Writing Feedback / [GRE Argument]To alleviate serious unemployment problem Autotech should be encouraged [3]

Written in 30 minutes.

Prompt:

The following appeared in a memo from the Mayor of the city of Hillview:

In order to alleviate the serious unemployment problem in our town,we should encourage.Autotech to build its automobile manufacturing plant in our area.The Hillview landfill which has been undevelopped for decades is a perfect site for this plant.the building and staffing of this plant will put to work thousand of Hillview residents left unemployed after computech computer software programming company abandoned its national facility last year.i am asking the city council to authorize a large campaign to attract the company and offer a significant tax incentives to make our town attractive to this giant of car manufacturing.-

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.

My response:

The Mayor of Hillview, in a memo, asks the city council to authorize a large campaign and offer a signnificant tax incentive to Autotech automobile manufacturing company to build a manufacturing plant in their area. The serious unemployment problem in Hillview made him/her to make this request. Though what is proposed in the memo seems to bring good fortune for the people of Hillview, there should be a careful consideration before accepting the recommendation; a number of false assumptions and lack of enough data are present in the memo.

The memo reveals that the people of Hillview became unemployed when a software programming company left the area. This information implies that the people, in this case probably a large number of peole, who became unemployed are software professionals. Only a software-related company can help them get a job. It is very unlikely that they will be employed by the car manufacturing company because they are not manufacturing-professionals. And the memo does not give any information about whether the unemployed people have manufacturing skills too. It would have been better if the Mayor considered a software programming companny when he/she made the memo.

The memo also yields that the area has been undeveloped for decades. It does not give any other information regarding the undeveloped condition of that area. How can the Mayor be so sure that the undeveloped area of Hillview would seem attractive by the manufacturing company? Is there any attractive feature, asite the proposed tax incentive, that would make the car manufacturing company consider Hillview as a prospective area for a new plant? Without these information it is difficult for one to be convinced that the car manufacturing company would take the long-time-undeveloped Hillview to be a good place to establish a new plant. The memo should have addressed this concern to appear more reasonable.

There is a serious issue that went unaddressed - skills necessary for car manufacturing and opportunity for training in car manufacturing available in Hillview. The memo does not give us information about the car manufacturing skills of the unemployed people of Hillview. Do they have required skill regarding this activity enough to get a job from the car manufacturing Autotech? If not, is there any training facility available in Hillview or Autotech for car manufacturing? If not, it is unlikely that the unemployed people of Hillview would be benefitted by Autotech. And if there is no considerable benefit regarding employment from Autotech, it is futile to give a tax incentive to Autotech for building a new plant in Hillview. The Mayor should ensure the appropriate training facility for the unemployed people Hillview if he/she is inclined to invite Autotech in their area.

The Mayor seems to adress the serious unemployment problem existing in Hillview with a good and effective proposal to city council, but he/she forgets or ignores some issues that should also be addressed to prove the proposal reasonable. There are lack of enough relevant data and false assumptions existing in the memo. Before the proposal, presented in the memo, be accepted by the city council, these ignored issues should be resolved.

Writing Feedback / [GRE argument task] A newsletter offers advice to invest to a new venture [5]

Written in 30 minutes.

The prompt:

"The following appeared in a newsletter offering advice to investors: "Techcorporation is our top pick for investment this term. We urge all of our clients to invest in this new company. For the first time in ten years, a company that has developed satellite technology has been approved by the FTA to compete with the current satellite provider. That company is Techcorporation. A consumer survey last year indicated that over 80 percent of respondents were dissatisfied with the current satellite provider & would want to switch to another provider if the industry were not a monopoly. Thus, the new venture of Techcorporation into satellite television will prove to be highly profitable for those who invest now."" -

Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the advice & the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the advice.

My response:

The newsletter offers advice to investors to invest to Techcorporation that has been approved to start its journey and compete with other similar companies. It is advising the investors so because it is assumed that the new venture will be highly profitable. The assumption was backed up by a survey result. However, though the offer seems tempting, it is based on some implied assumptions and lack of proper data.

