The following appeared in a memo from the marketing director of Top Dog Pet Stores.
"Five years ago Fish Emporium started advertising in the magazine Exotic Pets Monthly. Their stores saw sales increase by 15 percent after their ads began appearing in the magazine. The three Fish Emporium stores in Gulf City saw an even greater increase than that. Because Top Dog Pet Stores is based in Gulf City, it seems clear that we should start placing our own ads in Exotic Pets Monthly. If we do so, we will be sure to reverse the recent trend of declining sales and start making a profit again."
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.
In the memo from the marketing director of Top Dog Pet Stores, the author assumes that by placing ads in the monthly magazine Exotic Pets Monthly, just as Fish Emporium, the company will be able to reverse the recent trend of declining sales and start making money again. The author cites a 15 percent increase in sales from Fish Emporium and the fact that all their stores are located at Gulf City as reasons to why Top Dog Pet Stores should do the same. However, before the statement can be properly evaluated, three key points must be addressed.
First of all, it is not guaranteed that advertising in Exotic Pets Monthly will have the same impact as it had in Fish Emporium. One possible explanation that could undermine the assumptions in the original passage is that the author does not state when did Fish Emporium started increasing sales. Fish Emporium might have seen a boost in sales immediately after their advertisements started popping up in the magazine, but , another possibility could be that they only reverted their financial situation after a long period of ad exposure in Exotic Pets Monthly. This information could be detrimental to Top Dog Pet Stores because we do not know how long the company can withstand the declining sales trend. If the above is true, then the argument does not hold water.
Secondly, the name of the magazine suggests that its main focus is around exotic animal species. Fish Emporium might have reverted their financial situation because alongside their typical aquatic animals, they also some cool looking animals that can be categorized as exotic, such as eels, snapping turtles and colorful sea water snakes. On the other hand, Top Dog Pet Store could be a store specialized in hounds, that we can all agree doesn’t sound exotic. If the information above is valid, then the ideas in the original argument are significantly weakened.
Last but not least, Gulf City might have so many different pet stores that there is no guarantee that placing ads in a magazine could increase their income. Other local stores might already have placed their advertisements in other magazines and for a longer period of time that people are already familiarized with the rival pet stores. That is why we can not assure that Top Dog Pet Store will have the same fate as Fish Emporium.
In conclusion, the argument as it stands now, is significantly flawed do to its reliance in several unwarranted assumptions. However, if the author of the memo is able to answer the three key questions mentioned above and provide more evidence towards his or her assumptions, then it will be possible to fully evaluate the ideas stated in the original passage.
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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: 17 15
No. of Words: 456 350
No. of Characters: 2181 1500
No. of Different Words: 218 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.621 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.783 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.506 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 146 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 108 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 73 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 39 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 26.824 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.291 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.647 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.337 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.561 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.101 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 424, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma, but not before the comma
Suggestion: ,
... started popping up in the magazine, but , another possibility could be that they ...
^^
Line 9, column 54, Rule ID: MAIN_FOCUS[1]
Message: Use simply 'focus'.
Suggestion: focus
... name of the magazine suggests that its main focus is around exotic animal species. Fish E...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 13, column 45, Rule ID: NUMEROUS_DIFFERENT[1]
Message: Use simply 'many'.
Suggestion: many
... but not least, Gulf City might have so many different pet stores that there is no guarantee t...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 13, column 260, Rule ID: PERIOD_OF_TIME[1]
Message: Use simply 'period'.
Suggestion: period
...nts in other magazines and for a longer period of time that people are already familiarized wi...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, look, second, secondly, so, then, in conclusion, such as, first of all, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 20.0 12.9520958084 154% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 35.0 28.8173652695 121% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 44.0 55.5748502994 79% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 16.3942115768 67% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2249.0 2260.96107784 99% => OK
No of words: 455.0 441.139720559 103% => OK
Chars per words: 4.94285714286 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.61852021839 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.59738660327 2.78398813304 93% => OK
Unique words: 226.0 204.123752495 111% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.496703296703 0.468620217663 106% => OK
syllable_count: 714.6 705.55239521 101% => 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: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 19.7664670659 86% => OK
Sentence length: 26.0 22.8473053892 114% => OK
Sentence length SD: 62.5899491141 57.8364921388 108% => OK
Chars per sentence: 132.294117647 119.503703932 111% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.7647058824 23.324526521 115% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.05882352941 5.70786347227 124% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.374543694078 0.218282227539 172% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.119369301691 0.0743258471296 161% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.105004988189 0.0701772020484 150% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.214615286127 0.128457276422 167% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.126971230859 0.0628817314937 202% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.2 14.3799401198 106% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 45.09 48.3550499002 93% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 12.197005988 110% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.67 12.5979740519 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.57 8.32208582834 103% => OK
difficult_words: 105.0 98.500998004 107% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 17.0 12.3882235529 137% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.1389221557 111% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.