A recent sales study indicates that consumption of seafood dishes in Bay City restaurants has increased by 30 percent during the past five years. Yet there are no currently operating city restaurants whose specialty is seafood. Moreover, the majority of families in Bay City are two-income families, and a nationwide study has shown that such families eat significantly fewer home-cooked meals than they did a decade ago but at the same time express more concern about healthful eating. Therefore, the new Captain Seafood restaurant that specializes in seafood should be quite popular and profitable.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be addressed in order to decide whether the conclusion and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to the questions would help to evaluate the conclusion.
The originator of the argument predicts that a new Captain Seafood restaurant will be highly successful and lucrative in case it opens in Bay City. This conclusion is buttressed by evidence which should be carefully questioned in order to comprehensively estimate soundness of the conclusion.
First of all, we are told that a recent study demonstrates that consumption of seafood dishes in the city has skyrocketed by 30 per cent. It might seem that seafood has become popular in the area; however, some other factors which were neglected by the writer may lead to the increase. For instance, region's cattle may contract a dangerous disease which is potentially harmful for human beings, in this case, all ill animals should be buried and burnt. Thus the region may have shortage of meat and consequently, city's dwellers have to switch on seafood. What is more, perhaps the increase may be caused by new trend. For example some local stars make eating seafood fashionable. However, how long will this trend last, probably it will decrease soon. In other words, we may have several factors which may lead to the increase and moreover, this trend may cease its existence soon as well. Thus the author's prediction is not reasonable.
The second evidence which is given to us that Bay City has no restaurants which specialize on seafood. The author hastily concludes that therefore a new restaurant should be profitable and popular. However, the reason on this absence may be that other restaurants have satisfied the demand of local residents. If the demand in a specialized restaurant does not exists, the writer's prediction will not lead to the expected result.
Finally, we know that a nationwide research asserts that many two-income families eat out of home and care about healthy food. However, a nationwide survey has some specific limitations due to its nature. This type of study gives an averaged representation of the population. Thus if five cities prefer to eat in restaurants and majority of two-income families in Bay City like eat home-cooked meals, the nationwide survey will neglect the data which does not fit to the trend. In other words, the nationwide study may not represent the situation of Bay City by the very inherent characteristic of average. Moreover, even if local two income families care about health and prefer eat out side, they may not associate these features with healthy food. For instance, many families assume that eating meat is much healthier then seafood; other families may be vegetarians and as a result they will not consume seafood.
In conclusion, the author's belief that a new Captain Seafood restaurant which specialized in seafood may not be profitable or popular owing to the fact, that the writer does not manage to give us a coherent and convincing arguments.
Comments
Hello.
Hello.
I am working with my mistakes, so I have several questions about this essay.
1) First of all. Is it better to analyze these two sentences separately as I did or together?
"A recent sales study indicates that consumption of seafood dishes in Bay City restaurants has increased by 30 percent during the past five years. Yet there are no currently operating city restaurants whose specialty is seafood." (it is a piece of argument).
2) About my first argument may I assert, for instance, that this increase is caused by a trend which may soon be over? For instance, a group of Hollywood celebrities promote the consumption of seafood. At the same time, the celebrity as well as their message may be darkened by new trend over time.
3) http://www.testbig.com/gmatgre-essays/recent-sales-study-indicates-cons…
I have some questions about azb's essay.
3.1) first of all, the first argument is based on critique of the validity of a used survey. May I argue against surveys. They are so tempting... For instance, in this case, I may aver that a sample was too small, that they may not represent male and female visitors equal etc. (however, this way lead to casting doubt on legitimacy of information given and thus to low score)
3.2) secondly, the third argument of the paragon essay, in fact, buttresses the argument. Should I do the same?
I hope to receive your answer. Each your suggestion is important for me. Thank you.
Q1) First of all. Is it
Q1) First of all. Is it better to analyze these two sentences separately as I did or together?
Look at the structure:
A recent sales study indicates that consumption of seafood dishes in Bay City restaurants has increased by 30 percent during the past five years. Yet there are no currently operating city restaurants whose specialty is seafood.
Moreover, the majority of families in Bay City are two-income families, and a nationwide study has shown that such families eat significantly fewer home-cooked meals than they did a decade ago but at the same time express more concern about healthful eating.
Therefore, the new Captain Seafood restaurant that specializes in seafood should be quite popular and profitable.
so it should bee argued together.
Q2. No, it is not good since it is in 5 years as we told.
Q3.1: it is wrong to cat doubt on the survey in the sample: 'It is not clear, however, the validity of these surveys.', but it is correct for the second part: 'Besides, the study does not explain the reason of demand’s rise...'
Q3.2: yes, it supports it, but it is conservative. The answer for you is: don't follow it.
simply argue against the conclusion like you did in other essays:
'specializes in seafood should be quite popular and profitable. '
for example: the quality of the food and freshness of the seafood served is important, but the interior design, setting and services of the restaurant are important too. All these factors need to be considered before assuming a restaurant will flourish.
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argument 1 -- not exactly. It is in 5 years.
argument 2 -- better: maybe people like to eat sea food beside other foods.
argument 3 -- OK
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read a sampled:
http://www.testbig.com/gmatgre-essays/recent-sales-study-indicates-cons…
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Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 22 15
No. of Words: 465 350
No. of Characters: 2302 1500
No. of Different Words: 222 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.644 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.951 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.716 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 164 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 127 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 91 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 57 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.136 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.226 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.864 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.299 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.492 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.093 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5