"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.
The argument above is well-presented and appears to be relatively sound at first glance: since Regal Books has opened a café to attract more customers, it seems reasonable for Monarch to follow the step of Regal to compete with it. However, as more light is shed on the issue and more detailed facts are concerned, the lack of questions leads me to question the validity of the argument.
First, the author needs to answer the question whether the result of national consensus can be taken at face value. Since the percentage of population under age ten has declined, the author hastily believes the total number of population in this age range has also reduced. However, it is possible that the percentage has decreased because the number of population over age ten has increased at an exponential rate, although the actual number of children stays constant. In such a case, it would be far-fetched to argue that the children’s book section in Monarch Books will no longer popular in the future. Even if the number of children under ten has decreased, it does not represent that the sales of children’s book will decline in the near future. Therefore, more information is necessary to verify the credibility of the national consensus.
Another question the author needs to answer is whether opening a café at the expense of children’s book section will result in increased number of customers in Monarch Books. It should be noted that a myriad of customers might come to Monarch since it is well known for a wide selection of books on all subjects. If the store no longer have children’s books, it may be plausible that many customers who would come for children’s books will stop coming to the store. If this would be the case, it would be hard to argue that Monarch Books will attract more customers in the near future. Therefore, the author should consider the drawbacks of opening a café.
Lastly, the soundness of the recommendation that Monarch should open a café to better compete with Regal Books is another question the author should provide. Without further information on the success of Regal Books, the author simply claims that a café in a bookstore will yield a myriad of benefits to Monarch. However, in all likelihood, opening a café at Regal Books were not successful since customers prefer bookstores with a wide array of books, therefore, following this change will take a toll on Monarch Books. Thus, the author should supplement more information whether a café in Regal was a successful strategy to attract customers.
In conclusion, the argument is not cogent in many respects. To bolster the argument, the author should corroborate the soundness of the national consensus, provide the effectiveness of a café in a store, and validity of the recommendation.
- The following appeared in an editorial in a business magazine."Although the sales of Whirlwind video games have declined over the past two years, a recent survey of video-game players suggests that this sales trend is about to be reversed. The survey aske 70
- A recent study reported that pet owners have longer, healthier lives on average than do people who own no pets. Specifically, dog owners tend to have a lower incidence of heart disease. In light of these findings, Sherwood Hospital should form a partnersh 70
- The following appeared in a letter to the editor of Parson City's local newspaper."In our region of Trillura, the majority of money spent on the schools that most students attend—the city-run public schools—comes from taxes that each city government colle 80
- Collectors prize the ancient life-size clay statues of human figures made on Kali Island but have long wondered how Kalinese artists were able to depict bodies with such realistic precision. Since archaeologists have recently discovered molds of human hea 70
- The following appeared in a memo from a vice president of Quiot Manufacturing."During the past year, Quiot Manufacturing had 30 percent more on- the-job accidents than at the nearby Panoply Industries plant, where the work shifts are one hour shorter than 60
----------------
argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- OK
----------------
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 5.0 out of 6
Category: Very Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 469 350
No. of Characters: 2264 1500
No. of Different Words: 185 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.654 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.827 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.671 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 165 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 122 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 83 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 57 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.684 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.32 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.789 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.355 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.572 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.113 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5