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 overall 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 recommendation 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 recommendation.
The personnel director of the ACME publishing company is of the opinion that all the ACME employees should take the easy read course.The author's argument does not seem well thought and in turn can be a liability for the company.
The Personnel Director states that many companies have an increase in their productivity after the employees taking the course. He also gives examples of two of the employees taking the course. One employee was able to read a 500 page report in two hours. But we do not have any information on the content of the report. Maybe the report mainly comprises of pictures and figures rather than text. The person finished reading the document in 2 hours, but his does not necessarily mean that the person has understood the document.The author says one of the employees was able to rise from a position of assistant manager to the position of Vice President in under a year. The rise in position of the employees cannot solely rely on his ability of reading fast. Rather also depends on his skill set and the dedication and the hard work he has put in.
The Personnel Director says that $500 per employee is a small price to pay as compared to the benefits.If the company has a large number of employees it becomes a very huge amount of sum for the company to pay. Moreover, a three week seminar to Spruce City is provided in this fee. If all the employees are to attend this three week seminar, who is supposed to run the company. We also need to know where exactly is Spruce city located. If it is located somewhere far away, the travelling costs and the lodging costs will have to be paid by the employees. We don't know whether they will be afford the costs.
The personnel director has said that all the employees should take up the course. The company employees also include the janitor and the watchman. Their job profile does not demand them to be able to read fast. So we need to know which all positions are required to take up the course.
Thus, the personnel director of Acme should not make any hasty decisions about the Easy Read course, as it may prove to be a waste of time and money for the organization. Issues regarding the cost and long term effectiveness of the course should be thoroughly investigated before the director's recommendation.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 412 350
No. of Characters: 1844 1500
No. of Different Words: 201 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.505 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.476 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.459 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 122 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 88 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 62 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 37 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.619 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 11 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.667 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.308 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.506 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.149 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 134, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: The
...loyees should take the easy read course.The authors argument does not seem well tho...
^^^
Line 1, column 138, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...es should take the easy read course.The authors argument does not seem well thought and...
^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 2, 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.
...n can be a liability for the company. The Personnel Director states that many com...
^^^
Line 2, column 346, Rule ID: COMPRISES_OF[1]
Message: Did you mean 'comprises' or 'consists of'?
Suggestion: comprises; consists of
... of the report. Maybe the report mainly comprises of pictures and figures rather than text. ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 529, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: The
... the person has understood the document.The author says one of the employees was ab...
^^^
Line 2, column 671, 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.
...tion of Vice President in under a year. The rise in position of the employees canno...
^^^
Line 2, column 760, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Rather,
...ly rely on his ability of reading fast. Rather also depends on his skill set and the d...
^^^^^^
Line 3, column 102, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: If
...rice to pay as compared to the benefits.If the company has a large number of emplo...
^^
Line 3, column 121, Rule ID: LARGE_NUMBER_OF[1]
Message: Specify a number, remove phrase, or simply use 'many' or 'numerous'
Suggestion: many; numerous
...ared to the benefits.If the company has a large number of employees it becomes a very huge amount...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 558, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...ll have to be paid by the employees. We dont know whether they will be afford the co...
^^^^
Line 5, column 285, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'directors'' or 'director's'?
Suggestion: directors'; director's
...d be thoroughly investigated before the directors recommendation.
^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, if, may, moreover, regarding, so, thus, well
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 19.6327345309 81% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 8.0 13.6137724551 59% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 23.0 28.8173652695 80% => OK
Preposition: 52.0 55.5748502994 94% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 16.3942115768 61% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1879.0 2260.96107784 83% => OK
No of words: 408.0 441.139720559 92% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.60539215686 5.12650576532 90% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.49433085973 4.56307096286 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.55383100777 2.78398813304 92% => OK
Unique words: 201.0 204.123752495 98% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.492647058824 0.468620217663 105% => OK
syllable_count: 594.0 705.55239521 84% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 0.0 4.22255489022 0% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 60.7834713182 57.8364921388 105% => OK
Chars per sentence: 89.4761904762 119.503703932 75% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.4285714286 23.324526521 83% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.61904761905 5.70786347227 46% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 11.0 5.25449101796 209% => Less language errors wanted.
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 6.88822355289 29% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 14.0 4.67664670659 299% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.328452005411 0.218282227539 150% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.088547071054 0.0743258471296 119% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0923004421602 0.0701772020484 132% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.179776501303 0.128457276422 140% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.062055489981 0.0628817314937 99% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.0 14.3799401198 70% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 60.65 48.3550499002 125% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.5 12.197005988 78% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 9.46 12.5979740519 75% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.44 8.32208582834 89% => OK
difficult_words: 74.0 98.500998004 75% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => 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.