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 topselling 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 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.
The author proposes that Bargain Brand should now expand its business and begin marketing other low-priced food products as quickly as it can. The suggestion is mainly based on the popularity of its breakfast cereal and the fact that it has never had to rise up the prices to make continual profits when facing the competition with the top brands. However, some questions should be addressed before the author proves the validity of the argument.
The author mentions that their unexpectedly low prices of breakfast cereal quickly drew many customers away from the top-selling cereal companies. The most important problem is the underlying assumption that it is the low prices that result in the popularity of their cereal, which is unconvincing without some questions being answered. Could the low price take responsibility for the success in capturing customers away from the top-selling cereal companies? Not exactly. In all likelihood, the reason why people buy the Bargain Brand breakfast cereal is the excellent taste of this product rather than the low price. It is also probable that people choose the products of Bargain Brand instead of other top-selling businesses merely because the products’ quality of the later ones has turned out to be unsatisfying. Under these scenarios, the assumption does not hold water.
The author also reveals that they never need to raise their prices to continuing make profits when faced with the competition with other brands and infer that it can represent the success of Bargain Brand. Apparently, behind the inference lies the assumptions that continuing acquiring profits is the signal of success and the Bargain Brand should have made much more profits if they raise the prices. However, some questions should be addressed to substantiate this argument. It is entirely possible that the only advantage of the Bargain Brand is the cheapness. If the company rises up the price, the customers may turn out to choose other brands. So the constant price cannot mean the success of the business. Instead, it may be the only measure of Bargain Brand to attract customers. Besides, never can we neglect the possibility that the persistent profits gained by this kind of ways are not sure to be dramatic and considerable since the interests may be extremely low all the time. Hence, it is far-fetched to argue that the the company is successful basing on the revelations mentioned before.
Even though the Bargain Brand is truly successful in selling breakfast cereal, it is still hasty to conclude that it can also gain considerable profits by selling other low-Price food and recommend the company to expand its business. It is highly probable that the industries of other low-priced food products, such as candy, may have been saturated, indicating that Bargain Brand may not be competitive enough when facing the fierce competition with other famous brands. Besides, the quality of food products is also an indispensable factor when the customers choose the brand. If the new products of Bargain Brand have a terrible taste, or if they contain excessive additives and preservatives, the company is likely to fail in the attempt of new products. So it is abrupt to implement the publisher’s recommendation in absence of caring about and exploring these possible scenarios. Therefore, addressing the aforementioned questions might more defensibly reinforce the conclusion.
Overall, although the conclusion may be comprehensible in some aspects, some questions should be addressed before the author validates the argument. Had the author delivers more answers to the questions, the conclusion and the argument might be more defensible.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 27 15
No. of Words: 588 350
No. of Characters: 3037 1500
No. of Different Words: 246 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.924 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.165 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.755 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 233 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 173 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 122 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 93 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.778 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.875 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.63 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.292 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.462 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.073 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 9, column 1030, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: the
... Hence, it is far-fetched to argue that the the company is successful basing on the rev...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 1030, Rule ID: DT_DT[1]
Message: Maybe you need to remove one determiner so that only 'the' or 'the' is left.
Suggestion: the; the
... Hence, it is far-fetched to argue that the the company is successful basing on the rev...
^^^^^^^
Line 13, column 617, Rule ID: HE_VERB_AGR[8]
Message: The proper name in singular (Brand) must be used with a third-person verb: 'has'.
Suggestion: has
...d. If the new products of Bargain Brand have a terrible taste, or if they contain ex...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, apparently, besides, hence, however, if, may, so, still, therefore, kind of, such as
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 : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 20.0 13.6137724551 147% => OK
Pronoun: 42.0 28.8173652695 146% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 63.0 55.5748502994 113% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3120.0 2260.96107784 138% => OK
No of words: 588.0 441.139720559 133% => OK
Chars per words: 5.30612244898 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.9242980521 4.56307096286 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.87867252714 2.78398813304 103% => OK
Unique words: 258.0 204.123752495 126% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.438775510204 0.468620217663 94% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 947.7 705.55239521 134% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 26.0 19.7664670659 132% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 58.0825296188 57.8364921388 100% => OK
Chars per sentence: 120.0 119.503703932 100% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.6153846154 23.324526521 97% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.46153846154 5.70786347227 61% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 16.0 8.20758483034 195% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.283047486367 0.218282227539 130% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0851797642365 0.0743258471296 115% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0886850797607 0.0701772020484 126% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.170160047065 0.128457276422 132% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.117669551329 0.0628817314937 187% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.9 14.3799401198 104% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 49.15 48.3550499002 102% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.81 12.5979740519 110% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.33 8.32208582834 100% => OK
difficult_words: 134.0 98.500998004 136% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => 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.