Daily Gazette GMAT AWA Essays

Daily Gazette GMAT AWA Essays focus on a promotional campaign to sell advertising space. Candidates need to discuss how well this is reasoned and write with pieces of evidence. This article consists of one sample answer. The task requires the candidates to provide a tentative and argumentative answer to the question. The sample answers comprise two parts: Introduction and body. The introduction is a brief description of the topic. The body contains argumentative statements and tentative answers to support the test-taker's perspective.

GMAT AWA examines the test taker’s ability to analyze, critically think, and put their own views in an essay in 30 minutes time. Candidates need to assess and find the faults in their assumptions. The process of checking the GMAT analytical score is based on a grading scale of 1-6 in half-point increments. To increase the GMAT AWA score, practicing from GMAT analytical writing practice papers is necessary.

Topic:

The following appeared as part of a promotional campaign to sell advertising space in the Daily Gazette to grocery stores in the Marston area:

“Advertising the reduced price of selected grocery items in the Daily Gazette will help you increase your sales. Consider the results of a study conducted last month. Thirty sale items from a store in downtown Marston were advertised in The Gazette for four days. Each time one or more of the 30 items was purchased, clerks asked whether the shopper had read the ad. Two-thirds of the 200 shoppers asked answered in the affirmative. Furthermore, more than half the customers who answered in the affirmative spent over $100 at the store.”

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

Sample Essay:

The topic states that promotion, which was done in the Daily Gazette, will help increase product sales in the Marstom area. A research which was done last month is shown as an evidence for the assertion. However, the assertion is flawed for two reasons.
It says that most of the customers who purchased the advertised items in the Daily Gazette had read the advertisement. This meant it was effective. However, this is not totally convincing. The reason being that it is unknown if the customers had purchased the advertised products before or not. There is the possibility that the customers who purchased some of the products used to buy that product previously. This means that they just bought it before without being affected by the ad although they have read it.

The author has proceeded by stating how a store from downtown advertised thirty sale items for four days. It resulted in the sale of one or more of the thirty items being purchased. When inquiries were carried out, two-thirds of the 200 shoppers answered in affirmation. The store obtained $100 from those affirmative customers. Now, this statement of gaining profit through lowering prices is filled with vagueness and unsubstantiated proof. There are certain flaws in the argument as described below.

The author has stated that advertising products with reduced prices will attract crows. The customers will instantly question the authenticity of the product and probably turn their back. In today’s time, most of the customers are after high-quality products and they generally don’t hesitate to purchase even costly products. People are more indulged in purchasing pricey products which hold quality than anything else. A reduction in price can be a result of certain factors - inflation, change in taxation, or other economic issues. But then again, the question of why people would purchase products other than necessities during inflation? And how would a brand advertise during a hard time of inflation? That’s pretty ironic. Overall, there is no direct relationship between reduction of price and increase of sale.

Secondly, the argument talks about a survey that was conducted last month. There are probabilities of inflation hitting this month, or taxation process changes. Furthermore, the author has mentioned about 200 shoppers and 30 products. Nowhere in the argument, the type of product is mentioned. There are again great chances of the survey being different for other kinds of products. Had it been fashionable clothes or food items, the survey would have been different in that case.

Thirdly, the count of people upon whom the survey was conducted was pretty low. The author stated his argument based on 200 shoppers and 30 items. Now, this is a very limited number of shoppers considering the whole palace of the Marston area. Out of those, 2 out of 3 people showed their affirmations about the ad. The decision cannot be concluded based on this limited number of people. Furthermore, it has been stated that these shoppers spend $100 on purchases. It may happen that they have spent more on items other than the ones advertised on the paper. The author didn’t provide any insight about the same.

Lastly, the argument nowhere mentions the Daily Gazette being the highest selling newspaper in the place. Nowhere the newspaper’s accreditations have been given. It may happen that the Daily Gazette is among the least famous newspapers in the area. The percentage of people reading it may be very less as compared to others. The argument could have highlighted the popularity of the newspaper as compared to others. This would have thrown light on the number of customers actually witnessing the advertisements in real-time.

Overall, the argument lacks evidence and strong facts in many aspects. The author has not mentioned anything about the popularity of the newspaper, the type of products that were advertised. The count of people on whom the survey is conducted is also limited.

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Daily Gazette GMAT AWA Essays

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