The following appeared as an opinion-editorial in a local newspaper:
In the last 10 years, the number of patrons to the local library has decreased by a factor of 5, while during that time the number of purchases of electronic books has increased by a factor of 10. The director of the library believes that the cause of the decrease in patrons is due to the library not advertising as effectively as do online merchants that sell electronic books. Therefore, the library should double the amount of money that it spends on advertising, so that more patrons will frequent the library.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered to help evaluate the recommendation, and whether the argument is reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to determine the extent to which the recommendation is justified.
The author of this analytical piece arrives at the conclusion that Library should spend more money on advertising. To substantiate the assertion, the author cites that number of patrons to the local library has decreased in last 10 years and this is because of not good advertising by them. Conterproductively, close scrutiny of the facts, this argument suffers from many fallacies. The author has considered only limited factors to draw conclusion. Non-consideration of additional factors has left argument vulnerable to skepticism and ambiguities.
First and foremost, Is ineffective advertising only reason for decreasing in number of patrons? The author thinks so for the reason that the online merchants are advertising their products effectively , which resulted in increase number of purchase of electronic books. However, it is plausible that there could be other reasons for decreasing number of patrons to local library. For example, Difference between Cost (fees) of library and cost of electronic books, Different offers given by online merchants, variety of books available online, etc. The author should give information regarding these things which can make his argument convincing.
Secondly, How many number of patrons 10 years ago? Is the decrease in number of patrons large? What was condition of electronic books that time? What is the difference between number of patrons and sales of online books today? The author need to look into this factors. The author does not give information on above things. Without this information, we cannot make any conclusion in this case.
Finally, Can increase in amount of money on advertising lead to increase in number of patrons to the local library? The author has not provided strong evidence to support his recommendation. Now-a-days, People wants quality. So,Is only increase in advertising sufficient? The author need to look into additional factors.
Therefore, The author's argument is not persuasive as it stands and not cogent enough to reach to the proposed prescription. But it can become more admissible by providing information, evidences which are discussed above.
argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- Don't cast doubt on those data. 'the number of patrons to the local library has decreased by a factor of 5' is not equal to 'they don't purchase library books'. 'patrons will frequent the library' is not equal to 'they will purchase books'.
argument 3 -- OK
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 331 350
No. of Characters: 1761 1500
No. of Different Words: 164 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.265 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.32 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.918 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 139 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 102 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 72 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 53 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 14.391 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.192 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.478 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.32 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.505 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.086 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5