The following appeared in a memo from the marketing director of Top Dog Pet Stores.
"Five years ago Fish Emporium started advertising in the magazine Exotic Pets Monthly. Their stores saw sales increase by 15 percent after their ads began appearing in the magazine. The three Fish Emporium stores in Gulf City saw an even greater increase than that. Because Top Dog Pet Stores is based in Gulf City, it seems clear that we should start placing our own ads in Exotic Pets Monthly. If we do so, we will be sure to reverse the recent trend of declining sales and start making a profit again."
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.
Based on the observations of Fish Emporiums, the marketing director of Top Dog Pet Stores concludes that they should start placing their own advertisements in apparently popular magazine, Exotic Pets Monthly, with an aim of making profit and reverse the declining trend of their sales. However, the conclusion is based on several unwarranted assumptions, which, if true, might indicate that the conclusion holds water. However, as it stands now, the conclusion is based on three weak and seemingly dubious assumptions which greatly undermine the plausibility of the conclusion, unless retrofitted with proper supports.
First of all, the marketing director casually assumes that the case of Fish emporium, in which the firm was able to increase its profit, can be easily replicated in case of his own Top Dog Pet Stores. From what the memo indicates, the firms which the marketing director is presenting as an example apparently deal with fish and not the dogs, which makes the example even more irrelevant. There seems to be a huge doubt whether the plans and techiques adopted by a firm dealing with different kinds of pet would be applicable for the dog pet firms as well.
Moreover, the marketing director seems to assume that the increment of the sales in the Fish Emporium is entirely because of the advertisement factor. Maybe, the part of the towm recently saw a surge in people who wanted to pet the fish. Also, maybe the Fish Emporium was able to satisfy its costumer, which in turn, enhanced their sales further. For instance, it is possible for a different kind of business to flourish in the same town while others are coping with reduced sales and profit.
Finally, the marketing director assumes that the prospective customers of the Dog Pet Stores follow the Exotic Pets Monthly magazine and it will influence the sales. It is very likely that most of the people willing to buy a pet usually consult with their relatives or neighbors who have already had a pet. For instance, if a lady in a locality buys a nice looking puppy, the ladies in neighborhood are more likely to ask her for the information rather than follow the magazine to buy the pets or other accessories. So, on contrary to the assumption of the marketing director, peer contact might be more important factor than the advertisement in the magazine for the people to choose one particular store for their pets.
To conclude, the marketing director, desperate to increase his profit and sales, seemingly makes an irrelevant comparison with some Fish Emporiums and makes up his mind that the Top Dog Pet Stores should also focus on the advertisement. However, as evident by above mentioned reasons, his conclusion seems hardly plausible enough because of unsupported and seemingly dubious assumptions. He must provide additional pieces of evidence to make his conclusion credible by supporting his unwarranted assumptions.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 5.0 out of 6
Category: Very Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 5 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 17 15
No. of Words: 479 350
No. of Characters: 2372 1500
No. of Different Words: 228 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.678 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.952 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.715 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 168 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 132 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 98 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 64 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 28.176 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.126 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.824 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.346 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.346 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.136 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 301, Rule ID: ADVERB_WORD_ORDER[9]
Message: The adverb 'hardly' is usually put before the verb 'seems'.
Suggestion: hardly seems
...above mentioned reasons, his conclusion seems hardly plausible enough because of unsupported...
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, apparently, finally, first, however, if, look, may, moreover, so, well, while, for instance, kind of, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 19.6327345309 71% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 27.0 28.8173652695 94% => OK
Preposition: 60.0 55.5748502994 108% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 16.3942115768 61% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2428.0 2260.96107784 107% => OK
No of words: 479.0 441.139720559 109% => OK
Chars per words: 5.06889352818 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.67825486995 4.56307096286 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.79564797421 2.78398813304 100% => OK
Unique words: 239.0 204.123752495 117% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.498956158664 0.468620217663 106% => OK
syllable_count: 765.0 705.55239521 108% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 19.7664670659 86% => OK
Sentence length: 28.0 22.8473053892 123% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 48.1701856132 57.8364921388 83% => OK
Chars per sentence: 142.823529412 119.503703932 120% => OK
Words per sentence: 28.1764705882 23.324526521 121% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.05882352941 5.70786347227 124% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 6.88822355289 29% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.31621116639 0.218282227539 145% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.106106694154 0.0743258471296 143% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0919980045939 0.0701772020484 131% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.173987668175 0.128457276422 135% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0492654623825 0.0628817314937 78% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.5 14.3799401198 115% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 43.06 48.3550499002 89% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.197005988 116% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.42 12.5979740519 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.78 8.32208582834 106% => OK
difficult_words: 114.0 98.500998004 116% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.2 11.1389221557 119% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.