The following appeared in a memorandum from the owner of Movies Galore, a chain of movie-rental stores.
"Because of declining profits, we must reduce operating expenses at Movies Galore's ten movie-rental stores. Raising prices is not a good option, since we are famous for our low prices. Instead, we should reduce our operating hours. Last month our store in downtown Marston reduced its hours by closing at 6:00 p.m. rather than 9:00 p.m. and reduced its overall inventory by no longer stocking any DVD released more than five years ago. Since we have received very few customer complaints about these new policies, we should now adopt them at all other Movies Galore stores as our best strategies for improving profits."
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
Owner of Movies Galore stated that because of the declining profit their movie-rental stores will operate till 6.00p.m rather than 9.00pm in hope of improving profits. The owner has come to this conclusion based on number of complaints they received regarding new policies they implemented in one of their store. This argument is flawed in several critical respects.
Firstly, Does fewer complaints imply better policy? Fewer complaints does not necessarily make the policies better for two reasons. First, Overall people visiting the store might be declining hence less people are aware about the new policies. Owner has failed to provide evidence regarding no of customers the store has witnessed after the implementation of new policies. Secondly, Not all people might take time out to complaint about new policies. Few people might check the store and if they didn’t find what they were looking for they might just buy it from another store. If the owner provides feedback of all their preexisting customers regarding the new policies it would help evaluate the policy better.
Secondly, Is the situation similar for other movie rental stores? Author has failed to examine the market perspective regarding renting movies from stores. It might be possible that nowadays people prefer watching movies from online platforms rather than renting it from stores. For instance, due to ongoing pandemic people are reluctant to go outside their house due to which trend for online platforms has culminated. If there is a shift in market perspective then the owner has to adopt a new strategy in order to increase sales.
Thirdly, Has people stopped watching old DVD’s? Author prematurely assume that people would prefer new latest DVD’s over old DVD’s but failed to provide any evidence that would bolster the assumption.
Younger generation might prefer new DVD’s to keep up with the trend but elderly people might still opt for older DVD’s as that would remind them of their old days. A proper analysis regarding the number of DVD’s stores has sold that were released more than five years ago in past few months would help evaluate the trend better.
In conclusion, the argument is based on several unwarranted assumptions. If owner is able to answer the above mentioned questions through proper research and surveys it would help evaluate the new policies better.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 9 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 387 350
No. of Characters: 1944 1500
No. of Different Words: 204 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.435 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.023 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.407 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 146 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 94 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 69 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 36 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.35 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.478 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.8 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.322 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.322 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.109 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 199, Rule ID: FEWER_LESS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'fewer'? The noun people is countable.
Suggestion: fewer
...ting the store might be declining hence less people are aware about the new policies...
^^^^
Line 2, column 292, Rule ID: NOW[2]
Message: Did you mean 'now' (=at this moment) instead of 'no' (negation)?
Suggestion: now
...as failed to provide evidence regarding no of customers the store has witnessed af...
^^
Line 2, column 579, 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.
...y might just buy it from another store. If the owner provides feedback of all thei...
^^
Line 3, column 420, 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.
...nd for online platforms has culminated. If there is a shift in market perspective ...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, firstly, hence, if, look, regarding, second, secondly, so, still, then, third, thirdly, as to, for instance, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 11.0 19.6327345309 56% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 11.1786427146 36% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 7.0 13.6137724551 51% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 24.0 28.8173652695 83% => OK
Preposition: 52.0 55.5748502994 94% => OK
Nominalization: 9.0 16.3942115768 55% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1998.0 2260.96107784 88% => OK
No of words: 383.0 441.139720559 87% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.21671018277 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.42384287591 4.56307096286 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.47762107006 2.78398813304 89% => OK
Unique words: 193.0 204.123752495 95% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.503916449086 0.468620217663 108% => OK
syllable_count: 596.7 705.55239521 85% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 4.96107784431 40% => OK
Article: 3.0 8.76447105788 34% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 22.8473053892 79% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 39.2875901428 57.8364921388 68% => OK
Chars per sentence: 95.1428571429 119.503703932 80% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.2380952381 23.324526521 78% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.38095238095 5.70786347227 112% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
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: 0.165110864547 0.218282227539 76% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0568297318383 0.0743258471296 76% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0941107171016 0.0701772020484 134% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0895298699116 0.128457276422 70% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0981195852501 0.0628817314937 156% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.3 14.3799401198 86% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 53.21 48.3550499002 110% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 12.197005988 84% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.0 12.5979740519 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.24 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 90.0 98.500998004 91% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 6.5 12.3882235529 52% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.1389221557 83% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 75.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.5 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.