Argument: The following appeared in an announcement issued by the publisher of The Mercury, a weekly newspaper. “Since a competing lower-priced newspaper, The Bugle, was started five years ago, The Mercury’s circulation has declined by 10,000 readers. The best way to get more people to read The Mercury is to reduce its price below that of The Bugle, at least until circulation increases to former levels. The increased circulation of The Mercury will attract more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper.” Discuss how well reasoned... etc. Analysis: Argument claims that The Mercury Newspaper should lower its price to increase circulation, thereby, increasing profits because a wider readership attracts more advertisements. Argument fails to consider key factors, on the basis of which argument can be evaluated. Argument relies on assumptions, for which there is no clear evident. Hence argument is rather weak, unconvincing and has several flaws. Primarily, the argument readily assumes that decline in the circulation of newspaper The Mucrucry is only because of competing newspaper The Bigul’s low price. Author fails to consider other possible reasons for the decline. For example, decline of circulation could be due to major customer base of The Mucrucry changing their preference of news reading to another medium like internet, wherein they can get all the updates immediately and no need to wait until next day for fresh news. Or it could be because of recent change in newspaper format. There are various possible reasons which can result in decline of newspaper circulation. Author has simply assumed that lower price of competing newspaper is the only reason. Secondly, the argument claims that reduction in price will increase the circulation. Author fails to mention the basis to support this line of reasoning. Reduction of price may have negative effect as well. For instance, the recent survey published by leading Business magazine concluded that cheaper does not always attract more customers. Survey asked people if they will buy “Nano”, world’s cheapest car, many people declined saying that they think “Nano” as as symbol of low status. Specifically, cheaper price may create doubt in customers mind about quality of newspaper and they may find it misaligned to their status. Author hasn’t considered this important factor. Finally, the argument concludes that lower price will increase circulation and as a result attract more advertisements. More circulation, more advertisements this logic looks fine on face values but on closer observation, one can realize that it may not be the case. Advertisers may prefer the newspaper which has reach among wide demography or newspaper with customer base which matches the potential customer base of their business. In summary, argument is flawed and therefore unconvincing. To strengthen the argument, the author must identify and explore relevant factors beyond cost before concluding that lowering subscription price will increase circulation and, thereby, increase advertising revenues.

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Since a competing lower-priced newspaper, The Bugle, was started five

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Chandni93

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Hey, please let me know your thoughts! Thank you!

The publisher of a newspaper, The Mercury, claims that to increase the number of readers, the newspaper should reduce its price below that of its competitor, The Bugle. This increase in circulation will thus improve the revenue of the newspaper by attracting more businesses to advertise with The Mercury. This argument lies on several faulty assumptions, including causation errors, vague terminology and lack of evidence to substantiate any claims. Therefore, the argument is unconvincing and falls apart at the seams.

First, the argument claims that ever since The Bugle, a competing newspaper that charges a lower price than The Mercury, was started five years ago, The Mercury’s circulation has reduced by 10,000 readers. This is a very weak and unsupported claim as the argument does not demonstrate any correlation between either newspaper. For instance, The Bugle might be focused on a completely different industry, such as media and entertainment, whereas The Mercury is focused on news stories covering hardcore business and finance. If that is the case, clearly this argument will not hold true. Without any background information on its competitor and on the relationship between the two newspapers, the argument is weakened.

Second, the argument readily assumes that to increase readership, the best way would be for The Mercury to reduce its price below The Bugle. This statement is a stretch as it lacks any substantive evidence. Neither do we know if The Bugle is a competitor to The Mercury, nor do we have any statistical evidence to support the theory of a reduction in price. Had we been given some evidence, such as surveys or polls taken by current readers and past readers stating that price was an issue, the assumption could have been supported. However, we don't even know if it is price that is causing such reduction in readership or some other factor, say lack of powerful stories. If the stories in The Mercury itself are terrible, then even with a 50 percent reduction in price, circulation may not improve.

