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, Acme would benefit greatly by requiring all of our employees to take the Easy Read course."
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
The personnel director recommends that Acme Publishing Company would benefit greatly by requiring all of employees to take the Easy Read course. To buttress his/her argument, the personnel director cites the following evidences to the president: first, graduates have better promotion and faster reading speed; second, many other companies have asked their employees to take the course and have greatly improved productivity; second, the cost is relatively low compared to the benefit. Tough the issue has its merit, due to lack of relevant evidences and unaddressed assumptions, the conclusion is unsubstantiated and flawed.
To begin with, the fact that one graduate of the courses was able to read a 500-page report in only two hours is not necessarily the gain from Easy Read course. What if he just went through and skimmed the materials quickly instead of deliberation during the reading? What if that person could read that report within two hours even before the course? The author fails to provide us with the information of the reading speed before and after the course, we are unable to draw any conclusion. Similarly, the passage indicates that one graduate rose from an assistant manager to vice president of the company, therefore advocating the benefit of Easy Reading course. The claim, however, is ungrounded. The author overlooks other possibilities leading to the promotion. For example, the one is responsible and has strong vocational skills, including writing, communication and leadership skills. It is his skills and quality, instead of fast reading speed, that contributes to his/her higher position in the company. The author only offer the result from two graduates, and so sample size is too small and not representative. In order to fully evaluate the recommendation, we need track more students.
In addition, the director indicates that employees from many other companies who taken the reading course have significantly enhanced productivity. Even though it is valid, we are not able to say anything about Acme Company. Do all characteristics are the same among those companies? What are the types of those companies? How many the subordinates indeed participated in the course? Without informing us these questions, the conclusion that reading course is beneficial to improving productivity is unjustified. The author also suggests that the faster you read, the more information you are going to get. Because of lack of relevant evidence, this fact is not persuasive to us. I doubt that sometimes overwhelming information perhaps leads to wrong direction and hence decrease the work efficiency.
Last but not least, the author assumes that Acme would benefit largely by requiring all employees to take the reading course, since the benefit exceeds the cost. The Easy Read course which costs $500 is not affordable for every individual. If the company pay for the courses for all its staff, and there are hundreds of workers in Acme, the company might be facing financial crisis or sever deficit. Furthermore, the author fails to consider the potential negative impacts. The course would take three weeks in Spruce Cit. Even though employees take this course in turn, there still would be vacancies, which hamper the cooperation between workers and departments. More detailed information, such as total number of employees, possible costs and so one is needed to assist in our evaluation of the conclusion. The company would face the risk of declining output and it is unjustified that the benefit can be greater than the cost. The lifelong subscription newsletter does not necessarily provide the useful information, as it can only consist of countless advertisement. The benefits, hence, is ambiguous.
To sum up, as it stands, the conclusion is based on several incomplete evidences that weaken the credibility of the argument. To further strengthen his/her argument, the author is advised to add the detailed information as follows: first, whether most graduates from the reading course acquire sophisticated reading skills and get the better job or higher position in the company; second, whether faster reading speed is essential to improving productivity for all employees in Acme company; third, whether the cost of reading course can be overshadowed by the benefit obtained under any condition without causing any negative effect on the daily operation of Acme.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- not really. need to argue:
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.
//the sample is too small. two graduates only.
argument 2 -- not OK. need to argue:
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.
//still a big money for a company, suppose a company has 500 employees: $500x500
argument 3 -- not exactly. need to argue:
Clearly, Acme would benefit greatly by requiring all of our employees to take the Easy Read course.
//maybe only for some of employees
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: ??? out of 6
Category: Poor Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 36 15
No. of Words: 699 350
No. of Characters: 3616 1500
No. of Different Words: 317 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.142 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.173 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.8 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 273 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 210 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 141 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 107 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.417 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.943 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.528 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.237 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.384 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.097 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 627, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...nclusion is unsubstantiated and flawed. To begin with, the fact that one graduat...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...dation, we need track more students. In addition, the director indicates that...
^^^
Line 7, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...hence decrease the work efficiency. Last but not least, the author assumes t...
^^
Line 7, column 743, Rule ID: AND_SO_ONE[1]
Message: Did you mean 'and so on' (="etc.")?
Suggestion: and so on
...tal number of employees, possible costs and so one is needed to assist in our evaluation o...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 1073, 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.
...nly consist of countless advertisement. The benefits, hence, is ambiguous. To ...
^^^
Line 7, column 1107, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ment. The benefits, hence, is ambiguous. To sum up, as it stands, the conclusion ...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, furthermore, hence, however, if, look, second, similarly, so, still, then, therefore, third, as to, for example, in addition, such as, to begin with, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 29.0 19.6327345309 148% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 20.0 11.1786427146 179% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 44.0 28.8173652695 153% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 82.0 55.5748502994 148% => OK
Nominalization: 25.0 16.3942115768 152% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3744.0 2260.96107784 166% => OK
No of words: 697.0 441.139720559 158% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.37159253945 5.12650576532 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.13816675137 4.56307096286 113% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.93797214959 2.78398813304 106% => OK
Unique words: 338.0 204.123752495 166% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.48493543759 0.468620217663 103% => OK
syllable_count: 1155.6 705.55239521 164% => 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: 25.0 8.76447105788 285% => Less articles wanted as sentence beginning.
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 9.0 4.22255489022 213% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 34.0 19.7664670659 172% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 90.5930527749 57.8364921388 157% => OK
Chars per sentence: 110.117647059 119.503703932 92% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.5 23.324526521 88% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.20588235294 5.70786347227 91% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 8.20758483034 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 16.0 4.67664670659 342% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.41451871188 0.218282227539 190% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0844873078333 0.0743258471296 114% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.102143776064 0.0701772020484 146% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.244263277152 0.128457276422 190% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.111922290438 0.0628817314937 178% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.1 14.3799401198 98% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 42.72 48.3550499002 88% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.87 12.5979740519 110% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.32 8.32208582834 100% => OK
difficult_words: 163.0 98.500998004 165% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
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.