the previous condition of the companies. if it was mentioned that, 80% organizations have been able to increase their revenue or profit than before or 50% workers could increase their income by 20% than the previous year after taking that course than this argument could have been stronger.
Secondly, The writer assumes that if a person can read at a fast speed, then he can gather more information than the person who is a slow reader. We can't say this for sure as process of gathering information varies in person to person. one person might read a book in 1 hour and forget about the title of it the next day whereas, another person can read the very same book in 30 mins and be able to remember every bit of till next year. Memory retention, gathering information, processing information are not dependent on the speed of one's reading capability or speed. Furthermore, there is no clear indication about how a speed reading can improve a person's productivity or efficiency in his work life. In addition to this, the potential of employees will conspicously vary for which their productivity will also vary. An employee might be already productive before taking the course. The argument might have been considered stronger if there was a clear presentation of the correlation between speed reading and efficiency.
Finally, another vague assumption is that costing $500 per employee will not cost an arm and a leg to the companies. what if a company has 100 employees but they can only increase their profit by $20000 after enrolling all of their employees to the course? And what if another company which has 50 employees is able to generate a profit of $50000 after getting the training? will it be considered as wise decision from all the companies perspective? the argument could have been feasible if the writer mentioned that the course charges different amount for different companies.
In a nutshell, the argument might seem plausible at a first glance but whenever it is read carefully the above mentioned flaws can be seen.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 15 15
No. of Words: 418 350
No. of Characters: 2029 1500
No. of Different Words: 192 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.522 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.854 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.692 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 141 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 107 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 84 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 55 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 27.867 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 15.564 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.733 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.344 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.593 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.108 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 129, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
...rease their productivity. The statement cant be reliable because no specific percent...
^^^^
Line 2, column 298, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: If
...he previous condition of the companies. if it was mentioned that, 80% organization...
^^
Line 4, column 150, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
...han the person who is a slow reader. We cant say this for sure as process of gatheri...
^^^^
Line 4, column 237, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: One
...information varies in person to person. one person might read a book in 1 hour and ...
^^^
Line 4, column 536, Rule ID: ONES[1]
Message: Did you mean 'one's'?
Suggestion: one's
...ation are not dependent on the speed of ones reading capability or speed. Furthermor...
^^^^
Line 4, column 652, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'persons'' or 'person's'?
Suggestion: persons'; person's
...about how a speed reading can improve a persons productivity or efficiency in his work ...
^^^^^^^
Line 6, column 116, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: What
...cost an arm and a leg to the companies. what if a company has 100 employees but they...
^^^^
Line 6, column 370, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Will
...fit of 0000 after getting the training? will it be considered as wise decision from ...
^^^^
Line 6, column 422, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'companies'' or 'company's'?
Suggestion: companies'; company's
...onsidered as wise decision from all the companies perspective? the argument could have be...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 6, column 445, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: The
...ion from all the companies perspective? the argument could have been feasible if th...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, firstly, furthermore, if, moreover, second, secondly, so, then, whereas, in addition
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 18.0 12.9520958084 139% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 25.0 28.8173652695 87% => OK
Preposition: 45.0 55.5748502994 81% => OK
Nominalization: 18.0 16.3942115768 110% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2073.0 2260.96107784 92% => OK
No of words: 418.0 441.139720559 95% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.95933014354 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.52162009685 4.56307096286 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.76256129768 2.78398813304 99% => OK
Unique words: 203.0 204.123752495 99% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.485645933014 0.468620217663 104% => OK
syllable_count: 635.4 705.55239521 90% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 4.96107784431 40% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 41.8643941793 57.8364921388 72% => OK
Chars per sentence: 103.65 119.503703932 87% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.9 23.324526521 90% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.55 5.70786347227 97% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 10.0 5.25449101796 190% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => 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: 0.234434814285 0.218282227539 107% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0738280966095 0.0743258471296 99% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0523671872674 0.0701772020484 75% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.115469530072 0.128457276422 90% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0469398125213 0.0628817314937 75% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.4 14.3799401198 86% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 59.64 48.3550499002 123% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 12.197005988 81% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.49 12.5979740519 91% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.27 8.32208582834 87% => OK
difficult_words: 70.0 98.500998004 71% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.9071856287 84% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.