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, a chain movie-rental store states that because of the decline in profit, the store will reduce its overall inventory by no longer stocking any DVD more than five years ago and will also cut its operating hours. However, to properly evaluate the strength of this argument, three questions must be answered.
First of all, will it be reasonable to make generalizations on all the stores based on the location of the downtown store, where closing as early as 6pm will reduce the expenses? Perhaps other stores are situated in places where the most number of customers frequent the rental store after work which is between5p-6pm, in other words the business thrives at such hours when workers are returning home and stop by the rental shop. whereas, the downtown store may be located in a rural area,and is expected to have lesser number of people frequenting the store at the close of business for the day, where the residents just go back home. if this is the case, then this greatly weakens the argument of the store owner.
Secondly, how does cutting down the the overall inventory by no longer stocking the movie store with movies more than five years ago help with the profit? The store owner assumes prematurely, that by no longer stocking the store with old movies will enhance his profit. Perhaps the reason why the shop was
frequently visited,was due to the availability of movies over 5years ago, films such as sound of music, grease 1& 2, merlin, Gossip girl and so on. If the above stated is true, then the argument of the author does not hold water.
Thirdly, does the new policy adopted by all the movie galore stores actually affect the customers or the store itself? Since there are very few customer complaints about this new policy, does that necessarily mean the clients are satisfied with the service rendered them by the store? It is possible that the customers who rent movies from the store are not bothered about the new policy the store has now embraced because there are other rental shops in the neighbourhood where they can actually get quality services. If the above is true, this means that the authors argument is significantly weak.
In conclusion, as it stands now, the argument is considerably flawed, due to the reliance on various unwarranted assumptions. If the author is able to answer the three questions above by providing more evidence to back up his assumptions, perhaps in the form of a research study, then it will be possible to make a better decision.
Comments
Essay evaluation 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: 16 15
No. of Words: 440 350
No. of Characters: 2055 1500
No. of Different Words: 218 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.58 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.67 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.44 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 136 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 92 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 65 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 30 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 27.5 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 19.026 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.75 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.338 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.627 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.092 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 431, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Whereas
...rning home and stop by the rental shop. whereas, the downtown store may be located in ...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 452, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...y the rental shop. whereas, the downtown store may be located in a rural area,and...
^^
Line 5, column 490, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma
Suggestion: , and
...wn store may be located in a rural area,and is expected to have lesser number of pe...
^^^^
Line 5, column 560, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...r number of people frequenting the store at the close of business for the day, w...
^^
Line 5, column 599, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...e at the close of business for the day, where the residents just go back home. i...
^^
Line 5, column 640, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: If
... where the residents just go back home. if this is the case, then this greatly wea...
^^
Line 9, column 33, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: the
...r. Secondly, how does cutting down the the overall inventory by no longer stocking...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 33, Rule ID: DT_DT[1]
Message: Maybe you need to remove one determiner so that only 'the' or 'the' is left.
Suggestion: the; the
...r. Secondly, how does cutting down the the overall inventory by no longer stocking...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 306, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...fit. Perhaps the reason why the shop was frequently visited,was due to the avail...
^^^^
Line 11, column 2, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Frequently
...Perhaps the reason why the shop was frequently visited,was due to the availability of ...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 11, column 20, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma
Suggestion: , was
... why the shop was frequently visited,was due to the availability of movies over ...
^^^^
Line 15, column 562, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
... the above is true, this means that the authors argument is significantly weak. I...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, first, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, third, thirdly, whereas, in conclusion, such as, first of all, in other words
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 12.9520958084 69% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 11.1786427146 45% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 21.0 28.8173652695 73% => OK
Preposition: 57.0 55.5748502994 103% => 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: 2126.0 2260.96107784 94% => OK
No of words: 438.0 441.139720559 99% => OK
Chars per words: 4.85388127854 5.12650576532 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.57476223824 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.52751687812 2.78398813304 91% => OK
Unique words: 228.0 204.123752495 112% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.520547945205 0.468620217663 111% => OK
syllable_count: 660.6 705.55239521 94% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 19.7664670659 81% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 27.0 22.8473053892 118% => OK
Sentence length SD: 59.4390444069 57.8364921388 103% => OK
Chars per sentence: 132.875 119.503703932 111% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.375 23.324526521 117% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.125 5.70786347227 160% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 12.0 5.25449101796 228% => Less language errors wanted.
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.166732273794 0.218282227539 76% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0561230650703 0.0743258471296 76% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0631303905021 0.0701772020484 90% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0937030735703 0.128457276422 73% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0703227991495 0.0628817314937 112% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.1 14.3799401198 105% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 52.53 48.3550499002 109% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.6 12.197005988 103% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.15 12.5979740519 89% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.33 8.32208582834 100% => OK
difficult_words: 93.0 98.500998004 94% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.8 11.1389221557 115% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => 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.