"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 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 advice 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 advice.
In the argument, the author concludes that in order to improve productivity, all of the employees of the Acme Publishing Company must be required to take the Easy Read Speed-Reading Course. The author comes to this conclusion based on several premises. The recommendation from the personnel director to the president of Acme Publishing Company might be valid, but before the persuasivness of the argument can be properly evaluated, he must answer the following three questions.
Firstly, the author assumes that the two graduates of the course are indicative of the whole workforce in the Acme Publishing Company. Perhaps the first graduate who was able to read a 500-page report in two hours simply skimmed the report and did not retain any information. In addition, the other graduate mentioned who rose from an assistant manager position to becoming the vice president of the company in under a year, only got rewarded with the promotion due to nepotism instead of merit. If these scenarios are proven to be true, greatly calls into question the effectiveness and results of the Easy Read Speed-Reading course and undermine the credibility of the author’s argument.
Secondly, the author assumes that the other companies that have used the Easy Read Speed-Reading Course are not lying about the results that garnered from using the program. For example, the company could have provided glowing results due to an agreement in a signed contract between the company and the Easy Read course. Furthermore, the “many other companies” mentioned in the recommendation could have been a mininal number such as 2 or 3 comapanies and thus calls into question the benefits of using this program. If proven to be true, then the author’s argument of participatiing in the Easy Read course leading to an increase in productivity doesn’t hold water
Finally, the author assumes that the cost of participating in the Easy Read course is a “small price to pay” for the employee and neglects to take into account the background of its employees. Perhaps, an employee who single handedly raises a household of 6 family members cannot afford to spend $500 in a program in which the money could be used to buy essential necessities for the family members. In addition, another employee could be in debt due to outstanding medical bills and thus cannot spend $500 on a program mandated by the Ame Publishing Company. If proven to be true, it would signifcantly hamper the validity and reliability of the recommendation.
To conclude, although the central claim presented by the personnel director to the president of Acme Publishing Company might hold water, indicating that there is a causal relationship between productivity and fast readiing, the author needs to answer the three above questions in order to increase the persuasiveness of the argument.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 78, Rule ID: ALL_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'all the'.
Suggestion: all the
... that in order to improve productivity, all of the employees of the Acme Publishing Compan...
^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, first, firstly, furthermore, if, second, secondly, so, then, thus, for example, in addition, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 15.0 19.5258426966 77% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.4196629213 97% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 14.8657303371 74% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 11.3162921348 97% => OK
Pronoun: 13.0 33.0505617978 39% => OK
Preposition: 72.0 58.6224719101 123% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 12.9106741573 124% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2400.0 2235.4752809 107% => OK
No of words: 463.0 442.535393258 105% => OK
Chars per words: 5.18358531317 5.05705443957 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.63868890866 4.55969084622 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.98081508923 2.79657885939 107% => OK
Unique words: 217.0 215.323595506 101% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.4686825054 0.4932671777 95% => OK
syllable_count: 739.8 704.065955056 105% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59117977528 101% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 6.24550561798 32% => OK
Article: 11.0 4.99550561798 220% => Less articles wanted as sentence beginning.
Subordination: 4.0 3.10617977528 129% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.77640449438 56% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.38483146067 91% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 20.2370786517 74% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 30.0 23.0359550562 130% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 74.0481525015 60.3974514979 123% => OK
Chars per sentence: 160.0 118.986275619 134% => OK
Words per sentence: 30.8666666667 23.4991977007 131% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.6 5.21951772744 146% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.97078651685 101% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 7.80617977528 13% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 10.2758426966 88% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 5.13820224719 39% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.83258426966 83% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.38080447249 0.243740707755 156% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.125351397025 0.0831039109588 151% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.101195202714 0.0758088955206 133% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.195271768593 0.150359130593 130% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.135148724533 0.0667264976115 203% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 18.4 14.1392134831 130% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 41.03 48.8420337079 84% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.0 12.1743820225 123% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.36 12.1639044944 110% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.74 8.38706741573 104% => OK
difficult_words: 106.0 100.480337079 105% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 11.8971910112 92% => OK
gunning_fog: 14.0 11.2143820225 125% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.7820224719 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.