Finally, the argument concludes that such increased circulation will improve revenue by attracting businesses to advertise with The Mercury. Not only is this claim largely wishful thinking, but even if we do consider for a minute that with reduced pricing, circulation does increase, how do we know that businesses will want to advertise with The Mercury? If they haven’t done so in the past, even while The Mercury had good circulation, why would they now? What about the terms of such advertising? With an increase in advertising, won’t circulation be affected again, as people read newspapers for the news, not to read the advertisements. Without answers to any of these questions, one is left with the impression that the claim is more of wishful thinking rather than substantive evidence.

In summary, the argument fails to convince because of the faulty assumptions aforementioned. If the argument had drawn upon examples as suggested, and thereby plugged in the holes in the reasoning, it would have been far sounder on the whole.

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17 Jul 2021, 23:59

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I assume your essay is based on the following prompt

“Since a competing lower-priced newspaper, The Bugle, was started five years ago, The Mercury’s circulation has declined by 10 ,000 readers. The best way to get more people to read The Mercury is to reduce its price below that of The Bugle, at least until circulation increases to former levels. The increased circulation of The Mercury will attract more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper.”

If this is the case, below is my response

AWA Score: 6 out of 6!

I have used a GMATAWA auto-grader to evaluate your essay.

Coherence and connectivity: 5/5
This rating corresponds to the flow of ideas and expressions from one paragraph to another. The effective use of connectives and coherence of assertive language in arguing for/against the argument is analyzed. This is deemed as one of the most important parameters.

Paragraph structure and formation: 4.5/5
The structure and division of the attempt into appropriate paragraphs are evaluated. To score well on this parameter, it is important to organize the attempt into paragraphs. Preferable to follow the convention of leaving a line blank at the end of each paragraph, to make the software aware of the structure of the essay.

Vocabulary and word expression: 4.5/5
This parameter rates the submitted essay on the range of relevant vocabulary possessed by the candidate basis the word and expression usage. There are no extra- points for bombastic word usage. Simple is the best form of suave!

PS: Always post the prompt with your essay

Good Luck

Chandni93

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18 Jul 2021, 00:32

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Yes, apologies for that. Thank you for your feedback, appreciate it!

jule206

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Hi!

Could you please rate my essay for this prompt? Thank you!!

The following appeared in an announcement issued by the publisher of The Mercury, a weekly newspaper:

“Since a competing lower-priced newspaper, The Bugle, was started five years ago, The Mercury’s circulation has declined by 10,000 readers. The best way to get more people to read The Mercury is to reduce its price below that of The Bugle, at least until circulation increases to former levels. The increased circulation of The Mercury will attract more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper.”

The argument presented is an announcement regarding the dropping publication levels of The Mercury newspaper and its plan to regain the lost readership and revenue. The proposed arguments are unanimously flawed and lack supporting evidence of its claims made. The main failed assumptions will be analyzed in the following.

The first assumption made by the author is that the launch of the Bugle newspaper has caused the decline in readership. This decline could however have many other reasons such as: Bad writing, a change in demographics, changed coverage irrelevant to the viewership and no online presence such as an E-paper compared to other papers. If the author would have provided evidence of the reader switch to competing newspapers, this argument would have looked much more plausible. This could have been achieved by requesting customers cancelling their subscription to fill out an exit survey, indicating to which newspaper they are switching and for what reasons.

Secondly the author uses extreme language. “The best way” indicates that there is no other way as good as this one to regain readership. This would suggest the author has substantial proof in order to make this claim. None, however is being presented.

Furthermore he/she assumes a low price is the only decisive factor for readers to choose a newspaper. When in fact readers choose a newspaper based on a variety of points such as their interest levels, quality of articles, coverage and publishing dates. If the price would be the decision maker, then the author should provide research and studies in order to support his/her claim. Further the suggestion that once the former sales levels are reached, to go back to the original sales price, is a paradox because as per the authors suggestion this would mean a loss in readership to the competitor.

