The following appeared as part of a business plan developed by the manager of the Rialto Movie Theater.
"Despite its downtown location, the Rialto Movie Theater, a local institution for five decades, must make big changes or close its doors forever. It should follow the example of the new Apex Theater in the mall outside of town. When the Apex opened last year, it featured a video arcade, plush carpeting and seats, and a state-of-the-art sound system. Furthermore, in a recent survey, over 85 percent of respondents reported that the high price of newly released movies prevents them from going to the movies more than five times per year. Thus, if the Rialto intends to hold on to its share of a decreasing pool of moviegoers, it must offer the same features as Apex."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
It might seem logical, at first glance, to agree with the claim regarding business strategy by manager of Rialto Movie Theater that it would be profitable either to shut it down or it is in dire need of making modifications from financial point of view considering the competition with Apex Theater that uses ultra-modern techniques, as well as with assessing a decline rate in the people going to theatres to watch movie. The recommendation assures that this would enable the Rialto Movie Theater to have strong grounding in comparison with Apex Theater and to tempt more customers. However, a closer scrutiny presents a number of loopholes which render this argument unconvincing and the argument could end up much weaker than it seems. So we need to analyze the evidences and the conclusion provided.
Foremost the location attribute of both the places cast utmost impact on the viewers and this has been ignored throughout the discussion. Apex Theater is located outside the town while Rialto Movie Theater is in the downtown region. People might be tempted to Apex Theater's new architecture, latest light and sound system, yet they need to visit downtown more often for shopping purposes and during that period of time, they might be willing to visit a theatre near-by in spite of travelling out of city. In that case, people might be having an affinity towards the previous style for last five decades that is simple and sober; any changes in which might reduce their interest in the theatre. Had the study been conducted on liking of the type of facilities available as deemed by the public, any recommendation regarding emulating the Apex might hold valid and genuine.
Furthermore, the study relies on a survey conducted to enquire about their theatre visiting habits, yet the base value of how many people have been surveyed is not given. Moreover, figure has been given about the respondents; what if 1000 persons have been enquired and out of those 100 replied to it, then this 85 percent won't present the whole population. Thus, on quantitative grounds, the recommendation lacks its validity.
Last but most important of all, the comparison done between the Rialto Movie Theater and Apex theatre doesn't seem feasible, as nothing in the information provides evidence about people's liking or inclination towards Apex as compared to Rialto or high sales or profit-margins by Apex. In such a situation, to deduce that amendments in the existing structure and furniture of Rialto might attract better customers is spurious.
In a nutshell it could be stated that argument needs to have additional evidences in order to get a more complete understanding of the scenario. Had the above stated facts been provided, the recommendation would have been more persuasive.
argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- not OK
argument 3 -- same as argument 1
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Need to analyze the structure of the statement and argue accordingly:
condition 1:
It should follow the example of the new Apex Theater in the mall outside of town. When the Apex opened last year, it featured a video arcade, plush carpeting and seats, and a state-of-the-art sound system.
//1. maybe Apex is not successful. The net profit of Apex might be so low that makes Apex’s investment unjustifiable. 2. maybe other reasons make it successful 3. It can't apply to Rialto as told in your argument 1 because of different location
condition 2:
Furthermore, in a recent survey, over 85 percent of respondents reported that the high price of newly released movies prevents them from going to the movies more than five times per year.
//You have to accept it is true. Suppose there are 100 people in the survey, 15 people will keep watching movies 5 times or more, 85 people will watch movies less than 5 times. The important thing is: how many people like Apex style, and how many like Rialto style. if only 5 people like Apex style while 80 people like Rialto style, the shift to Apex style will be a big loss.
conclusion:
Thus, if the Rialto intends to hold on to its share of a decreasing pool of moviegoers, it must offer the same features as Apex.
//your argument 1
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Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
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No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
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No. of Words: 458 350
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Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.626 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.978 4.6
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No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 50 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
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Sentence Length SD: 15.321 7.5
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Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.314 0.35
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Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.078 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5