The survey yields that eighty percent of respondents are dissatisfied with the current satellite television provider, and they intend to switch to another provider if any. From this single piece of information, it is hard to understand why those respondents were dissatisfied. Was it because the monotony of television programmes, or was it the quality of broadcasting that they were dissatisfied? Techcorporation should have appropriate plan to overcome those causes of dissatisfaction. Without a proper action strategy, the new venture would not do any good to satisfy the dissatisfied respondents, and attract them to their service. The lack of information on this perspective makes the claim weaker that the new venture will prove highly profitable.

Their is another consideration to take care of - the company is going to start satellite television service for the first time, or at least after ten years. They are going to compete with the companies which are experienced in dealing with television viewers for ten years. It is evident that a lot of preparations from many perspectives such as type of programs, timing of programs, advertisement policy, news broadcasting session, broadcasting quality and so on are neede when a new venture is going to fight other experienced similar companies. There is no answer regarding this preparation in the claim of the newsletter. Without this information, it cannot be believed by the investors that the new company would be profitable.

The quality of the survey could be questioned too. Did the survey ask questions to all kinds of viewers - kids, teenagers, middle-aged people, working people, homemakers, old people and to some other kinds? Different types of people have different types of tastes of watching television programs. If it can be proved that the survey did not consider one or two particular kinds of people - it can be the kids or the old people - the claim that eighty percent of the respondents are not satisfied with the current satellite television providers is weakened, and therefore weakens the claim that the new venture will be highly profitable.

The offer advised by the newsletter seems lucrative but the investors need to know a certain things before they can be convinced that the new venture will be highly profitable. The concerns are discussed in this essay - the implied assumptions and lack of enough information are mentioned. These implied assumptions and lack of information must be taken care of before the investors can believe that the new venture will be highly profitable to invest.

Writing Feedback / [GRE Issue task] Sports stars & movie stars have obligation to behave as roll models [5]

Written in 30 minutes.

The prompt:
"Sports stars & movie stars have an obligation to behave as role models for the young people who look up to them. In return for the millions of dollars that they are paid, we should expect them to fulfill this societal responsibility." -

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing & supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons or examples that could be used to challenge your position.

My response:

The showbiz and sports world attract people, more specifically the young people, by their inherent glamour and excitement. The most prominent actors in this arena, namely the stars, are regarded as role models by most of the young generation. They follow the habits, hair styles, speaking styles and certain other activities of these stars. As a result, the stars achieve the rare ability to influence the young generation easily to be like a particular kind of person. With this great ability comes a great responsibility - to motivate the young people to be good and to do good. From this consideration, I agree to the claim of the author that we should expect the stars to fulfill their social responsibility.

A star, be it a movie star or a sports star, has the envious opportunity to be admired by a large mass of young people. Though they achieve this opportunity by giving strenuous effort to fulfill their duty as an actor or as a sportsman, the scale of admiration, respect is very large. This large scale of reverence and admiration should not go unpaid. The stars have an unstated obligation to influence the people, they are admired by, to be a good citizen and a good person. They should set good examples to be followed by those young admirers. For example, a famous actor in a subcontinental country had a habit of smoking once; he used to smoke in public. A lot of his admirers adopted this habit. After several years, a lot of parents urged to him, through newspapers and magazines, to not to smoke in public. The actor gave up smoking. After his declaration of giving up smoking, there was a trend among young people in that country to give up smoking just to appear smarter to their girlfriends. So, a single good action by a star can fulfill a social responsibility without harming their image.

Stars earn a lot of money. It cannot be denied that this large amount of money goes to them for their effort and brilliance in acting or sporting activities, but they should fulfill the social responsibility too because it is the society that they are affecting to get that large amount of money. If a star pay his/her tax timely, a lot of people will be encouraged to pay tax timely just to follow their icon.

Although the stars have responsibility towards their admirers, it should not be forgotten that - in the end - they are like us - the people in society. They should have their own way of leading their life. The responsibility to society should not be imposed on them as a burden. They earn the money by hard work and they have the right to spend it in their own way as well as live their lives as they wish.