Lastly the article states that a high circulation is corelated to high advertising sales. This could be backed up with data from 5 years ago when the circulation rates were high for the Mercury. However, he/she fails to acknowledge that advertise chose publications to advertise not only because of circulation numbers but also to reach their target audience.

In conclusion it can be stated that all arguments presented by publisher to regain readership and revenue are flawed and will have little to no success. Suggestions proposed in the above paragraphs can help close this gap.

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04 Aug 2021, 14:10

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AWA Score: 6 out of 6!

I have used a GMATAWA auto-grader to evaluate your essay.

Coherence and connectivity: 5/5
This rating corresponds to the flow of ideas and expressions from one paragraph to another. The effective use of connectives and coherence of assertive language in arguing for/against the argument is analyzed. This is deemed as one of the most important parameters.

Paragraph structure and formation: 4/5
The structure and division of the attempt into appropriate paragraphs are evaluated. To score well on this parameter, it is important to organize the attempt into paragraphs. Preferable to follow the convention of leaving a line blank at the end of each paragraph, to make the software aware of the structure of the essay.

Vocabulary and word expression: 5/5
This parameter rates the submitted essay on the range of relevant vocabulary possessed by the candidate basis the word and expression usage. There are no extra- points for bombastic word usage. Simple is the best form of suave!

Good Luck

jule206

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Thank you very much for posting the score!

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I would request to review my essay. Thanks much.

The argument claims that the best way to get more people to read The Mercury is to reduce its price below that of The Bugle, its competitor, so that its circulation increases and will attract more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper. Stated in this way the argument manipulates the facts and conveys a distorted view of the situation and fails to mention several key factors , on the basis of which It could be assessed. The conclusion of the argument relies on assumptions for which there is no clear evidence. Hence, the argument is weak/unconvincing and has several flaws.
First, the argument readily assumes that The Mercury’s circulation declined by 10.000 readers since a competing lower-priced newspaper, The Bugle, started five years ago. This statement is a stretch as there are several other factors that could lead to the reduction in the number of the readers. For example, these days readers prefer social media, newspaper websites, digital marketing etc for both news and advertisements. Clearly, only a low-priced news paper cannot be the only factor for the decline in the number of readers. The argument could have been much clearer if it explicitly stated that with an evidence that readers have switched to The Bugle since it has started.

Second, the argument claims that the best way to get more people to read The Mercury is to reduce its price below that of The Bugle, at least until circulation increases to former levels. This is again a very weak and supported claim as the argument doesn’t demonstrate any correlation between the low price of the Bugle and increased circulation of The Mercury. To illustrate, the publisher have not mentioned anything about the sale of the The Bugle since it has started. While, we may be aware of the decline in readers for The Mercury , but there is no information about the readers of the Bugle. If the argument had provided evidence that the reader of The Mercury have switched to The Bugle since it has started, then the argument would have been a lot more convincing.
Finally, the publisher claims that increased circulation of the Mercury will attract more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper. We need to have answers to several questions before we can assess this situation, like if readers chose a newspaper solely on basis of its price? Are the readers willing to switch back to The Mercury if the price is lowered? Without convincing answers to such questions, one is left with the impression that the claim is more of a wishful thinking rather than substantive evidence.

In conclusion, the argument is flawed for the above-mentioned reasons and is therefore unconvincing. It could be considerably strengthened if the publisher clearly mentioned all the relevant facts. In order to assess the merits of a certain decision, it is essential to have full knowledge of all contributing factors. Without this information, the argument remains unsubstantiated and open to debate.

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13 Aug 2021, 04:53

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Welcome to GMAT Club!

Prompt (My guess)

“Since a competing lower-priced newspaper, The Bugle, was started five years ago, The Mercury’s circulation has declined by 10 ,000 readers. The best way to get more people to read The Mercury is to reduce its price below that of The Bugle, at least until circulation increases to former levels. The increased circulation of The Mercury will attract more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper.”

AWA Score: 4.5 out of 6!

I have used a GMATAWA auto-grader to evaluate your essay.

