SuperCorp recently moved its headquarters to Corporateville. The recent surge in the number of homeowners in Corporateville proves that Corporateville is a superior place to live than Middlesburg, the home of SuperCorp's current headquarters. Moreover, Mi

Essay topics:

SuperCorp recently moved its headquarters to Corporateville. The recent surge in the number of homeowners in Corporateville proves that Corporateville is a superior place to live than Middlesburg, the home of SuperCorp's current headquarters. Moreover, Middleburg is a predominately urban area and according to an employee survey, SuperCorp has determined that its workers prefer to live in an area that is not urban. Finally, Corporateville has lower taxes than Middlesburg, making it not only a safer place to work but also a cheaper one. Therefore, Supercorp clearly made the best decision.

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 the assumptions and what the implications are if the assumptions prove unwarranted.

The argument readily assumes several unwarranted assumptions, while incorporating partial information to support the SuperCorop decision for leaving Middlesburg - and moving its headquarters to Corporateville, decision which is based on either circumstantial evidence, lacking information, or incomplete financial analysis.

First, though the recent surge in the number of homeowners in Corporateville does show large interest in the town, several questions must be answered, starting with who are the home owners. If these are not SuperCorp employees - is this a population that is relevant to the corporation? It might also be possible that the surge of homeowners has also given rise to the prices, making the location not as alluring to most employees, due to the fact prices might be out of their price range and buying capability.

Second, even if the location is as lucrative a location, in which the employees would be happy to live, as the survey states, the very same survey did not ask the obvious question - where the employees would rather work - and thus is incomplete, making the tacit implication that the employees would also like to work in the same area where they live. For example, perhaps transportation between Middlesburg and the new headquarters have lesser traffic, since more homeowners drive from the direction of Coporateville, making it traffic easier to handle in the mornings. Thus, an incomplete survey leaves this corporate decision lacking. It can be equally claimed that since the new area is an area in which employees would prefer to live, since it is not urbane, the very transfer of the headquarters into a non urbane environment, could change the very nature of the area. A large corporate with many employees in an suburban area, might also in turn, appear boon for new businesses, such as coffee shops and restaurants, office supplies chain such as Staples to open near, changing the living environment, driving the residents away.

Finally, assuming all prerequisites could be thoroughly answered, a sound, complete financial analysis must be made, in order to correctly assess what would be the repeating costs of Corporateville, both for the company and for the employees - and what are the extraneous expenses. The claim that lower taxes alone make it not only a safer place to work and a cheaper one is unbased. First, no evidence as to how is it safer is presented and second, financially, taxes are only part of the greater picture of the company's financial costs. Additional information such if would the company buy or rent a building, or a complex, or how much added transportation would the employees would spend, would help assessing these assumptions.

In conclusion, both the survey and the unwarranted assumptions, lack information and clarity as to give base to how sound is the corporate decision of moving its headquarters.

Votes
Average: 5 (2 votes)
Essay Categories

Comments

--------------------
argument 1 -- not OK. It is not related to employees:

The recent surge in the number of homeowners in Corporateville proves that Corporateville is a superior place to live than Middlesburg...

argument 2 -- not exactly. In GRE/GMAT, we have to accept all data or evidence are true and complete. It is important to find out loopholes behind surveys or studies. Loopholes mean that we accept all surveys told are true, but there are some conditions applied, for example:

It works for time A (10 years ago), but it doesn't mean it works for time B (nowadays).

It works for location A (a city, community, nation), but it doesn't mean it works for location B (another city, community, nation).

It works for people A (a manager), but it doesn't mean it works for people B (a worker).

It works for event A (one event, project... ), but it doesn't mean it works for event B (another event, project...).

...
the problem of this survey is that: 'its workers prefer to live in an area that is not urban' doesn't mean 'its workers hate to work in an urban area'.

argument 3 -- not exactly. You seemed understand the topic wrongly:

'Additional information such if would the company buy or rent a building, or a complex, or how much added transportation would the employees would spend, would help assessing these assumptions.'

The topic is only about 'SuperCorp recently moved its headquarters to Corporateville. '
--------------------
read a sample:
http://www.testbig.com/gmatgre-argument-task-essays/supercorp-recently-…

--------------------
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 14 15
No. of Words: 464 350
No. of Characters: 2354 1500
No. of Different Words: 226 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.641 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.073 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.91 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 161 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 126 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 98 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 69 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 33.143 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.9 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.857 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.328 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.599 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.054 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5