Please comment and grade on my GRE argument essay.

[dilotor]

Argument:

The following appeared in a memo from the vice president of a food distribution company with food storage warehouses in several cities.

"Recently, we signed a contract with the Fly-Away Pest Control Company to provide pest control services at our warehouse in Palm City, but last month we discovered that over $20,000 worth of food there had been destroyed by pest damage. Meanwhile, the Buzzoff Pest Control Company, which we have used for many years in Palm City, continued to service our warehouse in Wintervale, and last month only $10,000 worth of the food stored there had been destroyed by pest damage. Even though the price charged by Fly-Away is considerably lower, our best means of saving money is to return to Buzzoff for all our pest control services."

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

 

Answer:

Mr. Vice -President,

After analyzing the situation you have communicated to us, we believe the actions you plan to execute regarding your business might not be ideal unless we explore further the causes and proportions of pest damage your warehouses have suffered.

In first place, just because the pest damage with Buzzoff Pest Control Company in Wintervale was lower in dollar terms, this doesn’t mean there was less damage than in Palm City. The percentage of goods damaged might have been higher than the one with Fly Away Pest Control Company and it would be necessary to make this calculation to discover which of the companies provides a more effective.

Secondly, supposing the Buzoff Pest Control Company did perform better than the Fly Away Pest Control Company percentwise, it is important to note that these results were obtained in the city of Wintervale, which might be a city with a different weather that potentially might be less suitable for pests to thrive, making the results obtained not comparable. In order to be able to make that assumption, we would first need to make sure that the geographic conditions of both cities are comparable in terms of temperature, humidity and cleanness, among others, so we can discard this variable as a possible cause for the difference in damages to the merchandise among both locations.

In conclusion, the best way to save money would be to compare the damage that happened on both cities in a more fair manner, calculating the percentage of damaged goods in relation to the total merchandise stored in each warehouse and identifying if any variable other than the Pest Control Company might have caused an apparently better result in Wintervale. Failing to do so before choosing which pest control company to hire, might result in further damage to the merchandise and in higher switching costs.

 

Sincerely,

 

Diego López