The following is taken from a memo from the advertising director of the Super Screen Movie Production Company.
"According to a recent report from our marketing department, during the past year, fewer people attended Super Screen-produced movies than in any other year. And yet the percentage of positive reviews by movie reviewers about specific Super Screen movies actually increased during the past year. Clearly, the contents of these reviews are not reaching enough of our prospective viewers. Thus, the problem lies not with the quality of our movies but with the public's lack of awareness that movies of good quality are available. Super Screen should therefore allocate a greater share of its budget next year to reaching the public through advertising."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
The argument from a memo from the advertising director of the Super Screen Movie Production Company predicts that a increase in the company's advertising expenditure will result in an increase of the public's interest in their movies and hence help them garner greater amount of audiences. The argument seems plausible but is based on multiple faulty assumptions. The advertising director makes his prediction based on the assumptions that the public is oblivious to the positive reviews obtained by the movies from the company and if they can advertise them more, it is likely to receive greater attention from the public. Before we can accept the conclusion, we need to answer three questions.
To begin with, is the fewer number of people attending their movie shows due to the lack of knowledge about the positive reviews of their movies? Isn't it possible that the theatres where the movie was displayed was subpar in their hospitality to the audience? It is likely that the theatres were unmanaged with a lack of cleanliness in their hall or their services because of which people didn't want to attend the movie. Similarly, it is possible that the picture quality of the movie in the theatre was bad, and it made most people not attend such theatres altogether. If this question is answered, then we can determine if the reason people didn't attend such shows is due to the lack of knowledge about the positive reviews or not.
Secondly, How can the Super Screen's advertising director be so sure that there is no problem with the quality of their movies? Isn't the quality of a creation better judged by the audiences than the creator themselves? People are more likely to be biased about their creation and many times cannot accept that their creation is not good enough. Even if the movies are gettin better percentage of positive reviews by the reviewers, it cannot be said that a movie is great. Maybe, the movie has some cultural and traditional values, but it lacks in the qualities that mass population likes like maybe action or romance. This can explain why a few people watched the show as it was more catered towards a certain niche. So, if we can be sure that the quality of the movie is good, then we can be more sure that better advertising will help garner a greater audience.
Moreover, will allocating more budget towards the advertising department of the company necessarily mean that it will lead to a greater population. Even if they pour great amount of money in advertising, the people might be unknown to them, because they might be advertising in the wrong place. It is possible that the company advertises in relatively unknown websites or on the television when most people are asleep. So, even if they increase their advertisements it is likely that it will not reach the intended audience and consequently, lead to minimal improvement in the number of people, contradicting to their prediction. Hence, if the director makes sure to advertise in the correct means then the conclusion might hold water.
In conclusion, the argument as it stands now doesn't hold much water. The conclusion that a increase in advertising budget will increase the audience of the movie is based on fallacious reasoning and hence, cannot be readily accepted. If the director can research further to extend their argument, possibly as a detailed report, then the conclusion might be acceptable.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 24 15
No. of Words: 579 350
No. of Characters: 2778 1500
No. of Different Words: 228 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.905 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.798 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.631 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 200 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 144 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 108 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 59 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.125 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.328 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.708 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.3 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.512 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.121 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 116, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
... Movie Production Company predicts that a increase in the companys advertising ex...
^
Line 3, column 147, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: Isn't
...t the positive reviews of their movies? Isnt it possible that the theatres where the...
^^^^
Line 3, column 390, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: didn't
... their services because of which people didnt want to attend the movie. Similarly, it...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 644, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: didn't
...n we can determine if the reason people didnt attend such shows is due to the lack of...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 128, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: Isn't
...oblem with the quality of their movies? Isnt the quality of a creation better judged...
^^^^
Line 5, column 730, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...d towards a certain niche. So, if we can be sure that the quality of the movie i...
^^
Line 5, column 744, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...rtain niche. So, if we can be sure that the quality of the movie is good, then w...
^^
Line 7, column 16, Rule ID: DID_BASEFORM[1]
Message: The verb 'will' requires the base form of the verb: 'allocate'
Suggestion: allocate
...r a greater audience. Moreover, will allocating more budget towards the advertising dep...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 46, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...nclusion, the argument as it stands now doesnt hold much water. The conclusion that a ...
^^^^^^
Line 9, column 90, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
...nt hold much water. The conclusion that a increase in advertising budget will inc...
^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, consequently, hence, if, may, moreover, second, secondly, similarly, so, then, in conclusion, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 32.0 19.6327345309 163% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 22.0 12.9520958084 170% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 18.0 13.6137724551 132% => OK
Pronoun: 56.0 28.8173652695 194% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 66.0 55.5748502994 119% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2841.0 2260.96107784 126% => OK
No of words: 574.0 441.139720559 130% => OK
Chars per words: 4.94947735192 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.89472135074 4.56307096286 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.68609535059 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 237.0 204.123752495 116% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.412891986063 0.468620217663 88% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 884.7 705.55239521 125% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 9.0 2.70958083832 332% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 52.0059925767 57.8364921388 90% => OK
Chars per sentence: 118.375 119.503703932 99% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.9166666667 23.324526521 103% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.66666666667 5.70786347227 82% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 10.0 5.25449101796 190% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 17.0 8.20758483034 207% => Less positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => 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: 0.233155878697 0.218282227539 107% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0670472745291 0.0743258471296 90% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0763918968336 0.0701772020484 109% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.13185184879 0.128457276422 103% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0825733018537 0.0628817314937 131% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.8 14.3799401198 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 56.59 48.3550499002 117% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.73 12.5979740519 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.83 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 111.0 98.500998004 113% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 18.0 12.3882235529 145% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => 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.