"Recently, butter has been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southwestern United States. This change, however, has had little impact on our customers. In fact, only about 2 percent of customers have complained, indicating that an average of 98 people out of 100 are happy with the change. Furthermore, many servers have reported that a number of customers who ask for butter do not complain when they are given margarine instead. Clearly, either these customers do not distinguish butter from margarine or they use the term 'butter' to refer to either butter or margarine."
Happy Pancake House’s business managers argues that customers are not able to distinguish butter from margarine or they deliberately use the term ‘butter’ to refer to both those items. He/she supports this argument with a 2% complaint rate from customers, and the supposed fact that customers do not really complain about having margarine instead of butter. While the argument may hold some merit, it is currently a severely limited one as it fails to recognize there are four other possible explanations that can account for these results.
To begin, it is possible that the ‘facts’ the manager cites have actually been altered to strengthen his/ her argument. For instance, it is possible that the servers did not report the true number of customers who complained about the change as they were financially incentive to do so. That is, they may receive a higher paycheck or bonus if the replacement from butter to margarine is a success. Besides such financial incentives, there may also be social and prestige-related reasons to supporting this argument. Assuming that this manager initiated this change, then its failure may be quite damaging to his/her reputation and future career prospects at this business. Hence, he/she may have altered the facts to create a better image in the firm.
Furthermore, even if we assume that no such alteration was done to the facts, there may be still other reliability and validity issues with the stated facts. Should this hold true, then these issues may account for these results. For instance, questioning only 100 customers out of the potential thousands or millions may have skewed the results to favor the manager’s position. Indeed, it is possible that the manager would have found that customers dislike margarine than butter if he/she surveyed 10,000 customers. Besides the potential problem with the sample size, there may be issues with the nature of the sample that influenced the results. For instance, if only young teenagers were questioned, then this result may not apply to the other potential customers of Happy Pancake House restaurants. Indeed, it is possible the gustatory preferences of seniors, middle-aged adults, and young adults are significantly different than this demographic. Thus, it is possible that the results would be markedly different if the manager corrected for these potential issues with sample size and nature.
Thirdly, even if there are no issues to the findings as discussed above, it is still not clear if the reported results accurately reflect customers’ true feelings towards margarine and butter. For example, customers may have been too shy and diffident to complain. It is also possible that the culture of southwestern America influenced these results. For instance, if complaining is frowned upon in this region, then this may account for the lack of complaints. Given that these external influences on the results cannot be ruled out, the argument that customers are not able to distinguish between butter and margarine does not hold water.
Finally, there is also the possibility that customers are not only able to distinguish between the two, but actually appreciate margarine more than butter. While the manager assumes that this is not the case, this explanation could account for the lack of customer complaints. Indeed, there are several possible explanations for this. For example, perhaps margarine tastes better with pancakes and the other food items the restaurants sell. Similarly, there may be greater health benefits to margarine over butter that explain these results. Thus, the possibility that margarine is liked over butter cannot be ruled out if these scenarios hold any merit.
In conclusion, the manager’s argument, as it stands now, is flawed as it fails to recognize the other four potential explanations that could account for these results. However, if the manager can provide evidence that addresses these four possibilities, then it will be possible to better assess his/her argument.
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: 30 15
No. of Words: 644 350
No. of Characters: 3285 1500
No. of Different Words: 259 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.038 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.101 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.646 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 244 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 190 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 134 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 88 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.467 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 5.993 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.867 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.299 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.454 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.122 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 753, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...s to create a better image in the firm. Furthermore, even if we assume that no s...
^^^^^
Line 4, column 931, Rule ID: RATHER_THEN[2]
Message: Did you mean 'different 'from''? 'Different than' is often considered colloquial style.
Suggestion: from
...oung adults are significantly different than this demographic. Thus, it is possible ...
^^^^
Line 4, column 1101, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ial issues with sample size and nature. Thirdly, even if there are no issues to ...
^^^^^
Line 10, column 315, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ible to better assess his/her argument.
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, besides, but, finally, furthermore, hence, however, if, may, really, similarly, so, still, then, third, thirdly, thus, while, for example, for instance, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 36.0 19.6327345309 183% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 23.0 12.9520958084 178% => OK
Conjunction : 14.0 11.1786427146 125% => OK
Relative clauses : 22.0 13.6137724551 162% => OK
Pronoun: 74.0 28.8173652695 257% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 56.0 55.5748502994 101% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3403.0 2260.96107784 151% => OK
No of words: 639.0 441.139720559 145% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.3255086072 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.02776782673 4.56307096286 110% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.76006031634 2.78398813304 99% => OK
Unique words: 277.0 204.123752495 136% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.433489827856 0.468620217663 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1053.9 705.55239521 149% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 13.0 4.96107784431 262% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 3.0 8.76447105788 34% => OK
Subordination: 8.0 2.70958083832 295% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 30.0 19.7664670659 152% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 36.8727541689 57.8364921388 64% => OK
Chars per sentence: 113.433333333 119.503703932 95% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.3 23.324526521 91% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.06666666667 5.70786347227 106% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 8.20758483034 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 14.0 6.88822355289 203% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.224538174046 0.218282227539 103% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0724543504772 0.0743258471296 97% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0577438843844 0.0701772020484 82% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.139326947507 0.128457276422 108% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0685126219775 0.0628817314937 109% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.3 14.3799401198 99% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.63 12.5979740519 108% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.29 8.32208582834 100% => OK
difficult_words: 146.0 98.500998004 148% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => 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.