The following memo was circulated by the management team of a retail company:

“We are very pleased to announce that the relocation of our inventory, which had been located in four different warehouses throughout the country, to a single new warehouse near Company headquarters in Boston. This consolidated location will cut the company’s expenses for warehouse rent in half. As a result we expect our monthly profitability to go up by this amount.”

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. Point out flaws in the argument's logic and analyze the argument's underlying assumptions. In addition, evaluate how supporting evidence is used and what evidence might counter the argument's conclusion. You may also discuss what additional evidence could be used to strengthen the argument or what changes would make the argument more logically sound

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The argument concludes that monthly profitability will increase because of the decrease in warehouse expenses. The management team assumes that by decreasing warehouse expenses, total monthly profitability will increase.

The team assumes that most of the expenses will be reduced if the inventories are relocated near the Boston headquarter. Even though the costs of storing the inventory in the warehouse are reduced, the costs of transporting the inventory to consumers might increase. This can lead to even greater increase in expenses, and not necessarily increase monthly profitability. If most of the company's sales transactions take place around the Boston headquarter, then there is a possibility of decreasing expenses. The team cannot assume that the amount saved in warehouse rent expense translates automatically to increase profitability.

The costs of transporting all the inventory from the four different locations to the warehouse near headquarter may increase monthly expenses. Even though this is not relevant throughout the entire year, it does affect the current monthly profibility. If there is an increase in expenses, profitability will decrease. This does not lead to the expected conclusion that profitability will increase by the amount saved in warehouse rent expense.

When the management team of a the retail company relocated its inventory, it assumed that by decreasing warehouse rent expense, it would increase profiability by exactly the same amount. There are other expenses that can affect the profitability fuction as well.

Hi Cindy,

Par 1 - The intro paragraph should do more than summarize the argument. It should also indicate your view of the argument, giving the reader a preview of the objections that you will be raising. By the way, your summary of the argument leaves out a key detail - that the memo claims that profitability will rise by the same amount that is saved in warehouse rent.

Par 2 - You should start this paragraph by announcing its main idea. The main idea seems to be in the last sentence of the paragraph. This idea should be given more emphasis, and its relevance to the the memo's argument should be stated more clearly. You might, for instance, begin the paragraph by saying -
"The argument assumes that the amount saved in warehouse rent expense will translate automatically to increase profitability. However, ..."

Par 3 - This paragraph does not appear to make a new point distinct from the one you made in Par 2. To avoid repeating the same idea in 2 of your body paragraphs, spend 5 minutes at the start of your half-hour brainstorming.

Par4 - You're right that the last paragraph should summarize what you have said. However, it's a good idea to use "signpost words", such as "thus", "however", "nevertheless", "therefore", etc. to show how your ideas are related to one another. Without such a signpost word, the reader has to figure out how last sentence of your essay relates to the argument described in the sentence before it.

-Jad

could someone come up with additional pts on how the logic is flawed in this prompt? I can't seem to think of any others.

Thanks for your help!