The following appeared in a memorandum from the owner of Movies Galore, a chain of movie-rental stores.
"In order to stop the recent decline in our profits, we must reduce operating expenses at Movies Galore's ten movie-rental stores. Since we are famous for our special bargains, raising our rental prices is not a viable way to improve profits. Last month our store in downtown Marston significantly decreased its operating expenses by closing at 6:00 P.M. rather than 9:00 P.M. and by reducing its stock by eliminating all movies released more than five years ago. By implementing similar changes in our other stores, Movies Galore can increase profits without jeopardizing our reputation for offering great movies at low prices."
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.
The above argument is made by the owner of Movies Galore and he claims that in order to tackle the decline in profits it is important to reduce the expenses of operation of these rental stores. He further elaborated his solution by giving an example of a store that reduced its expenses by reduced timings and getting rid of stocks. He explains need for maintaining the reputation the stores have gained for amazing deals and dismissing the idea of raised prices. Though it might seem a viable argument in first read, it soon becomes clear that his solutions are supported by mere assumptions rather than detailed analysis or required data.
The basis for the decline in profits is not stated. The decline could be the result of people losing interest in rental stores and inclining towards OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu to watch movies or due to the lack of transportation available to drive to these rental stores. It could be anything. Also no clear reason is stated as to why the reduction in operating expenses is voted to be the optimum solution to stop the declining profits. It is assumed to be the best solution with no convincing evidence.
Adding to these, the memorandum mentions that a store was closed earlier than before. This could be a potential way of reducing the costs in these stores or completely unnecessary action. Consider that the time these stores are operating at reduced hours are winters and employees refused to work at such harsh conditions and the number of customers reduced too. With no employees and maintenance required the costs of operation are bound to reduce despite the working hours. The claim of reduced hours saving money spent on operation of stores is based on the assumption that the costs are directly proportional to the number of hours the store is open and the argument states nothing to validate this assumption.
The author also mentions that the elimination of stock with movies that are released more than five years ago helped deflate the budget of running the stores. Though it could be true no necessary information is provided that links these stocks to the money required to running the stores. It could even be possible that these eliminated stocks share no relationship with budget of the stores and played no role in its deflation. Unless provided concrete evidence this assumption of stocks elimination effecting the operation costs of a store are not enough to warrant the argument given.
From the above stated discussion, it is clear that the argument posed in the memorandum is filled with assumptions with no needed evidence or proof that could support the solution concluded to reduce the costs of the stores for running. More information and analysis is required to arrive at a more strong and reasonable solution. It is important to back these solutions with sturdy bolsters to prevent them from failure.
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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: 7 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 1 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 488 350
No. of Characters: 2375 1500
No. of Different Words: 220 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.7 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.867 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.557 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 186 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 123 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 88 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 50 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.238 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.99 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.143 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.289 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.289 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.089 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 311, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Also,
...se rental stores. It could be anything. Also no clear reason is stated as to why the...
^^^^
Line 4, column 159, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “Though” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...flate the budget of running the stores. Though it could be true no necessary informati...
^^^^^^
Line 4, column 429, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “Unless” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...es and played no role in its deflation. Unless provided concrete evidence this assumpt...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, so, as to
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 40.0 28.8173652695 139% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 74.0 55.5748502994 133% => OK
Nominalization: 29.0 16.3942115768 177% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2408.0 2260.96107784 107% => OK
No of words: 488.0 441.139720559 111% => OK
Chars per words: 4.93442622951 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.70007681154 4.56307096286 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.59757189249 2.78398813304 93% => OK
Unique words: 221.0 204.123752495 108% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.452868852459 0.468620217663 97% => OK
syllable_count: 771.3 705.55239521 109% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 9.0 4.96107784431 181% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 58.3598190601 57.8364921388 101% => OK
Chars per sentence: 114.666666667 119.503703932 96% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.2380952381 23.324526521 100% => OK
Discourse Markers: 1.04761904762 5.70786347227 18% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 8.20758483034 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
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: 0.24076210211 0.218282227539 110% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0725012973809 0.0743258471296 98% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0722798082391 0.0701772020484 103% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.136273538378 0.128457276422 106% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0582674933048 0.0628817314937 93% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.4 14.3799401198 93% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.3550499002 100% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.61 12.5979740519 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.56 8.32208582834 103% => OK
difficult_words: 117.0 98.500998004 119% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.