Argument essay - Silver Screen

[JonRiemann]

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument.

The following is taken from a memo from the advertising director of the Silver Screen Movie Production Company. "According to a recent report from our marketing department, fewer people attended movies produced by Silver Screen during the past year than in any other year. And yet the percentage of generally favorable comments by movie reviewers about specific Silver Screen movies actually increased during this period. Clearly, the contents of these reviews are not reaching enough of our prospective viewers; so 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. Silver Screen should therefore spend more of its budget next year on reaching the public through advertising and less on producing new movies."

Here is my response (done under 30 minute timed conditions). Please rate on the six-point scale and comment. Thank you so much.



The relationship between critics and ticket sales has long been an issue of concern to movie studios. Film commercials are frequently filled with bits of critique precisely because of this issue. Unfortunately, the link of critics to ticket sales to advertisements, while quite possibly true, is not supported by the memo.

First, the above argument implicitly assumes that the views of critics are a determining factor in the decisions moviegoers make. While this is a common view (especially among critics), the author fails to give any empirical evidence for this idea. It could be true, but one has no way of knowing based on this text.

Second, the author fails to provide evidence that potential customers are not being exposed to reviews. In the absence of support for a general connection between ticket sales and professional criticism, it seems crucial that at least some justification be made for the concern over people being made aware of the content of such opinions. Since this is lacking, one cannot even attempt to make a weak argument based on a common relationship.

Even if one accepts that the author is correct on both of these prior points, there is no proof that lack of exposure to critical opinion was the reason for the decline in attendance. There are a myriad of other possibilities, including economic factors, that should be taken into account. The author doesn't address any alternatives or provide support for the idea that exposure was a critical factor, so the connection cannot be made.

Lastly, the author assumes that a change in budget allocation is the appropriate response to the problem. Assuming that everything else the author says can be supported with evidence and better arguments, this is still not a logical conclusion. It may very well be that more advertising dollars are required to fix the problem. However, perhaps it's not so much the quantity of such advertisements or the amount of money put into them as it is the quality of the advertisements that is the problem. For example, the problem could be as simple as the review text being too small in the advertisement. Such a problem could be fixed in future ads with no significant change in the advertising budget. This is just one possibility out of many that the author should consider before encouraging a significant change to the workings of the Silver Screen Movie Production Company.

The argument presented fails on multiple points. It appeals to assumptions that many of us hold, but provides no evidence that those beliefs are correct. Furthermore, it makes several leaps of logic that do not take into account other possibilities. Before making major changes to the company, alternative possibilities should be considered.

[pettygal]

Hi,u can articulate your views quite well but i don't really underststand your second point.
Anyway,for me,i think this is quite a good argument if taking into account of the time constraint.
I will rate it 5

[samarfadl]

Hi JonRiemann!

I read your essay and I have the following comments:

The introduction is "pretty scary" I feel that you are expressing your opinions in this paragraph and as you know you are not allowed to give your personal opinions in an argument.
But it would be better to ask second opinion from other Test Magicians.

I couldn't get your point of view in the third paragraph.

Some sentences need to be reorganized.

These points also can be added:

1) A survey must be cited to prove that only Silver Screen suffers a decline in Movies' attendance. Because if other Movies Companies suffer the same decline in number of attendance, the advertisement can't be the reason of the decline but it could be attributed to other factors such as economic recession or an increase in the ticket price.

2) The author gives a hasty conclusion that the decline in number of movies' attendance is attributed to the public's lack of awareness that movies of good quality are available (bad advertising). Perhaps the public are aware of the presence of these good movies but they are unable to attend such movies due to other factors such as bad timing, i.e. people are busy with their jobs and exams.

3) Another point that could be illustrated, that there could be a competition by other Movies' Companies who produce better movies that can compete with Silver Screen's movies. Perhaps they are hiring much favorable actors and actresses compared to those appearing in Silver Screen's movies.

Hope that you don't mind my comments.

See u soon and keep posting.

sorry for not rating the argument i'm not good at that mission.