The following appeared in a memorandum from the owner of Movies Galore, a chain of movie-rental stores.
"Because of declining profits, we must reduce operating expenses at Movies Galore's ten movie-rental stores.
Raising prices is not a good option, since we are famous for our low prices.
Instead, we should reduce our operating hours.
Last month our store in downtown Marston reduced its hours by closing at 6:00 p.m.
rather than 9:00 p.m. and reduced its overall inventory by no longer stocking any
DVD released more than five years ago.
Since we have received very few customer complaints about these new policies,
we should now adopt them at all other Movies Galore stores as our best strategies for improving profits."
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument
and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
In a memo from the owner of Movies Galore, it was written that to reduce operating costs in the wake of declining profits, the store be closed at 6 pm instead of 9 pm and the inventory shall be refurbished to remove DVD's older than 5 years. However, the recommendation is based on the assumptions that people no longer view older movies, operating policies applicable in Marston holds good at all the branches, and more people will not complain in the future. The recommendation can be deemed viable after carefully evaluating these assumptions.
Firstly, it is assumed that movies that are older than 5 years are not considered by consumers and will reduce operating expense.
People may not watch all the old movies but tend to be attached to a certain classics, for example The Godfather, The Shawshank Redemption, Die Hard, etc. These are cult movies and followed by masses. All these are more than 25 years old but still attract people in viewing them again and again. Considering these type of movies as revenue busters would be a mistake and may actually reduce profits. Rather, instead of removing all the DVD's that are more than 5 years old, the DVD's that sell out the more on a recurring basis, have a better rating must be retained irrespective of their release time. In this way, the profit bearing movies would still be intact and other movie DVD's would be discarded thereby reducing the expenses.
Secondly, the owner assumes that the store in Marston Town and the rest of his stores in different parts of the country are same. What if the town has a limited population because of which there hasn't been much sales? What if people don't step out of their house after 6 pm due to the cold winter, thereby having empty sales during that period? A store in New York city may run till late 1 am and still end up having more sales in the evening than in the morning? The data accumulated at the Marston Town should be used to compare stores in similar environments, not on a generic basis. If the timings at which sales happen is recorded and noted down at each store, it may provide enough evidence to determine what part of the day the store shall be shut down, thereby minimizing expenses.
Thirdly, the owner assumes that there won't be any complaints from customers in the future. What if the customers were genuinely affected by these new reforms and may end up abandoning the Movies Galore?What if the customers at different towns are not as polite or accommodating as the people of Marston Town? There may be a possibility of people revolting these new reforms on time and end stop purchasing. The owner should carefully evaluate this situation by interacting with the customers first on these reforms before implementing them. If there any suggestions, they should be considered and the reforms must be modified accordingly.
The above argument is based on a number of assumptions. There is sufficient lack of evidence resulting in not having a viable outcome. Unless there is necessary evidence to the above mentioned unwarranted assumptions or necessary suggestive action taken before implementation, the argument shall remain flawed.
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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: 23 15
No. of Words: 544 350
No. of Characters: 2569 1500
No. of Different Words: 257 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.829 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.722 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.592 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 177 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 122 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 79 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 57 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.652 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.644 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.696 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.272 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.51 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.069 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 6, column 196, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: hasn't
...mited population because of which there hasnt been much sales? What if people dont st...
^^^^^
Line 6, column 207, Rule ID: MUCH_COUNTABLE[1]
Message: Use 'many' with countable nouns.
Suggestion: many
...ation because of which there hasnt been much sales? What if people dont step out of ...
^^^^
Line 6, column 234, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...e hasnt been much sales? What if people dont step out of their house after 6 pm due ...
^^^^
Line 8, column 203, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: What
...may end up abandoning the Movies Galore?What if the customers at different towns are...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
accordingly, actually, but, first, firstly, however, if, may, second, secondly, still, third, thirdly, for example
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 30.0 19.6327345309 153% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 20.0 12.9520958084 154% => OK
Conjunction : 17.0 11.1786427146 152% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 27.0 28.8173652695 94% => OK
Preposition: 70.0 55.5748502994 126% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 16.3942115768 67% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2626.0 2260.96107784 116% => OK
No of words: 540.0 441.139720559 122% => OK
Chars per words: 4.86296296296 5.12650576532 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.82057051367 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.68477391486 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 259.0 204.123752495 127% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.47962962963 0.468620217663 102% => OK
syllable_count: 828.9 705.55239521 117% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.76447105788 148% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 52.2706631125 57.8364921388 90% => OK
Chars per sentence: 109.416666667 119.503703932 92% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.5 23.324526521 96% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.75 5.70786347227 83% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.194064275761 0.218282227539 89% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0579846390429 0.0743258471296 78% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0605248214635 0.0701772020484 86% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.100988624227 0.128457276422 79% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0519907474192 0.0628817314937 83% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.7 14.3799401198 88% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 57.61 48.3550499002 119% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.2 12.5979740519 89% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.21 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 119.0 98.500998004 121% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 15.0 12.3882235529 121% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => 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.