Coherence and connectivity: 3.5/5
This rating corresponds to the flow of ideas and expressions from one paragraph to another. The effective use of connectives and coherence of assertive language in arguing for/against the argument is analyzed. This is deemed as one of the most important parameters.

Paragraph structure and formation: 3/5
The structure and division of the attempt into appropriate paragraphs are evaluated. To score well on this parameter, it is important to organize the attempt into paragraphs. Preferable to follow the convention of leaving a line blank at the end of each paragraph, to make the software aware of the structure of the essay.

Vocabulary and word expression: 4/5
This parameter rates the submitted essay on the range of relevant vocabulary possessed by the candidate basis the word and expression usage. There are no extra- points for bombastic word usage. Simple is the best form of suave!

Tip: After posting something take a look at the same at least once. I have to edit the paragraphs and assume that where the paragraphs end.

Good Luck

94tanzila

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Here is my practice response.
Appreciate any comment in advance.

The publisher claims that to increase a long-term revenue from advertisement, the Mercury should reduce the price of its newspaper to gain back readers and thus attract advertisement from businesses to increase revenue. Stated this way, the argument from the publisher is flawed and unconvincing in the way that it overlooks other explanations why the number of readers has declined recently, and that it readily assumes that lowering price would be a perfect solution to gain back the competitive advantage over The Bugle, a competing lower-priced newspaper.

First of all, the publisher of The Mercury has attributed The Bugle, a competing newspaper, for the reason of the declined number of its readers. The evidence is that since The Bugle came to the business, The Mercury has lost its readers. This is a shallow explanation that overlooks other possible factors for the decline. Readers might shift their news preference toward different coverages that are not sufficiently covered by The Mercury. Readers don’t prefer reading from a tradition newspaper anymore since the internet has given them access to information 24/7. Yet, The Mercury doesn’t adapt itself for the technology changes.

Next, the conclusion that lowering the price will help competing with the Bugle is based on an unfounded assumption. Lowering price doesn’t necessarily help boost sale since it can signal poor quality to readers. Reader might find that The Mercury is not a credible source for news update and reliable high-quality content. Thus, lower price can have unintended effects on The Mercury. Instead of gaining back readers, it might further decrease the number of readers.

There are many ways for the publisher to strengthen its argument and solution to turn around the business. The questions in which the publisher should be answering are what is the market trend for newspapers, what is Bugle strength and weakness, who is the target reader, what is the quality of the current contents, what is the customer’s satisfaction rate? Answering these questions could help the company clarify its strength and better position itself against the competitors instead of just lowering the price.

In conclusion, the current conclusion for The Mercury is weak and based on unfounded assumption as it overlooks important factors. Thus, the argument is unsubstantiated.

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Hello Everyone, this is my first AWA passage. Do let me know your views about it.

Prompt:

The following appeared in an announcement issued by the publisher of The Mercury, a weekly newspaper.

“Since a competing lower-priced newspaper, The Bugle, was started five years ago, The Mercury’s circulation has declined by 10,000 readers. The best way to get more people to read The Mercury is to reduce its price below that of The Bugle, at least until circulation increases to former levels. The increased circulation of The Mercury will attract more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper.”

My Response

As per the announcement in the newspaper The Mercury, the publisher has claimed that it is because of the newspaper The Bugle, a lower-priced newspaper, the circulation of The Mercury has declined and suggest lowering the price of The Mercury to cater to low circulation and thereby increase its profit. However, the claim is based on assumptions that are not valid and carry little substance. Therefore, the argument is rather weak, unconvincing, and has several flaws.

Firstly, the argument claims that the start of another newspaper which has a lower price than that of The Mercury has caused the decline in the circulation without considering that there could be other factors contributing to the decline such as the content, and news coverage, etc. No sufficient evidence has been quoted to confirm whether it is just the price that is the main cause of low circulation. What if the content is published in the newspaper is not well received by the readers and that has become the main reason for them to switch to other better option? Response to such questions would have been better rather than assuming that price is the only factor for low circulation. Thus blaming the price of the other newspaper does not seem justifiable.

