Argument Topic: "The following is taken from a memo from the advertising director of the Super Screen Movie Production Company. "According to a recent report from our marketing department, during the past year, fewer people attended Super Screen-produced movies than in any other year. And yet the percentage of positive reviews by movie reviewers about specific Super Screen movies actually increased during the past year. Clearly, the contents of these reviews are not reaching enough of our prospective viewers. Thus, the problem lies not with the quality of our movies but with the public's lack of awareness that movies of good quality are available. Super Screen should therefore allocate a greater share of its budget next year to reaching the public through advertising."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation 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 recommendation.
In the given memo, the advertising director states that Super Screen Movie Production Comapny should increase its budget for advertising next year to increase the number of people coming to see its movies. At the outset, the argument seems to make a cogent case with sufficient evidence, but scrupulous investigation of the contents reveal that there are many unanswered questions that first need to be addressed before the plan to increase the budget is approved.
First of all, the positive reviews that were received during the past year need to be scruitinized. The memorandum does not give information about how many reviews there were, meaning that the total number of reviews might not even be large enough to represent the opinions of all the people that saw the company's movies. If there were only ten reviews when the company produced ten movies last year and a total of one million people saw the movie, the number of reviews would be too small to say that the reviews can be generalized to the whole movie goers. Meanwhile, even if there was a significant number of reviews, if the increase in the percentage of positive reviews was only one percent, it would be difficult to say that this amount is significant enough to indicate better quality movies. The company should disclose full details and statistics about the rise in the percentage of positive reviews and exactly how many reviews there were in order to make this evidence convincing.
Another point to consider is the lack of foundation for establishing a causal relationship between the existence of positive reviews and fewer viewership. Even if there was a significant amount of positive reviews proving that the movie company's movies were indeed well-made, this doesn't automatically point to the fact that there was a lack of public awareness about the movies. The author of the memo is jumping to conclusions because there could have been other factors that prevented people from going to the movies during the past year. There could have been a sufficient amount of advertising and people had indeed acknowledged the fact that Super Screen movies were showing, but other much important events could have occurred at the same time the movies were released. For example, the country could have been the host of major international sports games such as the World Cup or the Olympics, which would have made them become more immersed in these games rather than movies. It could also be possible that the nation was undergoing political unrest, and people didn't have the luxury to go to the movies. Unless the company investigates whether the people who didn't go see its movies was because of a lack of advertisement or other factors, the author of the memo should not jump to conclusions.
In conclusion, the memo does not provide clear evidence to substantiate that an increase in advertising will ensure that more customers will come see their movies. Statistical details about the reviews need to be disclosed and more supporting evidence regarding the relationship between positive reviews and lack of advertisement needs to be established.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- not OK
argument 2 -- not OK
argument 3 -- ???
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samples:
https://www.testbig.com/gmatgre-argument-task-essays/following-taken-me…
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: ? out of 6
Category: Poor Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 16 15
No. of Words: 520 350
No. of Characters: 2570 1500
No. of Different Words: 225 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.775 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.942 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.631 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 185 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 125 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 86 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 56 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 32.5 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.525 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.625 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.381 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.584 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.176 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
In the given memo, the advertising direc...
^^
Line 3, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...to increase the budget is approved. First of all, the positive reviews that ...
^^
Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...r to make this evidence convincing. Another point to consider is the lack of...
^^
Line 5, column 284, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...anys movies were indeed well-made, this doesnt automatically point to the fact that th...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 1074, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: didn't
...undergoing political unrest, and people didnt have the luxury to go to the movies. Un...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 1172, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: didn't
...any investigates whether the people who didnt go see its movies was because of a lack...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, if, regarding, so, well, while, for example, in conclusion, such as, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 30.0 19.6327345309 153% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 18.0 12.9520958084 139% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 18.0 13.6137724551 132% => OK
Pronoun: 26.0 28.8173652695 90% => OK
Preposition: 66.0 55.5748502994 119% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 16.3942115768 73% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2612.0 2260.96107784 116% => OK
No of words: 517.0 441.139720559 117% => OK
Chars per words: 5.05222437137 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.76839952204 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.6775681094 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 224.0 204.123752495 110% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.433268858801 0.468620217663 92% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 826.2 705.55239521 117% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 19.7664670659 81% => 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: 32.0 22.8473053892 140% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 42.2540216281 57.8364921388 73% => OK
Chars per sentence: 163.25 119.503703932 137% => OK
Words per sentence: 32.3125 23.324526521 139% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.1875 5.70786347227 108% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 13.0 8.20758483034 158% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 1.0 6.88822355289 15% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.138390698713 0.218282227539 63% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0533746368497 0.0743258471296 72% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0618065892465 0.0701772020484 88% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0870834582083 0.128457276422 68% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0500361350591 0.0628817314937 80% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 18.5 14.3799401198 129% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 39.0 48.3550499002 81% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.8 12.197005988 130% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.6 12.5979740519 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.28 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 100.0 98.500998004 102% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 14.8 11.1389221557 133% => OK
text_standard: 15.0 11.9071856287 126% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.