The following appeared in a memorandum from the owner of Movies Galore a chain of movie rental stores In order to stop the recent decline in our profits we must reduce operating expenses at Movies Galore s ten movie rental stores Since we are famous for o | TOEFL IELTS GMAT GRE SAT ACT PTE ESL

Essay topics:

The following appeared in a memorandum from the owner of Movies Galore, a chain of movie-rental stores.
"In order to stop the recent decline in our profits, we must reduce operating expenses at Movies Galore's ten movie-rental stores. Since we are famous for our special bargains, raising our rental prices is not a viable way to improve profits. Last month our store in downtown Marston significantly decreased its operating expenses by closing at 6:00 P.M. rather than 9:00 P.M. and by reducing its stock by eliminating all movies released more than five years ago. By implementing similar changes in our other stores, Movies Galore can increase profits without jeopardizing our reputation for offering great movies at low prices."
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 this memorandum, the owner of Movies Galore recommends that they increase profit margins by reducing operating hours and eliminating all movies released more than five years ago from their stock. This recommendation is based on the purported success of these changes in one of their 10 stores and the idea that their main selling point is their offering of good movies at low prices. While the argument seems logical, there are several questions that must be answered to ensure to decide whether the recommendation would have the desired result.

Firstly, what is the stores main customer base? Is this the same over all 10 stores? The owner argues that the proposed changes will be effective based on its success in their downtown store, but if the age range, education level, or working hours of their customer base in different stores differs, the recommendation would need to be modified significantly. For example, if the downtown store is frequented primarily by teenagers, their new 6 pm closing time would still allow their customers to come by and the new selection of exclusively recent movies would still address most of the video needs of their consumers. However, if another store is primarily frequented by working adults who are busy till 6 pm, and who like to rent older movies for nostalgia’s sake, the new changes would be seriously detrimental to that store’s profits. Instead, a better solution would be opening the store later instead of closing earlier and maintain an older stock while being slower to buy new stock.

Secondly, are there other stores that can offer competition to Movies Galore outlets? If not, or if the prices of the other stores are significantly higher than Movies Galore, the owner’s objection to raising the rental prices is invalid, as customers would continue to frequent their stores even if prices were increased slightly. However, if it is a tight market with many competitors, the recommendation to reduce operational costs and maintain their reputation would be more valid.

Finally, what is the cause and severity of the recent profit decline? The owner claims the recommendation would “reverse” the decline, but if the cause is people switching from video rentals to online streaming, the profits are likely to continue to spiral downwards and this recommendation is only delaying the inevitable. Instead, it may be necessary to make major changes in the business direction, for example by diversifing Movie Galore’s offerings beyond videos or host community movie screenings. However, if the decline comes because of an economic recession for example, this recommendation would be very appropriate to boost profits and keep the business afloat in the time needed for the economy to pick up.

Therefore, the memorandum provides a logical recommendation, but with insufficient information to evaluate it. Further evaluation of whether the recommendation will be able to reverse the profit decline requires answers to questions concerning the cause and severity of the profit decline, details of the individual outlets’ customer bases, and knowledge of the level of competition to the various outlets.

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Essay Categories

GMAT/GRE Argument Task

Comments

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 487, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...n their reputation would be more valid. Finally, what is the cause and severity ...
^^^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, first, firstly, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, still, therefore, while, for example

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

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 27.0 19.6327345309 138% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 16.0 12.9520958084 124% => OK
Conjunction : 17.0 11.1786427146 152% => OK
Relative clauses : 8.0 13.6137724551 59% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 28.0 28.8173652695 97% => OK
Preposition: 62.0 55.5748502994 112% => OK
Nominalization: 20.0 16.3942115768 122% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2679.0 2260.96107784 118% => OK
No of words: 507.0 441.139720559 115% => OK
Chars per words: 5.28402366864 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.74517233601 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.89210528156 2.78398813304 104% => OK
Unique words: 257.0 204.123752495 126% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.506903353057 0.468620217663 108% => OK
syllable_count: 834.3 705.55239521 118% => 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: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 7.0 1.67365269461 418% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 28.0 22.8473053892 123% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 77.7724601357 57.8364921388 134% => OK
Chars per sentence: 148.833333333 119.503703932 125% => OK
Words per sentence: 28.1666666667 23.324526521 121% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.88888888889 5.70786347227 103% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 8.20758483034 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 0.0 6.88822355289 0% => 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: 0.268417824788 0.218282227539 123% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0960452253833 0.0743258471296 129% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0720316005178 0.0701772020484 103% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.162532619124 0.128457276422 127% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0658582938176 0.0628817314937 105% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.5 14.3799401198 122% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 43.06 48.3550499002 89% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.197005988 116% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.64 12.5979740519 108% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.35 8.32208582834 112% => OK
difficult_words: 139.0 98.500998004 141% => 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?

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Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 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, finally, first, firstly, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, still, therefore, while, for example

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