Secondly, the publisher mentioned that decreasing the price will ensure that the circulation will reach to the optimum level or matches the circulation of The Bugle. This claim cannot be taken into account because it does not have any supporting data to back this claim. Where is the data that shows the circulation levels of The Bugle? The argument does not demonstrate any correlation between decreasing the price of newspapers and increase of the newspaper circulation. What if The Mercury reduces its price and still maintains the content that is not taken well by the readers, the circulation of the newspaper will still be down and there will be a further drop in sales. If the argument provided such correlation with evidence then the argument could have been strengthened further.

Last but not the least, the argument considers that increased circulation will attract more advertisement space and thereby could lead to increased profit for the newspaper. Advertisers prefer the newspaper which has a reach to a large number of readers that matches the potential customer base of their business. There are many mediums available which have a better way to communicate with readers and newspaper is just one of them. Even if the circulation reaches an expected level nowhere is it mentioned that what will be the pricing of the advertisement space, will it be competitive, or will it at least match the one by The Bugle. The agencies might still go to The Bugle for advertisement in case they find that their advertisement has better representation and that too at a lower price. Thus in absence of such information, this view is more of wishful thinking rather than fact-driven.

In summary, the author’s argument falls short in many aspects and has just considered price as the driving factor for the decline in circulation which obviously is not the case. It lacks the necessary data or evidence to support the argument. Inclusion of such data or information would have surely helped the author to drive home his viewpoint in a far more convincing manner but in the absence of these, the author’s reasoning is questionable

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20 Aug 2021, 07:50

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AWA Score: 3 out of 6!

I have used a GMATAWA auto-grader to evaluate your essay.

Coherence and connectivity: 1.5/5
This rating corresponds to the flow of ideas and expressions from one paragraph to another. The effective use of connectives and coherence of assertive language in arguing for/against the argument is analyzed. This is deemed as one of the most important parameters.

Paragraph structure and formation: 4.5/5
The structure and division of the attempt into appropriate paragraphs are evaluated. To score well on this parameter, it is important to organize the attempt into paragraphs. Preferable to follow the convention of leaving a line blank at the end of each paragraph, to make the software aware of the structure of the essay.

Vocabulary and word expression: 4.5/5
This parameter rates the submitted essay on the range of relevant vocabulary possessed by the candidate basis the word and expression usage. There are no extra- points for bombastic word usage. Simple is the best form of suave!

Click on the links below for the AWA guide.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-gmatclub ... 36251.html

https://gmatclub.com/forum/how-to-get-6 ... 64327.html

Good Luck

viphaneev

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20 Aug 2021, 07:52

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AWA Score: 5.5 out of 6!

I have used a GMATAWA auto-grader to evaluate your essay.

Coherence and connectivity: 5/5
This rating corresponds to the flow of ideas and expressions from one paragraph to another. The effective use of connectives and coherence of assertive language in arguing for/against the argument is analyzed. This is deemed as one of the most important parameters.

Paragraph structure and formation: 4.5/5
The structure and division of the attempt into appropriate paragraphs are evaluated. To score well on this parameter, it is important to organize the attempt into paragraphs. Preferable to follow the convention of leaving a line blank at the end of each paragraph, to make the software aware of the structure of the essay.

Vocabulary and word expression: 4/5
This parameter rates the submitted essay on the range of relevant vocabulary possessed by the candidate basis the word and expression usage. There are no extra- points for bombastic word usage. Simple is the best form of suave!

Good Luck

Devesh2710

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Hi! Please evaluate. bb

The argument in the memorandum claims that the increase in circulation of The Mercury will attract more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper. Stated in this way, the argument is inconclusive without data supporting its hypothesis, tends to manipulate facts to present a distorted view of reality, and also is a leap of faith reasoning without clear outcomes. In sum, the argument could be improved if it is supported with relevance on which the argument core assumptions depends.

