GMAT Sample Essays - Spiessa Restaurant Industry Essay Prompt

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The following is taken from a sample essay prompt (Analytical Writing Assignment Section) of the GMAT:

The following appeared as part of an article in the travel section of a newspaper:

“Over the past decade, the restaurant industry in the country of Spiessa has experienced unprecedented growth. This surge can be expected to continue in the coming years, fueled by recent social changes: personal incomes are rising, more leisure time is available, single-households are more common, and people have a greater interest in gourmet food, as evidenced by a proliferation of publications on the subject.”

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How to Plan before writing the essay

P:(1)Over the past decade, the restaurant industry in the country of Spiessa has experienced unprecedented growth

(2)fueled by recent social changes: personal incomes are rising, more leisure time is available, single-person households are more common, and people have a greater interest in gourmet food, as evidenced by a proliferation of publications on the subject.

C: This surge can be expected to continue in the coming years.

        (1) Future predict is needed.
        (2) The evidence of incomes are rising, more leisure time, single-person households and greater interest in gourmet as evidenced by a proliferation of publications on the subject.

Sample Essay #1

In the argument above, the author concludes that the growth in the country of Spiessa’s restaurant industry will continue in the coming years. The premise of the argument is that this industry has experienced an unprecedented growth over the past decade. Additional evidences for the cause of this growth are the social changes such as increasing incomes, more leisure time, single-person households, and interest of the people in gourmet food. However, the argument is flawed because it falsely assumes that the earlier growth and the social changes will cause the people to go out to have food at the restaurants and to spend money eating outside, eventually leading to the growth of the restaurant industry.

First, the argument wrongly assumes that the previous growth will have its effect in the future. However, the author fails to provide evidence regarding the growth of restaurant industry in the previous years. It is entirely possible that this industry grew due to some government decisions for restaurant businesses that took effect during the last decade.
Government decisions regarding the food quality improvement and price reduction can surely cause the people to go out and eat at the restaurants.

Second, the reasoning in the article is flawed because it erroneously assumes that the social changes such as increasing incomes and more leisure time will lead to continuous growth in the restaurant industry. Yet, there is no information provided that why the people with increased incomes with more leisure time will go and spend their money only at restaurants. There is a possibility that this group of people will spend the money on a foreign trip, camping out, or watching a movie at cinema. If the people opt for these alternative options, the restaurant business can not grow according to the expectations.

Third, the evidence supporting the argument makes a weak claim that the single-person households and interest in gourmet food cause the people to have food at restaurants. But, there is not enough information to support this claim. It is possible that the single-household persons are unlikely to eat at restaurants as they don’t have any close partner to go along with them. It is also possible that the people of this country have a habit of eating and preparing gourmet food at home. Considering these examples, the restaurant business growth is unexpected.

Moreover, the argument can be improved by appealing to the country’s history with the growth of restaurant industry. In particular, the growth experienced due to the interest of the people to eat at the special kind of fast-food restaurants. The food offered at these restaurants has been in high demand and the existing fast-food restaurants are still not able to fulfill the complete demand of the people of the country. The association of the restaurant industry has decided to open more restaurants in major cities to fulfill this demand. Adding this example will surely strengthen the argument made by the author.

In conclusion, the argument in the article presented in the travel section of a newspaper is flawed because it assumes that social changes can be the cause of growth. Moreover, the argument wrongly concludes that this growth will continue in the coming years. Hence, the argument is not well reasoned as it is not backed by strong evidences and premises.



Sample Essay #2

This article cites that as a result of the increasing personal incomes, and the rising leisure time, the growing universality of single-person households, and the increasing interest in gourmet food, the surge of the restaurant industry in the country of Spiessa can be expected to continue in the coming years. However, careful scrutiny of these evidences reveals numerous potential problems and critical flaws that render its author’s position untenable.

It is mentioned in the article that the personal incomes in the country of Spiessa has been increasing. By this factor, the speaker is attempting to inform us that citizens will spend most of their increased incomes having dinner in the restaurants. However, this belief has distorted a plain truth. Consider, for example, people in this country tend to pay more attention on education, rather than eating, and they are more likely to invest their extra money on their children’s education. Under such circumstances, it is unlikely for the restaurant industry to meet a continue surge.

