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.
My Response: The given argument prompt states that in order to prevent the decline in the profit of Movies Galore, they must reduce the operating expenses at Movie Galore's ten movie-rental stores. The owner of the Company thinks that raising their rental prices won't help and he suggests to close all stores at 6.00 P.M. instead of 9.00 P.M. and to eliminate all movies released more than five years ago as they have got positive result implementing these particular plans in one of their stores. Stated like this, the argument at the first sight seems quite convincing but a closer scrutiny reveals a number of loopholes in the argument. The given reasoning has failed to take into account some important factors.
First of all, the argument readily assumes that closing the store at 6 P.M. will reduce the cost of operating expenses of the stores. It works for one of the stores does not mean that it will work out for every store of Movie Galore's. What if the people of the city where a particular store is located remains busy at daytime and intend to shop after they are finished with their office work? If it is the case, the store will clearly fail to serve a lot of customers and consequently, it will hurt the business of the company. Moreover, the parameters on which the cost of the operation of the stores depends are not clearly mentioned. So, it cannot be a feasible solution to stop the decline in the profits of the company. The argument could have been much clearer if the owner of the company had mentioned of the usual shopping hours of the customers of every particular place and explicitly mentioned the parameters of quantifying the operating cost of the stores.
Secondly, the owner of the company has mentioned that their store in downtown Marston has reduced it's operating cost by eliminating all movies released more than five years ago and so he has suggested that by doing the same in others stores will also bring the same result. This is again a very weak and unsupported claim. The people of downtown Marston and the people of other cities are not the same. So, the taste of movies of the people in various places may significantly vary from one place to another. The suggested plan came out to be successful in downtown Marston does not mean that it will also bring the same result for all the stores located at various locations. What if the people of other locations like the movies that are released five years ago? What if they have a lot of cultural gap with the people of downtown Marston? So, one general solution for all places may not be successful.
Finally, the owner has wrongly generalized the case in the given argument. The general solutions he has mentioned may not work for all places. If he offers a general solution here, at first, he has to give enough information which in particular, shows the comparison of the taste of movies of the people, cultural similarities or dissimilarities of the people of various places where the shops of the company are located. Moreover, there may be other solutions to the given problem of the company such as reducing the number of employees, raising the rental prices to a tolerable limit etc. The owner should have mentioned the alternative solutions and compared the effectiveness of all the solutions including the suggested solutions in the arguments. Only then the owner can decide on the issue.
In conclusion, the argument is flawed for the above-mentioned reasons and therefore unconvincing. It could be considerably strengthened it the author clearly mentioned all the relevant factors.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- duplicated to argument 1
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also need to argue:
Since we are famous for our special bargains, raising our rental prices is not a viable way to improve profits.
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 02
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 25 15
No. of Words: 619 350
No. of Characters: 2924 1500
No. of Different Words: 241 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.988 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.724 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.562 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 203 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 146 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 99 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 62 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.76 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 14.722 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.76 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.309 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.507 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.106 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 280, Rule ID: ADMIT_ENJOY_VB[1]
Message: This verb is used with the gerund form: 'suggests closing'.
Suggestion: suggests closing
...ng their rental prices wont help and he suggests to close all stores at 6.00 P.M. instead of 9.00...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, consequently, finally, first, if, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, as to, in conclusion, in particular, such as, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 15.0 19.6327345309 76% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 16.0 12.9520958084 124% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 34.0 28.8173652695 118% => OK
Preposition: 85.0 55.5748502994 153% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 16.3942115768 73% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2987.0 2260.96107784 132% => OK
No of words: 618.0 441.139720559 140% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.83333333333 5.12650576532 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.98594081286 4.56307096286 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.62515257516 2.78398813304 94% => OK
Unique words: 254.0 204.123752495 124% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.411003236246 0.468620217663 88% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 951.3 705.55239521 135% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 4.96107784431 161% => OK
Article: 15.0 8.76447105788 171% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 27.0 19.7664670659 137% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 70.718088287 57.8364921388 122% => OK
Chars per sentence: 110.62962963 119.503703932 93% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.8888888889 23.324526521 98% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.81481481481 5.70786347227 102% => OK
Paragraphs: 7.0 5.15768463074 136% => Less paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 12.0 6.88822355289 174% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.192803565511 0.218282227539 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0534208290551 0.0743258471296 72% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0925272595693 0.0701772020484 132% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.102127887817 0.128457276422 80% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.085802913755 0.0628817314937 136% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.8 14.3799401198 89% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 57.61 48.3550499002 119% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.03 12.5979740519 88% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.64 8.32208582834 92% => OK
difficult_words: 114.0 98.500998004 116% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 18.5 12.3882235529 149% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Maximum six paragraphs wanted.
Rates: 62.5 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.75 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.