First, the argument readily assumes that The Mercury newspaper circulation declined because of a competing lower-priced newspaper. This argument is a stretch as it fails to consider other factors which might have contributed to the decline of The Mercury newspaper. For example, the quality and the content of the newspaper may cause a decline in newspaper circulation. The argument could have been much cleared if it explicitly stated that no other factors contributed to the decline in circulation of the newspaper.

Second, the argument claims that the best way to increase circulation of The Mercury newspaper to former levels is to reduce the price below that of The Bugle. This is again a very weak and unsupported claim as the argument assumes the above method as the best way to increase circulation and no other factors could compete with the increase in circulation. To illustrate, the argument fails to address issues of the quality and content of the newspaper. The readers are more concerned about the quality and content than the price of the article. Reducing the price of the newspaper will not be beneficial to increase circulation.

Finally, the argument assumes that increased circulation will attract more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper. This is not always true. For example, with the advent of online media, advertisers are now inclined to buy space in digital forms of advertisement. Also, The Mercury may not have the target audience specific compared with the digital media.

In conclusion, the argument is flawed for the above-mentioned reasons and is therefore not convincing. In order to assess the merits of discussion, it is necessary to have full knowledge of the contributing factors. In this particular case, answers to the questions such as What are the other reasons for the decline in circulation? What are other ways to increase circulation apart from reducing the price of the newspaper? Will increasing circulation will attract more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper? Without convincing answers to these questions, one is left with the impression that a claim is more of a leap of faith than a well-reasoned inference drawn from logical reasoning. Therefore, the argument remains indefensible and open to debate.

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30 Dec 2021, 09:00

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AWA Score: 5.5 out of 6

I have used a GMAT AWA auto-grader to evaluate your essay.

Coherence and connectivity: 5/5
This rating corresponds to the flow of ideas and expressions from one paragraph to another. The effective use of connectives and coherence of assertive language in arguing for/against the argument is analyzed. This is deemed as one of the most important parameters.

Paragraph structure and formation: 4.5/5
The structure and division of the attempt into appropriate paragraphs are evaluated. To score well on this parameter, it is important to organize the attempt into paragraphs. Preferable to follow the convention of leaving a line blank at the end of each paragraph, to make the software aware of the structure of the essay.

Vocabulary and word expression: 4/5
This parameter rates the submitted essay on the range of relevant vocabulary possessed by the candidate basis the word and expression usage. There are no extra- points for bombastic word usage. Simple is the best form of suave!

Good Luck

ujain

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12 Apr 2022, 00:41

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kindly rate the essay it will be really helpful !

The argument claims that mercury's sale deacreased because of competitor BUgLE and mercury can regain the loss by offering its paper at reduced cost . And argument further adds that this action will attract more advertisers. But these conclusion relies on assumption for which there is no clear evidence. Thererfore the arument is raTher weak and has several fallacies.

First, the cause ,starting of lower price competitive newspaper BUgLE , leading to decline in readers is stretch and is not well substantiated . For instance other factors which could also lead to decline readers are not accounted in the passage such as low quality material , excessive advertisements and supply chain problems . All these factors can be the major reason for shifting to new platform. if more information was provided about the linkage of Bugle introduction and how it impacted the mercury reader base , then argument could be strenthened.

Second, the solution provided in the argument that includes lowering th cost of mercury newspaper is very weak and unsupported claim as doing so might not have any positive impact as there are numerous reasons for readers to shift to new platform. It also not account for diital platforms which are already verY price competitive and still do not enjoy a large cutomer base . The arument could have been much clearer if we were provided with examples and additional evidence that price is the major factor for decline in readers and solely the issue could be solved by lowering prices of mercury.

Finally, arument concluded that increased circulation will attract more advertisers. But we do not know whether the action of lowering price lead to sinififcant increase in reader base so that the newspaper will have more advertisers. PLus we also do not know the conditions that have changed in last five in years in marketing industry . May be now advertisers prefer digital ads over the ones in newspaper. So without convincing answer to these questions , one is left with impression that claim is more of a wishful thinking than a rational inference.