Except for the four reasons, the author also guaranteed that the surge of increasing food industry will "continue" within the next years. The basis of his prediction is simple: all aspects concerned with food industry would remain during this period. But it might turn out that his expectation could be vague. The development of certain industries depends on complex issues, such as the cost of raw materials or market condition. If either of the elements tends to be worse, the food industry could suffer from the crash and would not continue the surge of "unprecedented growth".

The article made its own view for local R industry based on interest of local residents in a travel section of magazine. This lead us to believe domestic consumption is a major portion within S r industry. But if overseas travelers spend more money on gourmet food in S, and they simply became less willing to visit S for food in the coming years, we can expect these visitors as major consumer for S. Perhaps even domestic consumption couldn't make any contribution to boosting local R industry.

By way of conclusion, this argument has not succeeded in providing compelling reasons to support the relationship described by the author. To strengthen the conclusion, the author should have to provide additional evidences to support that the increase in all the four areas will have direct proportional relationship with the sales of restaurants.

Sample Essay #3

The argument that the unprecedented growth in restaurant industry can be expected to continue in the coming years omits some important concerns that must be addressed to substantiate the argument. The statement that follows the description of why this growth will continue simply describes some social changes evidenced by a public proliferation. This alone does not constitute a logical argument in favor of the coming growth, and it certainly does not provide enough support or proof of the main argument.

First, the argument just lists some recent social changes but does not point out the relationship between these changes and the coming growth in restaurant industry. No further evidence is mentioned in the argument to explain the causal oversimplification of them. People with more incomes and leisure time have several options other than going to the restaurant to choose. Second, the authority of the proliferation of publications is doubtful.

The argument not only does not mention the name of this proliferation, but does not cite concrete statistics of the evidence that the proliferation of publications on the subject claims. Until these questions are answered, the evidence is worthless as proof for the conclusion. Finally, the argument believes the unprecedented growth in restaurant industry will continue as it does over the past decade. However, the background conditions of restaurant market cannot remain the same at different times. It is not clear in the statement whether the current conditions of restaurant industry are the same as they used to be. Thus it is impossible to conclude that.

Because the argument leaves out several key issues and fails to provide adequate justification for the prediction, it is quite unwarranted. To better assess the argument, additional details like concrete data and further explanation are needed. If it did so, the argument would have become more convincing.

Sample Essay #4

There is no clear connection between the social changes and the continuing increase in demand for restaurants.

This argument concludes the restaurant industry in the Spiessa will continue growth in the coming years because the restaurant industry in Spiessa grew unprecedentedly over the past decade. Other proposed evidence of this prediction are personal incomes are rising, more leisure time, single-person households are generalized and people have a greater interest in gourmet food. The conclusion is not convincing to me because the future prediction in the argument is difficult to be guaranteed and there is no information about what the social changes are in relation to what they were.

Using current growth to predict future growth is unreliable. Although the growth in Spiessa can be observed now, it doesn’t mean the growth will be continued in the future. Personal incomes could decrease in the future. People may interests in gambling later, then the growth prediction will fail in the future. Sometimes, if future event needs to be predicted, some trend analysis are needed, likes economic growth estimation. Those trend analysis will increase the accuracy of prediction. In this argument, there is no trend analysis for the prediction that the conclusion makes.

Most of the social changes have no sources to prove them except one that people have a greater interest in gourmet food. Although the argument lists the rising of personal incomes, more leisure time, people have a greater interest in gourmet food, and more single-person households to support the growth of restaurant industry, the argument doesn’t point out the source of these phenomenon. Statistic numbers or trusted sources are needed to support these premises. Even though all premises have the trusted sources, the inference of restaurant industry growth from these phenomenon is vague. The evidence to prove these phenomenon implying the growth of restaurant industry is needed.

Looking at the evidence cited, we can see many flaws so that the conclusion is not held up. Incomes may be going up, but this doesn’t guarantee that people will spend the increased income on eating out. More leisure time might suggest that people travel more and spend money on food out elsewhere. And single-person households may have the stereotype of eating out, but there is nothing to support this. Further single households may become multiple. None of this information predicts a demand for more restaurants in the future. The argument goes on to say that because the sale of gourmet food magazines has increased, there is an increase in interest in good food, and this interest translates to eating out. Maybe people will cook the same old thing despite their interest and maybe they will cook gourmet at home.

The premise that the argument proposed are not enough to support its conclusion. Some trend analysis about restaurant industry are needed. Furthermore, the causes that make this industry growth are need to be pointed out and proved. After the causes and future trends about the industry are found, the argument could be convincing.

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