The following is a recommendation from the Board of Directors of Monarch Books.
"We recommend that Monarch Books open a café in its store. Monarch, having been in business at the same location for more than twenty years, has a large customer base because it is known for its wide selection of books on all subjects. Clearly, opening the café would attract more customers. Space could be made for the café by discontinuing the children's book section, which will probably become less popular given that the most recent national census indicated a significant decline in the percentage of the population under age ten. Opening a café will allow Monarch to attract more customers and better compete with Regal Books, which recently opened its own café."
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.
While opening a café seems like a valuable addition to the bookstore on the outside, the recommendation presented makes assumptions and raises a few unanswered questions, thereby failing to put forward a cogent argument. The answers to these questions may expostulate the viability of a café in the store and may affect the predicted result.
The authors believe that the opening of a café and the popularity of the bookstore are directly related. They have failed to provide a strong reasoning for the same, and hence it is most likely a presumption on their part. This presumption raises the following questions. What is the basis of such declaration? Has there been a survey conducted for the same? If yes, how many customers participated in the survey? The answers to these questions can significantly alter the belief that the bookstore’s popularity and opening a café are congruous.
Additionally, the recommendation claims that the bookstore has a large customer base owing to the wide selection of books on all subjects. In that case, is it wise to discontinue the children’s book section? Is the role of selling of children’s books comparatively insignificant in revenue generation for the store? What percentage of customers buy children’s books, is it on a decline? While it may be true that there has been a significant decline in the percentage of population aged under ten nationwide, but does that apply to the store’s vicinity as well? Another presumption worth mentioning here is that the authors believe that children’s books are read by children aged ten or below only. They can be read by children aged above ten and adults as well. The board of directors should also consider the point that by discontinuing the children’s books section, there is a possibility that they may lose some of their customers to other bookstores in the area.
Before declaring the relevance of a café in the bookstore, there are a few more questions that need to be answered. Based on the recent profits incurred, is it optimal to invest in a café? After the opening of the café, it might not prove to be a juggernaut with the customers straightaway, how will that affect the revenue of the store? It is also significant to find out the average amount of time a customer spends in the store. Does he like to peruse through the collections, or does he purchase books and leave? After the café is opened, the customers might spend relatively more time in the store, albeit it might not necessarily result in higher purchase.
In conclusion, something that works well for Regal Books may not necessarily work for Monarch Books and therefore it is crucial that a recommendation/decision be made that is backed by solid data. Feedback should be acquired from the customers based on which, the Board of Directors can bolster their argument with solid facts and empirical data and accordingly recommend the best course of action. Currently the recommendation is rife with assumptions and unanswered questions.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 26 15
No. of Words: 502 350
No. of Characters: 2452 1500
No. of Different Words: 227 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.733 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.884 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.896 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 159 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 130 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 98 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 79 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.308 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.462 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.385 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.271 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.471 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.07 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Transition Words or Phrases used:
accordingly, also, but, hence, if, may, so, therefore, well, while, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.6327345309 127% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.9520958084 116% => OK
Conjunction : 14.0 11.1786427146 125% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 35.0 28.8173652695 121% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 70.0 55.5748502994 126% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2567.0 2260.96107784 114% => OK
No of words: 501.0 441.139720559 114% => OK
Chars per words: 5.12375249501 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.73107062784 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.20196885858 2.78398813304 115% => OK
Unique words: 235.0 204.123752495 115% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.469061876248 0.468620217663 100% => OK
syllable_count: 800.1 705.55239521 113% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 26.0 19.7664670659 132% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 52.4011749496 57.8364921388 91% => OK
Chars per sentence: 98.7307692308 119.503703932 83% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.2692307692 23.324526521 83% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.11538461538 5.70786347227 55% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 8.20758483034 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 11.0 4.67664670659 235% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.267135336719 0.218282227539 122% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0656091578191 0.0743258471296 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0423745270656 0.0701772020484 60% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.135860648385 0.128457276422 106% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0430052587099 0.0628817314937 68% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.3 14.3799401198 86% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 52.19 48.3550499002 108% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.42 12.5979740519 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.42 8.32208582834 101% => OK
difficult_words: 122.0 98.500998004 124% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => 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.