In summary , th arument is flawed for above mentioned reasons .It could be strenthened if we were mentioned all the relevent facts . For now the argument remains unsubstantited and thus is open to debate.

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12 Apr 2022, 09:35

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AWA Score: 5 out of 6

I have used a GMAT AWA auto-grader to evaluate your essay.

Coherence and connectivity: 5/5
This rating corresponds to the flow of ideas and expressions from one paragraph to another. The effective use of connectives and coherence of assertive language in arguing for/against the argument is analyzed. This is deemed as one of the most important parameters.

Paragraph structure and formation: 4.5/5
The structure and division of the attempt into appropriate paragraphs are evaluated. To score well on this parameter, it is important to organize the attempt into paragraphs. Preferable to follow the convention of leaving a line blank at the end of each paragraph, to make the software aware of the structure of the essay.

Vocabulary and word expression: 4/5
This parameter rates the submitted essay on the range of relevant vocabulary possessed by the candidate basis the word and expression usage. There are no extra- points for bombastic word usage. Simple is the best form of suave!

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kakakakaak

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17 Apr 2022, 11:57

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Can someone evaluate mine? Thanks in advance!

In this argument, the publisher of the Mercury reaches to the conclusion that The Mercury should reduce its price below that of The Bulge, in order to attract more people to read and more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper. The basis of this recommendation is that The Mercury's circulation has declined since a competing lower-priced newspaper, The Bulge, was started 5 years ago. At first glance, the argument appears to be somewhat convincing, but further scrutiny reveals that the argument omits some important concerns that should be addressed to substantiate the argument.

Most conspicuously, the argument commits a fallacy of causal simplification by attributing the decline of The Mercury's circulation to the competing lower-priced newspaper. While the price of a newspaper might be an important element in determining the overall circulation of a newspaper, it is hardly the only element. There are also many other elements contributing to the circulation, such as the content of the newspaper, the political position of the newspaper, and so on. Until all of these factors are ruled out, the argument is unwarranted to claim that the decline of The Mercury's circulation was due to the lower-priced competitor.

Moreover, the argument unfairly assumes that there will be more people reading the newspaper if its price is reduced. While the price of a newspaper could be a factor for readers to consider when buying a newspaper, there are way more factors involved in the circulation of a newspaper. What if the conventional readers of The Mercury prefer to read the digital version of it rather than the traditional physically printed version of it? What if the quality of The Bulge newspaper has been much better than the quality of The Mercury newspaper all the time? Without providing sufficient evidence to rule out these possibilities, the assumption is unfounded.

Finally, the argument falsely depends on another assumption that there will be more businesses buying advertising space in the paper as long as its circulation is increased. However, there is no evidence stated for this assumption. Even though it is indeed the case that businesses used to buy more advertising space in the paper when its circulation is more, it does not mean that it will still be the case for the present and the future. What if businesses switch to buy advertising space on websites rather than on physical newspapers? Hence, the argument would have been more convincing if it had illustrated why businesses are motivated to buy advertising space in the paper when its circulation is more.

To sum up, the conclusion that the newspaper should reduce its price is seriously undermined by numerous flaws identified in the reasoning above. If the reasoning was taken into account, the argument will be more thorough and convincing.

Sajjad1994

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18 Apr 2022, 11:21

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AWA Score: 5 - 5.5 out of 6

I have used a GMAT AWA auto-grader to evaluate your essay.

Coherence and connectivity: 4.5/5
This rating corresponds to the flow of ideas and expressions from one paragraph to another. The effective use of connectives and coherence of assertive language in arguing for/against the argument is analyzed. This is deemed as one of the most important parameters.

Paragraph structure and formation: 4.5/5
The structure and division of the attempt into appropriate paragraphs are evaluated. To score well on this parameter, it is important to organize the attempt into paragraphs. Preferable to follow the convention of leaving a line blank at the end of each paragraph, to make the software aware of the structure of the essay.

Vocabulary and word expression: 4/5
This parameter rates the submitted essay on the range of relevant vocabulary possessed by the candidate basis the word and expression usage. There are no extra- points for bombastic word usage. Simple is the best form of suave!

