Last year PrepUp had record enrollment in their test prep courses, but yearly profits fell by nearly 30 percent. To the contrary, TopPreparation had comparable enrollment to the year be fore, with profits rising by approximately 20 percent. This discrepancy most likely results from the fact that PrepUp teaches only live, in-person classes, which require expensive rental spaces and teaching equipment. Although TopPreparation’s total enrollment remained unchanged, its online enrollment increased by 50 percent, and online classes have a much lower overhead. In order to address these issues of profitability in the coming year, PrepUp will begin offering online test prep courses.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether PrepUp’s plan for the coming year 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 plan.
PrepUp plans to introduce online test prep courses in the coming year, in an attempt to increase its profitability by bringing down operating costs. This is based on the expectation that compared to in-person classes, online courses will not require expensive rental spaces and teaching equipment. Further, this has been driven by the realization that while their profits declined despite record enrollment in the past year, a competitor's profit margin increased due to an increased in online enrollment while overall enrollment remained constant. To assess whether this plan, and the contention on which it is based, are reasonable, PrepUp must consider additional questions.
Most significantly, this argument has overlooked the infrastructure required to support online courses. How much will PrepUp need to invest in new infrastructure in order to provide virtual courses? If these courses will include lecture-style video lessons, it will require some teaching equipment as well as rental space. In addition, it will also require cameras, mics, sound systems, appropriate lighting, video editing, and high-speed broadband internet. If it includes fewer videos but other content, this may require an investment in production of content. Thus, it is important to measure the additional costs incurred to determine whether this plan will increase profitability.
On a related note, since TopPreparation's total enrollment remained the same, this means that enrollment for its in-person classes declined by 50%. However, PrepUp's plan doesn't consider how it can achieve a similar result. Therefore, its costs might be higher, including both the existing amount and the additional investment required.
Third, what kind of competition will PrepUp's virtual courses face? If there are several other established players, such as TopPreparation, who already command a significant portion of the market, a new entrant such as PrepUp may need to spend a significant amount of its resources on effective marketing. Similarly, its plan may then need to account for how PrepUp can ensure that the virtual courses it offers stand apart from existing ones. Not doing so may compromise the plan's chances of success, with no, or even a negative, impact on the company's profitability.
Finally, PrepUp must also consider pricing strategies. Is it possible that its profits might be boosted by increasing prices of existing courses instead of reinventing the wheel? Even if this isn't the case, by executing this plan, PrepUp would be offering both online and in-person courses. Both involve different types of costs. To maximize profits, PrepUp should develop pricing strategies for both courses that generate sufficient revenue to more than meet the costs.
Thus, while PrepUp's plan seems plausible, the evidence that has been provided doesn't entirely warrant this shift in product strategy. To ascertain whether this plan is in fact reasonable and will result in greater profits, it is important to answer additional questions such as the investment required to introduce the new courses, the competition in that product category, as well as company strategy.
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: 24 15
No. of Words: 486 350
No. of Characters: 2600 1500
No. of Different Words: 247 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.695 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.35 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.836 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 214 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 177 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 110 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 70 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.25 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.652 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.625 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.289 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.519 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.046 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 328, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...equipment. Further, this has been driven by the realization that while their prof...
^^
Line 9, column 170, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
... declined by 50%. However, PrepUps plan doesnt consider how it can achieve a similar r...
^^^^^^
Line 17, column 193, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: isn't
... of reinventing the wheel? Even if this isnt the case, by executing this plan, PrepU...
^^^^
Line 21, column 79, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...le, the evidence that has been provided doesnt entirely warrant this shift in product ...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, however, if, look, may, similarly, so, then, therefore, third, thus, well, while, apart from, as to, in addition, in fact, kind of, such as, as well as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 19.6327345309 66% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 23.0 12.9520958084 178% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 36.0 28.8173652695 125% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 56.0 55.5748502994 101% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2687.0 2260.96107784 119% => OK
No of words: 483.0 441.139720559 109% => OK
Chars per words: 5.56314699793 5.12650576532 109% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.68799114503 4.56307096286 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.88881238982 2.78398813304 104% => OK
Unique words: 251.0 204.123752495 123% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.51966873706 0.468620217663 111% => OK
syllable_count: 812.7 705.55239521 115% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 11.0 4.96107784431 222% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 4.0 8.76447105788 46% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 9.0 4.22255489022 213% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 54.4260296947 57.8364921388 94% => OK
Chars per sentence: 111.958333333 119.503703932 94% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.125 23.324526521 86% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.125 5.70786347227 125% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 1.0 6.88822355289 15% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 13.0 4.67664670659 278% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.169075034281 0.218282227539 77% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0470649476741 0.0743258471296 63% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0555986035103 0.0701772020484 79% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.09112342675 0.128457276422 71% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0746497421283 0.0628817314937 119% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.8 14.3799401198 103% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 42.72 48.3550499002 88% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.97 12.5979740519 119% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.34 8.32208582834 112% => OK
difficult_words: 144.0 98.500998004 146% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 15.0 11.9071856287 126% => 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.