"Since its opening in Collegeville twenty years ago, Monarch Books has developed a large customer base due to its reader-friendly atmosphere and wide selection of books on all subjects. Last month, Book and Bean, a combination bookstore and coffee shop, announced its intention to open a Collegeville store. Monarch Books should open its own in-store café in the space currently devoted to children's books. Given recent national census data indicating a significant decline in the percentage of the population under age ten, sales of children's books are likely to decline. By replacing its children's books section with a café, Monarch Books can increase profits and ward off competition from Book and Bean."
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.
The business manager of Monarch books recommends that in order to increase profits and evade competition from Book and Bean, Monarch Books should replace their children’s book section with a café. The manager came to the conclusion based on the opening of a new bookstore with a combined coffee shop and the national consensus showing a decline of children under the age of ten. However, in order to validate the recommendation, the unstated assumptions must be examined. If the assumptions are unsubstantiated, then the recommendation is unwarranted and the entire argument falls apart.
Firstly, the manager assumes that Book and Bean’s combined bookstore and coffee shop attracts more customers. The manager relies on the assumption that more customers will be attracted to a coffee shop and therefore the manager should install a coffee shop to attract more customers. However, it could be that Book and Bean are attracting more customers because the people in the area are coffee drinkers. If this is the case, then the manager must provide evidence that people in the area of Monarch books are coffee lovers. If not, the addition of a coffee shop would not attract customers. Additionally, it could be that Book and Bean are attracting more customers due to its newly installed bookstore that may be spacious and clean for the customer attraction. If this is true, then the author installing a new coffee shop would ultimately backfire and not attract customers. The author would need to provide evidence indicating that Book and Bean attracted customers solely due to a coffee shop.
Secondly, the author assumes that no one would be interested in purchasing children books in the future. The author provides the premise of a national consensus that indicates a decline in the children population under age ten. However, it could be that the decline is only for that year, whereas in the future an increase is likely to happen. If that is the case, then the manager’s removal of the children’s section would harm future profits. Additionally, it could be that while there is a decline in the children population, it does not necessarily mean children’s books are likely to decline in profits. In other words, it could be that adults are still interested in chershing and reading children’s books during their leisure time. If that is true, then the manager could be losing potential profit. To avoid this, the author would need to demonstrate evidence of the declining population and a survey showing if customers are interested in children’s books regardless of their age.
Lastly, the manager assumes that a coffee shop would increase profits. However, it could be that a coffee shop would harm the business of Monarch Books. Perhaps, many customers enjoy coming to Monarch books for the reader-friendly atmosphere and wide selection of books. If a coffee shop is added, it would create noise and distraction that may shew customers away. Additionally, it may eliminate its customer attractive feature of having a wide array of books when the children's section is removed. On the other hand, it could be noted that many customers are not coffee drinkers. Therefore, the store would not gain any profit. If the aforementioned possibilities were to be true, then the author would not gain profit, but lose profit and large customer base. To avoid this, the manager should provide a survey that shows whether customers are interested in a coffee shop or not.
In conclusion, the argument is rife with a number of unstated and unaddressed assumptions. The manager must provide substantial evidence to enhance the recommendation, such as a clear analysis of the national consensus and surveys of public opinion. If not, the manager could be losing profit and potential customers by taking the wrong measures.
Comments
e-rater score 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: 32 15
No. of Words: 626 350
No. of Characters: 3120 1500
No. of Different Words: 212 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.002 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.984 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.746 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 232 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 178 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 117 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 80 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.562 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.031 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.812 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.327 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.327 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.107 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, firstly, however, if, lastly, may, second, secondly, so, still, then, therefore, whereas, while, in conclusion, such as, in other words, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 36.0 19.6327345309 183% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 32.0 12.9520958084 247% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 22.0 11.1786427146 197% => OK
Relative clauses : 22.0 13.6137724551 162% => OK
Pronoun: 40.0 28.8173652695 139% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 59.0 55.5748502994 106% => OK
Nominalization: 22.0 16.3942115768 134% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3208.0 2260.96107784 142% => OK
No of words: 626.0 441.139720559 142% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.12460063898 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.00199880112 4.56307096286 110% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.86284265735 2.78398813304 103% => OK
Unique words: 222.0 204.123752495 109% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.354632587859 0.468620217663 76% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 997.2 705.55239521 141% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 4.96107784431 202% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 16.0 8.76447105788 183% => OK
Subordination: 9.0 2.70958083832 332% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 32.0 19.7664670659 162% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 36.8807198954 57.8364921388 64% => OK
Chars per sentence: 100.25 119.503703932 84% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.5625 23.324526521 84% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.1875 5.70786347227 91% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 21.0 8.20758483034 256% => Less positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => 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: 0.274683797379 0.218282227539 126% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0845251152013 0.0743258471296 114% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0800013461898 0.0701772020484 114% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.160706188416 0.128457276422 125% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0961480605159 0.0628817314937 153% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.5 14.3799401198 87% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 52.19 48.3550499002 108% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.42 12.5979740519 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.45 8.32208582834 90% => OK
difficult_words: 114.0 98.500998004 116% => 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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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.