Good Luck

bojunk

Can someone evaluate mine? Thanks in advance!

CM12

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29 Apr 2022, 11:13

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Hi - looking for feedback on the below prompt. Thanks so much!

Prompt
“Since a competing lower-priced newspaper, The Bugle, was started five years ago, The Mercury’s circulation has declined by 10 ,000 readers. The best way to get more people to read The Mercury is to reduce its price below that of The Bugle, at least until circulation increases to former levels. The increased circulation of The Mercury will attract more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper.”

Response

The above situation involving the mercury newspaper decline in readers, and the proposed solution to this problem, raises a number of issues. These issues include assumptions related to why consumers stopped reading The Mercury and started reading The Bugle, the proposed solution of reducing prices to fix the issue, and additional assumptions about the businesses that may desire ad space in The Mercury. The culmination of the these issues raise serious concerns about the effectiveness of this course of action without further information. Recommended action to attain this information is also detailed below.

The first concern with The Mercury’s dilemma is the assumption made about readers that switched newspapers. The argument assumes that readers are only reading The Bugle because of the price. What if readers switched because the quality of The Mercury had declined, or The Bugle offered superior reporting? Relatedly, price may have been an initial factor, but The Bugle may have turned out to be higher quality once readers had switched newspapers. This would be a critical piece of information to confirm as it may prevent the price decreases that The Mercury staff are proposing from having any significant effect on readers.

Related to the assumption above, even if The Mercury staff are correct in their belief that price is the reason for less readers, this raises another concern. If the price reduction mainly attracts readers that do not want to spend money, why would the businesses looking to purchase advertisement space want to promote themselves to consumers that are not looking to spend much money? This decision to reduce prices may drive businesses away. Additionally, there is no information provided as to how much cheaper The Bugle is offered to readers, and what type of price discount would be required for The Mercury to compete. Again, this has implications on business looking to advertise themselves to relevant consumers. A proposed course of action to alleviate concerns around the issues raised is presented next.

As discussed, some notable assumptions are made in deciding the best way to getting readers to return to The Mercury. In terms of the missing evidence showing why readers switched newspapers, a simple and cost-effective market research study could be conducted. The Mercury staff should conduct a survey with current and former subscribers to investigate why they either continue to read The Mercury or why they switched over to the Bugle. This would identify the specific reasons for readers leaving and allow The Mercury to develop a strategy to target the readers that left. Another approach, if price is not the reason for the decline in viewership, The Mercury staff could propose promotions with businesses that want to purchase ad space. The advertisement space could be provided at a slightly reduced rate in exchange for the businesses running Mercury-only promotions. This would benefit both parties.

In conclusion, the lack of evidence justifying the assumptions made by The Mercury staff very well may have them proposing a solution that will not make much of a difference. It is critical that the strategy used is backed by evidence, namely confirmation from readers related to why they value The Mercury, or why they chose to leave. This strategy should involve market research and potential promotions with businesses looking to purchase advertisement space. It would be wise to postpone further action until some form of evidence is produced and a tailored strategy can be developed.

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30 Apr 2022, 12:57

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AWA Score: 6 out of 6

Coherence and connectivity: 4.5/5
This rating corresponds to the flow of ideas and expressions from one paragraph to another. The effective use of connectives and coherence of assertive language in arguing for/against the argument is analyzed. This is deemed as one of the most important parameters.

Paragraph structure and formation: 4.5/5
The structure and division of the attempt into appropriate paragraphs are evaluated. To score well on this parameter, it is important to organize the attempt into paragraphs. Preferable to follow the convention of leaving a line blank at the end of each paragraph, to make the software aware of the structure of the essay.

Vocabulary and word expression: 4.5/5
This parameter rates the submitted essay on the range of relevant vocabulary possessed by the candidate basis the word and expression usage. There are no extra- points for bombastic word usage. Simple is the best form of suave!

Good Luck

CM12