The following is taken from a memo from the advertising director of the Super Screen Movie Production Company."According to a recent report from our marketing department, during the past year, fewer people attended Super Screen-produced movies than in any other year. And yet the percentage of positive reviews by movie reviewers about specific Super Screen movies actually increased during the past year. Clearly, the contents of these reviews are not reaching enough of our prospective viewers. Thus, the problem lies not with the quality of our movies but with the public's lack of awareness that movies of good quality are available. Super Screen should therefore allocate a greater share of its budget next year to reaching the public through advertising."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation 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 recommendation.
The advertising director of the Super Screen Movie Production Company believes that in order to absorb more attendance they should advertise more. Seemingly the positive reviews have increased but the number of attendance is lesser than other years. Based on that the author assumes that people are not aware of the positive reviews. So the author thinks the more people become aware of the positive reviews the more they will attend the Super Screen Movies. There are several important questions whose answer direct us to evaluate the argument.
First, the author needs to ask questions about the reviews. Are the reviews reflecting the general idea of people about the movies? It is a possibility that the reviews are coming from certain critics who value some points which cannot easily be seen by the regular attendances. Furthermore, the mere increase of the positive reviews cannot guarantee that people really liked it more. It is possible that people who did not like it did not even bother themselves to write any review for the movies. Hence the author should ask whether these reviews are the benchmark of the Super Screen movie’s quality.
Secondly, the author needs to ask via what ways people can access to the movies other than attending a Super Screen Movie. People might really be interested in the movies, but they might have found other ways to watch the Super Screen movies. They might watch a Super Screen Movie via internet, DVDs, flashes, and so on. Therefore the author needs to take into account that the attendants might watch the movies by other measures.
Finally, the author needs to ask questions whether investing more money in the advertising is reasonable. It is probable that in the last year the advertising was more than ever, but the real trend of attendants did not comply with what was expected. Then there would be no place to further invest in the advertising. Moreover, can advertising work better than any alternative strategy? As the attendances are in a decline, the company may not have many opportunities to turn the tide of business and risk its money on a mere advertising plan. It is possible that advertising exacts a high price with which the company can come up with other better strategies. The company may be able to attract more people by hiring superstars or a well-known director for the movies. Hence the advertisement itself should be assessed.
In short, as discussed, the argument is replete with the equivocal conditions defying any certain conclusion. The author needs to provide answers to the enumerated questions to make the argument clear. Otherwise, with the current ambiguous argument, the conclusion cannot be tenable.
- All parents should be required to volunteer time to their children's schools. 55
- Claim: We can usually learn much more from people whose views we share than from those whose views contradict our own.Reason: Disagreement can cause stress and inhibit learning. 90
- Some people believe that scientific discoveries have given us a much better understanding of the world around us. Others believe that science has revealed to us that the world is infinitely more complex than we ever realized. 58
- College students should be encouraged to pursue subjects that interest them rather than the courses that seem most likely to lead to jobs. 80
- In most professions and academic fields, imagination is more important than knowledge. 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: 26 15
No. of Words: 446 350
No. of Characters: 2199 1500
No. of Different Words: 203 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.596 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.93 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.49 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 165 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 106 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 71 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 47 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 17.154 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 5.454 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.654 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.305 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.514 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.13 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5