The stars get attendance, admiration, focus, and a lot of money. Though they get these things by their effort, they should not forget their responsibility to society, becayse It is the society that is giving them all these things.

Writing Feedback / [GRE: Analyze an Argument] Reduce operating expenses to reverse decline in profits [6]

Again, I exceeded the 30-minute time limit. It took 33 minutes.

The prompt:

The following appeared in a memorandum from the owner of Movies Galore, a chain of video rental stores.

"In order to reverse the recent decline in our profits, we must reduce operating expenses at Movies Galore's ten video 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. Therefore, in order to increase profits without jeopardizing our reputation for offering great movies at low prices, we recommend implementing similar changes in our other nine Movies Galore stores."

Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.

My response:

The owner of Movies Galore, in an attempt to reverse the recent decline in their profit while maintaining reputation for offering great movies at low prices, recommended a reduction in operating expenses by closing the stores earlier and eliminating old movies from the stores. The recommendation comes from an observation: one of it's stores significantly decreased its operating expenses by closing at 6:00 P.M. rather than at 9:00 P.M. and by reducing its stock by eliminating all movies released more than five years ago. However, while the observation talks about the reduced operating cost, it gives us no information about reversing the decline in profits. If the point is to increase the profits, the owner of Movies Galore should be more analytical about the observation he/she makes from the the changed operation policy of the downtown Marston store.

The Movies Galore video rental store is famous for offering great movies at low prices and it wishes to maintain this reputation. That's why, it is unwilling to raise the prices. Since there are no data regarding comparative prices of other similar stores, it is difficult to support the decision of not raising prices by Movies Galore. Does the purchase of videos from other similar stores cost slightly more than that of Movies Galore? Or, is it considerably higher? If the answer to the second question is a yes, then raising the price of videos would not harm the sales by Movies Galore. By raising the price slightly, it can compensate the operating expenses and start to make profits thereby.

The downtown store reduced its expenses by reducing it's operating time. A question can be raised here. Did this reduction reverse the decline in profit? Reducing operating time by 3 hours is significant. This is very probable that it also reduced the amount of sales while it reduced the expenses. Does these two reduction result in increased profits? If not, there is no point in reducing the operating time and closing the store earlier.

Another method that the particular store followed to reduce expenses was to eliminate older videos. This act is not much rational in the sense that the demand of old classical movies is always high. People will always like to watch the oldies such as 'The Godfather', 'The good, the bad and the ugly', 'Twelve angry men' and so on. Eliminating these classics from store would do no good in terms of reversing decline in profits because people would go for other stores to collect these movies.

The owner of the Movies Galore was not much careful when he/she suggested the the similar policy, taken by downtown Marston store, should be applied to all other stores. There are some assumptions taken as true without proof, and lack of relevant data in the argument make the suggestion by the owner not worth following.

Writing Feedback / [GRE Issue essay] Corporations have responsibility to promote well-being of societies [3]

I am very unhappy with what I did in writing this essay. First, I exceeded the 30-minute time limit, and second, I feel like I didn't properly address the prompt. The essay deviates from what the prompt states/expects and I was totally unaware of what I was doing during writing. Could you people please give your opinions?

The prompt:

Some people believe that corporations have a responsibility to promote the wellbeing
of the societies and environments in which they operate. Others believe that
the only responsibility of corporations, provided they operate within the law, is to
make as much money as possible.

Write a response in which you discuss which view more closely aligns with your
own position and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing
and supporting your position, you should address both of the views presented.

My response:

Every living being has a responsibility to the place it belongs - to other living and non-living it is a part of - for it's own sake. It might be expressed as a simple calculation. If you do good to others, you will receive good from them in return. Doing good to others can be viewed from three perspectives. First, promoting good to others can be inspired by a crafty plan to obtain even better things from the people in return, or it can be merely the philanthropy, or it can come from a sense of responsibility to the small world around one is living. In any way, doing good to others will certainly bring benefits to the do-gooders. The corporations, we can see around us operating in numerous sectors, are obviously a part of society and environment as they are operating within it. No doubt, the same calculation of doing good is also applicable to them. Whether they want to make money only or are concerned with the well-being of people the and surroundings they are interacting with, it is the sense of responsibility of promoting well-being of the society and environment that can bring well-being to both the society and themselves. Therefore, I strongly advocate for the sense responsibility of doing good to others in which corporations operate.

