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 examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the
argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and
what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
Answer- In the above recommendation, the author argues that to be more lucrative Acme Publishing Company should encourage their employees to take the Easy Read course. The author supports his argument based on the fact that after graduating from the Easy Read course the employees' performances enhanced significantly. Furthermore, the author supports his argument by the fact that the course charges only 500 dollars, and given the benefits of the course the charge is significantly low. However, before evaluating the author’s argument three unstated assumptions need to be answered.
Firstly, the author supports his argument that the Easy Read Speed-Reading Course will improve the employees’ productivity based on the report of the companies without providing the authenticity of the report. Maybe only 6 companies reported that the course will improve the productivity of the employees. Then concluding something based on very small sample size is seriously unwarranted. Even if this is not the case, the author does not provide any admissible evidence about the other companies. Maybe the other companies are not similar to Acme Company where speed reading is required for better performances, then the author’s argument holds no water. If the author is able to offer more evidence perhaps in the form of a statistical data chart of each of the companies then it will be possible to evaluate the author’s argument to a certain extent.
Secondly, the author bolsters his argument about the efficacy of the course based on the report of graduates. Perhaps out of 100 graduates only 2 graduates’ productivity has improved after taking the course then one can not argue that the course will improve the productivity in general. Furthermore, the author argues that by only taking the course a graduate rose from assistant manager to vice president without any proper evidence. Maybe the employee has a better analytical skills or maybe before taking the course the employee’s performance was consistently better over the past 5 years. Then arguing that the course helped the employee to become an assistant manager is somehow fictitious. The author has to provide more evidence perhaps in the form of a proper survey of the graduates of the course in order to rectify his claim.
Thirdly, the author states that faster reading is associated with more absorption of knowledge in less time without providing any justifiable evidence. There is a feasibility that maybe one employee can read fast but his ability to absorb knowledge is significantly low. Perhaps while reading fast people may be unable to connate on the content of the reading after a certain time. If the above scenario is true then the author’s argument is built unreliably. If the author is able to provide more veritable evidence perhaps in the form of a research study regarding the amount of knowledge one can absorb while reading speedily, then it will strengthen the author’s argument.
In the conclusion, the author’s argument stands now is seriously flawed due to its reliance on several unwarranted assumptions. If the author is able to elucidate the three unstated assumptions above and offers more evidence (perhaps in the form of a systematic research study ) then it will be possible to evaluate the viability of the proposed recommendation that Acme would be remunerative greatly by requiring all of their employees to the Easy Read course.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 3 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 7 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 551 350
No. of Characters: 2825 1500
No. of Different Words: 218 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.845 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.127 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.785 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 224 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 164 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 123 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 72 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.957 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.411 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.739 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.38 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.554 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.148 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 8, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
Answer- In the above recommendation, the author ...
^^
Line 3, column 658, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...n the author’s argument holds no water. If the author is able to offer more eviden...
^^
Line 7, column 383, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...nt of the reading after a certain time. If the above scenario is true then the aut...
^^
Line 9, column 276, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... the form of a systematic research study then it will be possible to evaluate the...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, firstly, furthermore, however, if, may, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, third, thirdly, while, as to, in general
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 22.0 19.6327345309 112% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.9520958084 100% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 11.1786427146 36% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 28.8173652695 83% => OK
Preposition: 75.0 55.5748502994 135% => OK
Nominalization: 22.0 16.3942115768 134% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2897.0 2260.96107784 128% => OK
No of words: 551.0 441.139720559 125% => OK
Chars per words: 5.25771324864 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.84493438435 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.91413319735 2.78398813304 105% => OK
Unique words: 225.0 204.123752495 110% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.40834845735 0.468620217663 87% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 918.0 705.55239521 130% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 0.0 4.96107784431 0% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
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: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 54.8962933592 57.8364921388 95% => OK
Chars per sentence: 125.956521739 119.503703932 105% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.9565217391 23.324526521 103% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.69565217391 5.70786347227 100% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.259695551892 0.218282227539 119% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0885767604069 0.0743258471296 119% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0779337799165 0.0701772020484 111% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.159235796452 0.128457276422 124% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0465885372483 0.0628817314937 74% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.3 14.3799401198 106% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 39.67 48.3550499002 82% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 12.197005988 110% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.52 12.5979740519 107% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.96 8.32208582834 96% => OK
difficult_words: 111.0 98.500998004 113% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.