Argument Essay
The following appeared in an e-mail sent by the marketing director of the Classical Shakespeare Theatre of Bardville.
"Over the past ten years, there has been a 20 percent decline in the size of the average audience at Classical Shakespeare Theatre productions. In spite of increased advertising, we are attracting fewer and fewer people to our shows, causing our profits to decrease significantly. We must take action to attract new audience members. The best way to do so is by instituting a 'Shakespeare in the Park' program this summer. Two years ago the nearby Avon Repertory Company started a 'Free Plays in the Park' program, and its profits have increased 10 percent since then. If we start a 'Shakespeare in the Park' program, we can predict that our profits will increase, too."

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.

Response
The email stated to start a 'Shakespeare in the Park' program to increase the profits of Classical Shakespeare theaters sounds sensible at first, but if we probe further into the claims made by the marketing director, we realize that the recommendation is not based on reliable information. The recommendation rests on questionable assumptions, faulty analogies and lack of thorough analysis and thus has to answer several questions to convince that the recommendation would likely result in increased profits.

Firstly, the author needs to ask what is the root cause for the decline in the size of average audience. The email does not discuss the other factors which could be possible for this decline in audience. It is possible that the average audiences of all the competing theaters might have been decreased which could give indications of people to be less inclined towards classical theaters and preferring mainstream cinemas. Also, the email states that despite the advertising budget was increased, the number of viewers were less. Here the author does not consider other factors such as content of plays, the actors involved and the overall quality of the play which are more important than advertising. The recommendation could have been more plausible if the author could have provided evidences and statistics for the actual decline in audience.

Secondly, the author needs to ask whether introducing a 'Shakespeare in the Park' program in summer is the best way to increase profits. Though the author makes this claim in good intentions it is not supported by consistent evidences and analysis. The email does not discuss about the feasibility of the program and also the cost of instituting this program. It is possible that the program would itself be tough and costly enough which would make its benefits less fruitful. Also, the marketing director makes a very bold assumption that it is the best way to increase profits without even considering the other scenarios which could have been very helpful to the theater. The author needs to really to answer this question before trying this approach.

Finally, the author needs to ask whether the success of the nearby Avon Repertory Company who started a 'Free Plays in the Park' program two years ago thus increasing its profits by 10 percent would be a good evidence on which the same should be applied to Shakespeare theater. The email makes a questionable analogy between the Shakespeare theater and Avon Repertory Company. The author states that Avon was able to increase its profits by 10 percent by introducing Free plays in the park program, but he does not provide any concrete statistics to indicate that the increase in profits were indeed from the introduction of this program or some other factors which could have played a role in their increasing profits. It is possible that the result for one theater would not hold true for the other one and so the same strategy is not possible to generate the same result. Moreover, Avon started their program 2 years ago and a lot of things might have changed in these two years and it is likely that the program would not be able to have the same effect it had two years ago.

The author needs to answer these questions before proceeding on the recommendations and without the answers it is less likely that the recommendation would bring in the intended result. The author needs to research more on the issue and come up with credible explanations to make the recommendation more convincing.


Issue Essay
The best way to teach is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones.

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.

Response
Teaching is one of the highly debatable topics in current scenario. people are defined by the actions they perform and this plays a very important role in molding their character. It is indeed incontrovertible that any positive action performed by the person should be encouraged and exalted as it would be a very good teaching experience thus motivating the individual. However, it would be bad if we ignore their negative actions and only consider the positive ones while teaching. In any way of teaching an individual, the negative actions are to be criticized in the same amount as they are praised for their positive ones.

Schools are generally places a child learns of the basic subjects and vales of his life and this forms a very good base for him in future for building on this knowledge with complex concepts. Teachers are always inclined to encourage students in their endeavors and always support the students good actions. However, it would be very wrong on their part if they completely ignore their negative traits. For example, a student good in studies and ranks first among the class could treat others disrespectfully and carry on a lot of pride and arrogance in interacting with others. Here, even though the students academic performance is to be exalted, his bad habits should not be overlooked and the teachers should address it so that the student would not have the same bad attitude in his further life too.

Criticism plays a very important role in teaching people in the same ways as praising an individual. If the person does not get any useful negative comments on which he could improve and just positive comments from the people then he would not be able to assess his performance and improve further. For example, if an actor is just provided with encomiums and his negative traits are overlooked, he might not know his weaknesses and would be under the impression that his perfect and requires no change. That is the reason, the critics play a very important role in movie industry as their able to highlight the negative actions so that the people involved in the movie could improve upon them. In this case, the critics comments would be lot of helpful to the actor in becoming a very good artist.

political leaders all over the world are revered by their population and these leaders become a very good source of inspiration to the people. Even the leaders governing the country learn everyday from their daily experiences and these help them in further enhancing the life of their population. Even though their good work is to be celebrated by people their negative works should not be neglected. Criticizing the negative actions undertaken by the government helps in making the leaders realize their mistakes thus encouraging them to correct their errors and avoid them in future.

On the flip side, however, one may argue that ignoring negative actions would be the best way since the person would always be kept motivated and would not encounter any negativity. This could be helpful for some handful amount of people who are not comfortable with others pointing out their negative points, but in general overlooking the negative actions would likely result in bad effects for the individual.

Criticizing people for their negative actions is as important as praising their good actions. Only by commenting on their shortcomings and their negative traits an individual could learn properly and improve further. Avoiding their negative actions would just lead to individuals who are just being praised heavily and are not aware of their mistakes.