Since those issues of Newsbeat magazine that featured political news on their front cover were the poorest-selling issues over the past three years, the publisher of Newsbeat has recommended that the magazine curtail its emphasis on politics to focus more exclusively on economics and personal finance. She points to a recent survey of readers of general interest magazines that indicates greater reader interest in economic issues than in political ones. Newsbeat's editor, however, opposes the proposed shift in editorial policy, pointing out that very few magazines offer extensive political coverage anymore.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
The publisher of Newsbeat magazine proposed a shift in editorial policy, recommending that emphasis on politics be reduced and more focus be given to economics and personal finance. The publisher supported her recommendation with the fact that issues of Newsbeat magazine that featured political news on their front cover were the poorest-selling issues over the past three years and that a recent survey of readers of general interest magazines indicates that readers are more interested in economics than in politics. However, before this conclusion can be properly substantiated, three questions must be answered.
Firstly, is the features on the front cover of a magazine the only influence on the sales of the magazine? do other strategic pages of the magazine not influence its sales too? The readers may be more influence by the feature on the back cover and not the front. Hence changing the front cover feature might not increase sales. Also, the readers may prefer a blank front cover to keep them in suspense of the content of the magazine to a worded front cover. If either of the above assumptions is true, then the publisher's argument does not hold water.
Secondly, are the conditions of the last three years the same as the conditions in the present year? Are there not intriguing political issues happening now which were not prevalent before? Perhaps, the last three years have seen little or no political issues that concern the public. Maybe there was an epidemic or a major sporting event that drew the people's attention away from politics. It is also possible that the present year is an election year and many politicians will begin to give speeches that appeal to the public. If the above case is true, then the publisher's claim is unwarranted and her recommendation of focusing more exclusively on economics and personal finance is not overly persuasive.
Finally, even if it is true that the front cover has a magnanimous influence on sales and that the conditions of the last three years are the same now, we need to ask, what set of readers where surveyed? The publisher of Newsbeat magazine presumes (without evidence) that the readers surveyed recently contributes largely to sales. The surveyed might have been carried out on students who are concerned about economic matters but not solvent enough to purchase magazines. Also, it is possible that the readers surveyed prefer reading old magazines about economics and personal finance and as such have no contribution to the present sales. If it is true that the readers surveyed recently do not contribute to present sales, then the publisher's assertion is invalid and her recommendation is specious.
In conclusion, the publisher's recommendation of limiting emphasis on politics and focusing more exclusively on economics and personal finance may improve sales. However, the argument as it stands now is considerably flawed due to its reliance on several unwarranted assumptions. If the publisher can answer the above three questions and offer more evidence, then it will be possible to evaluate the viability of the proposed recommendation.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 22 15
No. of Words: 508 350
No. of Characters: 2576 1500
No. of Different Words: 210 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.748 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.071 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.805 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 181 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 159 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 123 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 63 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.091 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.258 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.727 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.318 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.533 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.135 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 108, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Do
...influence on the sales of the magazine? do other strategic pages of the magazine n...
^^
Line 3, column 264, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Hence,
...re on the back cover and not the front. Hence changing the front cover feature might ...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 512, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'publishers'' or 'publisher's'?
Suggestion: publishers'; publisher's
...the above assumptions is true, then the publishers argument does not hold water. Second...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 354, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'peoples'' or 'people's'?
Suggestion: peoples'; people's
...or a major sporting event that drew the peoples attention away from politics. It is als...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 733, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'publishers'' or 'publisher's'?
Suggestion: publishers'; publisher's
...t contribute to present sales, then the publishers assertion is invalid and her recommenda...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 20, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'publishers'' or 'publisher's'?
Suggestion: publishers'; publisher's
...tion is specious. In conclusion, the publishers recommendation of limiting emphasis on ...
^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, firstly, hence, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, in conclusion, it is true
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 17.0 11.1786427146 152% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 13.6137724551 125% => OK
Pronoun: 29.0 28.8173652695 101% => OK
Preposition: 60.0 55.5748502994 108% => OK
Nominalization: 22.0 16.3942115768 134% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2627.0 2260.96107784 116% => OK
No of words: 508.0 441.139720559 115% => OK
Chars per words: 5.17125984252 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.74751043592 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.84545388615 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 222.0 204.123752495 109% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.437007874016 0.468620217663 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 839.7 705.55239521 119% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 57.1023026494 57.8364921388 99% => OK
Chars per sentence: 114.217391304 119.503703932 96% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.0869565217 23.324526521 95% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.95652173913 5.70786347227 87% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 6.88822355289 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 12.0 4.67664670659 257% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.42147934416 0.218282227539 193% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.114581882336 0.0743258471296 154% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.11009890957 0.0701772020484 157% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.234195421404 0.128457276422 182% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.130662300155 0.0628817314937 208% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.0 14.3799401198 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 40.69 48.3550499002 84% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.1 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.71 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.12 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 109.0 98.500998004 111% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 15.5 12.3882235529 125% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.