The following appeared in a memo to the board of directors of Bargain Brand
Cereals.
"One year ago we introduced our first product, Bargain Brand breakfast cereal. Our
very low prices quickly drew many customers away from the top-selling cereal
companies. Although the companies producing the top brands have since tried to
compete with us by lowering their prices and although several plan to introduce
their own budget brands, not once have we needed to raise our prices to continue
making a profit. Given our success in selling cereal, we recommend that Bargain
Brand now expand its business and begin marketing other low-priced food
products as quickly as possible.”
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 these assumptions and
what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
In the above memo, the author argues that Bargain Brand should expand its business and begin marketing other low-priced food products as soon as possible. The author supports his argument based on the result of being lucrative on their first product, Bargain Brand breakfast cereal. Furthermore, the author bolsters his argument by providing the result that the product is still lucrative without enhancing the price of the cereal to be competitive with the other top brands. However, before evaluating the author’s argument three unstated assumptions need to be answered.
Firstly, the author argues that the first product, Bargain Brand breakfast cereal drew many customers from top brands due to its low price without providing any justifiable evidence. There is a possibility that only 12 percent of the customers from the top brands buy the new low-priced cereal, then one can not argue that the first product was profitable. Maybe most customers of the top brands tried the new low-price cereal for the first time and then returned to their previous cereals. Then one can not argue that low-price cereal will be profitable in the future. If the author is able to provide more evidence perhaps in the form of a statistical data chart about the customers of each top brand then it will be possible to evaluate the author’s argument to a certain extent.
Secondly, the author argues that they did not have to raise the price in order to compete with the top brands for once to be more profitable without any evidence regarding the future scenario. There is a possibility that after a recent economic meltdown the cost of the cereal went significantly high and the Bargain Brand dilate its product price significantly. Then maybe people will prefer to buy the cereal from top brands whose costs rise gradually over the years instead of buying cereal from Bargain Brand whose cereal prices enhanced significantly. The author has to provide the future market or the possible future scenarios in order to rectify his argument otherwise the author’s argument is built unreliably.
Thirdly, the author argues that by implementing the same strategy as the cereal the Bargain Brand will be remunerative in other products without providing any data regarding the efficacy of the plan. Maybe people may not want to buy the other products from that Bargain Brand due to their penchant for the stigma that high price necessitates better quality. Even if this is not the case maybe other products are available at lower prices in the market. Then reducing prices may not be profitable for the company. If the above scenario is true then the author’s argument is seriously unwarranted. Furthermore, using a circumstance from one thing to generalize and predict the future is somehow fictitious. If the author is able to provide emir evidence perhaps in the form of a systematic research report of the market price of the things then it will strengthen the author’s argument.
In the conclusion, the author’s argument stands now is severely flawed due to its reliance on several unwarranted assumptions. If the author can elucidate the three unstated assumptions above and offer more evidence (perhaps in the form of a systematic research study) then it will be possible to evaluate the viability of the proposed recommendation that the Bargain Brand should expand its business.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 5 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 9 2
No. of Sentences: 22 15
No. of Words: 553 350
No. of Characters: 2775 1500
No. of Different Words: 209 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.849 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.018 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.601 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 211 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 149 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 112 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 58 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.136 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.766 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.818 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.375 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.545 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.123 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 571, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...ereal will be profitable in the future. If the author is able to provide more evid...
^^
Line 5, column 721, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... author’s argument is built unreliably. Thirdly, the author argues that by imple...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 359, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[2]
Message: “Even if” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...high price necessitates better quality. Even if this is not the case maybe other produc...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 514, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
... may not be profitable for the company. If the above scenario is true then the aut...
^^
Line 7, column 706, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...edict the future is somehow fictitious. If the author is able to provide emir evid...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
first, firstly, furthermore, however, if, may, regarding, second, secondly, so, still, then, third, thirdly, as to
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 22.0 19.6327345309 112% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 11.1786427146 54% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 28.8173652695 97% => OK
Preposition: 70.0 55.5748502994 126% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2836.0 2260.96107784 125% => OK
No of words: 553.0 441.139720559 125% => OK
Chars per words: 5.12839059675 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.84932490483 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.71141510241 2.78398813304 97% => OK
Unique words: 218.0 204.123752495 107% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.394213381555 0.468620217663 84% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 881.1 705.55239521 125% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 0.0 4.96107784431 0% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 22.0 19.7664670659 111% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 22.8473053892 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 50.6784752261 57.8364921388 88% => OK
Chars per sentence: 128.909090909 119.503703932 108% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.1363636364 23.324526521 108% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.18181818182 5.70786347227 91% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.20758483034 134% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
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: 0.307915303546 0.218282227539 141% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.12017889946 0.0743258471296 162% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.108608660892 0.0701772020484 155% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.202514906348 0.128457276422 158% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.104971609783 0.0628817314937 167% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.3 14.3799401198 106% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 46.1 48.3550499002 95% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.77 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.85 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 104.0 98.500998004 106% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 12.3882235529 85% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.1389221557 108% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.