For many corporations, acquiring better acceptance among the people they are operating is crucial to achieve success, and sometimes to exist. The best way to earn acceptance is to promote well-being of the people they are operating in and the environment the people are living in. It gives a sense to the people that the particular corporation which is concerned for their well being are better to do business with. For example, British American Tobacco (BAT) launched a tree plantation program in a particular area of a subcontinental country. The people in that region took part in that program very enthusiastically. As a result, for a long time, the people in that area were satisfied with BAT and the local newspapers published articles praising the company. BAT certainly got well acceptance among the people in that region through this program.

Doing good also brings good name. BRAC, a well-known corporation in many countries, have taken a lot of attempts to benefit people in many ways. For example, it has invested a lot of money to invent a cheap and easy to use brail system. They have also been trying to introduce cheap nutritous foods for poor people. Certainly, they are trying to promote well-being of people in society. Now a day, almost everyone in a country BRAC operates in are in favor of using products of BRAC. Promoting well-being did not harm the money making of BRAC.

Above all, the corporations are part of society. They are making money from the people of society they belong to. They are making money while they are affecting the environment in many ways such as polluting it by noxious gas and other waste materials. As a conscientious being, they should compensate the things they are affecting in some way. Moreover, this act of compensating won't harm their money making.

While some people believe that corporations should be concerned with money-making only they forget that money-making can be done better by being aware of the responsibility of promoting well-being to society and environment. Having a good reputation in a society serves better in money-making, and it can bring a good future to the society as well. Considering all these concerns, no one should deny that corporations have a responsibility to promote well-being of societies and environments they are operating in.

Writing Feedback / A person should be very careful when making a decision - think carefully before any judgement [8]

It was timed; written in 30 minutes.

The prompt:

People who make decisions based on emotion and justify those decisions with logic afterwards are poor decision makers.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.

The response:

A simple decision can change a person's life completely. The decision can affect any area of the person's activities: education, career, relationship etc. Regardless of the area the decision can make the corresponding facet of life go wrong, or it can make the person achieve something outstanding sometime in the course of the person's life as well. That's why, a person should be very careful when making a decision. If he/she makes the decision based on emotion only, there is a high probability that the decision would be a wrong one; thus making him/her a poor decision maker. Although making decision merely on emotion can be a bad practice, emotion together with bits of prior calculation and logical reasoning can prove the best way of making decision sometime.

First, consider a martinet principal of a college in conflict with a disobedient student. A young student - a fledgling one - could be immature enough to rebel against a well established custom of that college. If, for example, the principle banish the student from college out of fury, the student's educational as well as career might be in a great risk of failure. The principal, in this scenario, have lots of ways to justify his/her decision such as protecting customs of the college etc but reasoning would not do any good in saving the student's educational life. In such cases, which are not very rare in conventional, orthodox colleges, merely the emotion should not be the drive in making important decisions.

Second, think about some cases in our personal life. The conjugal life goes through upheavals for many couple. There might be bitter fight between them. Now, if a couple - during such a fight - decides to divorce, it may cast a danger in their child's mental growth and social activities. The couple might show lots of reasons after getting divorced. Not those reasons but only a few considerations before making a decision to get divorced could help their child in many aspects of it's life. The couple - in this case - is no doubt, a poor decision maker.

Third, consider the claim for national issues. Candidates say many good stuffs before the election. Now, if a voter is convinced with the candidate's ostensible claims making their life better, and out of the emotional influx, the voters vote for the candidate, it can bring a dismal future for the country when the claims by the candidate would prove false. So, the voters should be very careful before making a decision about who to vote. They should not be overwhelmed by emotion.

As a decision can change a person's life it must be made very carefully. Merely the emotion as a drive for making a decision and then justifying the decision will bring a catastrophe in a person's life.