The following appeared in an e mail sent by the marketing director of the Classical Shakespeare Theatre of Bardville Over the past ten years there has been a 20 percent decline in the size of the average audience at Classical Shakespeare Theatre productio | TOEFL IELTS GMAT GRE SAT ACT PTE ESL

Essay topics:

The following appeared in an e-mail sent by the marketing director of the Classical Shakespeare Theatre of Bardville.

"Over the past ten years, there has been a 20 percent decline in the size of the average audience at Classical Shakespeare Theatre productions. In spite of increased advertising, we are attracting fewer and fewer people to our shows, causing our profits to decrease significantly. We must take action to attract new audience members. The best way to do so is by instituting a 'Shakespeare in the Park' program this summer. Two years ago the nearby Avon Repertory Company started a 'Free Plays in the Park' program, and its profits have increased 10 percent since then. Therefore, I recommend that we start a 'Shakespeare in the Park' program of our own. If we do so, I predict that our profits will also see a significant increase."

Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.

It is understandable as to why the marketing director believes that instituting a free 'Shakespeare in the Park' program will result in a significant increase in profits. From personal experience, Shakespeare in the Park consistently draws large crowds, whether in Central Park or in a small New Hampshire resort town. The marketing director even mentions that a nearby theatre town experienced financial growth after the initiation of its own 'Shakespeare in the Park' program. While it is certainly tempting to predict similar success for the Bardville Theatre, a couple of pertinent questions need to be answered before implementing this recommendation.

The first question that needs to be answered is "Why did increased advertising fail to attract more people to the shows?". The reasonable assumption when investing in advertising is that it will lead to an expanded audience. The advertising could be targeted to the wrong demographics or not conveying a clear message. If this true, a marketing strategy shift could be sufficient to increase profits. For example, perhaps younger citizens are more receptive to ads, so the focus should shift to buying spots on social media or streaming services. If the ad is poorly designed, then the creative team should develop different ads suited to its primary target audience. On the other hand, the best marketing strategy in the world may fail to overcome systemic problems such as plays that are not entertaining or actors who should be replaced. If the latter possibility is true, an overhaul of the theatre company's personnel may be necessary.

A second germane question for this analysis is "Is it fair to conclude that Avon Repertory's apparent success with 'Shakespeare in the Park' implies that a comparable program will be effective for Bardville?". The two assumptions in this case are that 'Shakespeare in the Park' directly caused Avon's profits to increase and Bardville's 'Shakespeare in the Park' program will be just as effective as Avon's because the companies are in geographically close. Regarding the first assumption, when conducting any sort of analysis, it is crucial to remember that correlation does not imply causation. Avon's profits may have increased because for alternative reasons, such as hiring better actors, writers, and directors. However, even if 'Shakespeare in the Park' is solely responsible for the higher profit margin, there is no guarantee Bardville will experience the same outcome because it is geographically close to Avon. As a real-life example, the Upper East Side and East Harlem are adjacent neighborhoods in New York City. Yet, they could not be more different in terms of culture, income, and demographics. A new theatre neighborhood program could be extremely lucrative in the Upper East because its residents love theatre, but Harlem residents may have limited interest in the program. The marketing director must evaluate if an Upper East Side and Harlem dynamic is in play with Avon and Bardville.

'Shakespeare in the Park' may very well be a resounding success, but questions must be addressed before implementing this program.

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Essay Categories

GMAT/GRE Argument Task

Comments

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 63, Rule ID: DID_BASEFORM[1]
Message: The verb 'did' requires the base form of the verb: 'increase'
Suggestion: increase
...t needs to be answered is 'Why did increased advertising fail to attract more people...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 236, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...t it will lead to an expanded audience. The advertising could be targeted to the wr...
^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, if, may, regarding, second, so, then, well, while, as to, for example, sort of, such as, on the other hand

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 30.0 19.6327345309 153% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 20.0 12.9520958084 154% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 28.8173652695 83% => OK
Preposition: 52.0 55.5748502994 94% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 16.3942115768 73% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2651.0 2260.96107784 117% => OK
No of words: 497.0 441.139720559 113% => OK
Chars per words: 5.33400402414 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.72159896747 4.56307096286 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.07788950469 2.78398813304 111% => OK
Unique words: 248.0 204.123752495 121% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.498993963783 0.468620217663 106% => OK
syllable_count: 823.5 705.55239521 117% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.76447105788 148% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 22.0 19.7664670659 111% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 42.5192226825 57.8364921388 74% => OK
Chars per sentence: 120.5 119.503703932 101% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.5909090909 23.324526521 97% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.77272727273 5.70786347227 101% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 15.0 8.20758483034 183% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 1.0 6.88822355289 15% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.11625414348 0.218282227539 53% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0378628999409 0.0743258471296 51% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0401163643059 0.0701772020484 57% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0775940026779 0.128457276422 60% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0383282055821 0.0628817314937 61% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.0 14.3799401198 104% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 40.69 48.3550499002 84% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.1 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.93 12.5979740519 111% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.24 8.32208582834 111% => OK
difficult_words: 142.0 98.500998004 144% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => 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.

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, if, may, regarding, second, so, then, well, while, as to, for example, sort of, such as, on the other hand

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments