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.
The author concludes that by reducing the operating expenses of ten of their movie rental stores. they can stop the recent decline of their profits. Further, implementing the same strategy as that of the store in downtown Marston can ensure an increase in profits, without jeopardizing their reputation for offering great movies at low prices. Although the cited pieces of evidence seem logical and probable, the conclusion relies on certain doubtful assumptions that do not lend credible support for the argument. Hence, the argument seems logically unconvincing in several aspects.
Firstly, the author does not provide sufficient information about the number of stores present in their chain of movie stores. The author assumes that reduces the operating expenses at only 10 movie-rental stores can stop the declining profits. Perhaps, all of their stores require reducing operating costs to ensure effective results. If they choose to reduce the expenses of the stores that contribute more in bringing profits to the company then that will exacerbate the existing situation. To strengthen the argument the author should have provided additional information about the number of stores that they own as well as what type of stores are selected for reducing the operating expenses.
In addition to this, the author assumes that making the condition and circumstances of all the stores as similar to that of the store in downtown Marston. Therefore, he believes that making similar changes in all the stores can ensure an increase in the overall profits. Perhaps in downtown Marston, people have healthy habits of sleeping early in the night and therefore prefer to visit any store in the morning or afternoon. Therefore, it would be prudent for the store to close by 6 p.m instead of 9 p.m as the number of customers visiting the store after 6 p.m would be very less. But the similar conditions cannot be applied to all other stores because, in some stores, the people would prefer visiting the stores at night after they have completed with their job-related activities in the day. Thus closing the shop early, could result in a decline in profits and thus the purpose of the argument would be undermined.
Finally, the author assumes that discarding all movies that are release five years ago could reduce the operating expenses and increase profits. However, perhaps customers of the majority of the stores, like to watch old movies and find the latest movies, dull. In this case, discarding all the movies that were released five years ago could worsen the situation and lead to more decline in profits. To prove the validity of the argument, the author should provide additional information about the likings of the customers that are visiting their stores.
To sum up, the argument consists of some obvious fallacies and loopholes. To strengthen the argument, the author should provide additional information such as the number of stores they own, or the type of customers that are visiting their stores as well as their likings. But, in the absence of this data, the argument relies on some doubtful assumptions that render it unconvincing as it stands.
In
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 11 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 3 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 521 350
No. of Characters: 2593 1500
No. of Different Words: 210 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.778 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.977 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.566 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 214 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 152 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 96 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 51 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.652 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.207 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.652 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.369 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.562 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.13 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 64, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...at by reducing the operating expenses of ten of their movie rental stores. they c...
^^
Line 1, column 100, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: They
...s of ten of their movie rental stores. they can stop the recent decline of their pr...
^^^^
Line 3, column 340, 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.
...ting costs to ensure effective results. If they choose to reduce the expenses of ...
^^
Line 3, column 357, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ure effective results. If they choose to reduce the expenses of the stores that c...
^^
Line 5, column 664, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ied to all other stores because, in some stores, the people would prefer visiting...
^^
Line 9, column 75, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...f some obvious fallacies and loopholes. To strengthen the argument, the author sho...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, first, firstly, hence, however, if, so, then, therefore, thus, well, in addition, such as, as well as, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 9.0 19.6327345309 46% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 16.0 12.9520958084 124% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 37.0 28.8173652695 128% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 73.0 55.5748502994 131% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2668.0 2260.96107784 118% => OK
No of words: 517.0 441.139720559 117% => OK
Chars per words: 5.16054158607 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.76839952204 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.58166527005 2.78398813304 93% => OK
Unique words: 220.0 204.123752495 108% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.425531914894 0.468620217663 91% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 824.4 705.55239521 117% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 10.0 4.22255489022 237% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 42.51942734 57.8364921388 74% => OK
Chars per sentence: 116.0 119.503703932 97% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.4782608696 23.324526521 96% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.47826086957 5.70786347227 96% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 8.20758483034 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.257759633869 0.218282227539 118% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0894449839362 0.0743258471296 120% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0859846837474 0.0701772020484 123% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.156708588599 0.128457276422 122% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0884942769383 0.0628817314937 141% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.1 14.3799401198 98% => 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: 12.94 12.5979740519 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.18 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 113.0 98.500998004 115% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 12.3882235529 69% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => 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.