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.
A memorandum from the owner of Movies Galore has stated that the movie-rental store has recently been facing a decline in their profits. In order to counter-act such a problem, the owner has suggested measures to reduce the operating costs, and has provided the example of a store in downtown Marston wherein the owner's suggested measures have been implemented. The owner is of the opinion that if such measures are implemented across all the Movies Galore stores, their profits will soon start to rise. The evidence provided by the owner seems legible at first glance, although a closer examination might unearth a few alternate possibilities, which might undermine the owner's position.
Firstly, the owner has suggested that operating cost of stores can be reduced by closing them at 6:00 P.M. rather than at 9:00 P.M. By closing the stores three hours earlier, thw owner thinks that the operating costs can be reduced without jeopardizing their position as a store which offers great movies at lower prices. Such a situation might hold true, but what if in other areas, where Movies Galore operates, people appraoch the store at later hours of the day? If such a measure is implemented, there will be a sense of resentment among it's customers as customers will not be able to buy the movies at time which is suitable for them. As a result, there is a likelihood that these people will approach another store to buy movies which would seriously hamper the profits of Movies Galore and undermine the owner's suugestion.
Secondly, the owner is of the opinion that stores should discard movies which have been released more than five years ago. The owner assumes that these movies will no longer be viewed by it's customers, and discarding these movies will help reduce operations cost. The owner has based such a suggestion on a wild assumption.
What if the people, in one of the areas where Movies Galore operates, have an inclination for old movies? If such a case appears, then it would be likely that these customers would be disappointed since Movies Galore does not have older movies anymore. As a result, the customers of Movies Galore will search for new stores where all sorts of movies are available. This situation would add to the woes, already faced by Movies Galore and it will call into question, the owner's suggested plan of action.
Lastly, the owner has failed to provide sufficient demographic data about the different areas where Movies Galore has it's movie rental stores. It could be possible that some areas where Movies Galore stores are situated do not bring any revenue to the company. It might be the case that the people in these areas prefer watching the movies on other online platforms. If such information is received from the demographic study, it would be ideal for the owner to shut down these stores. Such a situation might help the owner to direct resources to other stores which are doing better and it might be the case that the profits of Movies Galore returns, without having to cut operating costs.
In sum, the evidence provided by the arguer is incomplete and inconsequential. The evidence are dubious in nature and point towards various alternate possibilities. As a result, it cannot be categorically stated if the owner's new approach, to conter-act the declining profits will be successful.
Comments
e-rater score 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: 23 15
No. of Words: 565 350
No. of Characters: 2726 1500
No. of Different Words: 236 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.875 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.825 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.501 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 200 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 122 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 81 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 54 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.565 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.509 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.565 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.364 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.544 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.127 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 10, column 93, Rule ID: MASS_AGREEMENT[2]
Message: Possible agreement error - use third-person verb forms for singular and mass nouns: 'is'.
Suggestion: is
...plete and inconsequential. The evidence are dubious in nature and point towards var...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, firstly, if, lastly, second, secondly, so, then, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 25.0 12.9520958084 193% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 22.0 13.6137724551 162% => OK
Pronoun: 33.0 28.8173652695 115% => OK
Preposition: 58.0 55.5748502994 104% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 16.3942115768 98% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2787.0 2260.96107784 123% => OK
No of words: 563.0 441.139720559 128% => OK
Chars per words: 4.95026642984 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.87110059796 4.56307096286 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.57817095557 2.78398813304 93% => OK
Unique words: 241.0 204.123752495 118% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.428063943162 0.468620217663 91% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 875.7 705.55239521 124% => 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: 13.0 8.76447105788 148% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 22.8473053892 105% => OK
Sentence length SD: 53.9809180036 57.8364921388 93% => OK
Chars per sentence: 121.173913043 119.503703932 101% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.4782608696 23.324526521 105% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.13043478261 5.70786347227 55% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
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: 0.422394537109 0.218282227539 194% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.153562134821 0.0743258471296 207% => Sentence topic similarity is high.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.107328243259 0.0701772020484 153% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.247833650462 0.128457276422 193% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.10146207734 0.0628817314937 161% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.1 14.3799401198 98% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 47.12 48.3550499002 97% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.197005988 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.73 12.5979740519 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.08 8.32208582834 97% => OK
difficult_words: 116.0 98.500998004 118% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 11.1389221557 104% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => 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.