The following appeared in a memorandum from the general manager of KNOW radio station.
"Several factors indicate that radio station KNOW should shift its programming from rock-and-roll music to a continuous news format. Consider, for example, the number of older people in our listening area has increased dramatically, while the total number of our listeners has recently declined. Also, music stores in our area report decreased sales of recorded music.
Finally, continuous news stations in neighboring cities have been very successful, and a survey taken just before the recent election shows that local citizens are interested in becoming better informed about politics."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
The general manager of KNOW radio station recommends in a memorandum that the station should shift its programming from rock-and-roll music to continuous news. She/he bases this recommendation on the claim that the radio's audience has switched to an aging population, the sales of music stores have declined, and the public has showed interest in keeping up with politics, this will be a good move for the station. However, in making this argument, the manager has made several assumptions that must be evaluated for the recommendation to be considered seriously.
Firstly, the manager asserts that the number of older people tuning into KNOW station has increased dramatically, and the station should switch to news to cater to this new audience. However, the manager assumes without a doubt that older people will not enjoy rock-and-roll music. Moreover, the manager dangerously overlooks the possibility that such music may be the very reason that older people have started listening to the station. To get to the truth of the matter, the manager must first provide evidence - perhaps in the form of a survey of the station's audience - regarding whether they prefer news over rock-and-roll. In failing to do so, the manager may well drive away its core demographic, and take a turn for the worse.
Additionally, the manager states that music stores in the area of the station have recorded a decrease in sales, and attempts to tie this into the decrease in the number of people listening to KNOW station. The manager provides no explanation whatsoever for this correlation. There can be any number of reasons for the poor sales in the music stores, none of which may apply to the radio station. One reason, for example, is that people nowadays flock to music apps instead of to music stores, which will lead to a decline in the sales of music records, but does not indicate loss of interest in music altogether. Indeed, it may very well be that such people will prefer to listen to music broadcasted free of cost by the radio station, without the hassle of purchasing a record. In assuming that there is a general decline in the number of people listening to music, the manager might make the grave mistake of leading the station onto the wrong track.
Finally, the manager cites a survey claiming that local people in neighbouring cities have indicated a keenness in being better informed about politics. To begin with, the manager categorically assumes that the concerned people represent a sizeable chunk of the station's audience. There is a chance that these people have never heard of KNOW station, and do not affect its popularity whatsoever. Further, as the survey has been conducted right before an impending election, this interest in politics might be short-lived. Perhaps after the election, once the social pressure of keeping one's finger on the pulse has subsided, the public might revert to their old interests. If this happens, KNOW station will have to reconsider their programming strategies, which may be a big task in itself.
In conclusion, the manager states several reasons for believing that KNOW station needs to change its programming from its current focus on rock-and-roll music to a continuous news stream. However, on closer look, it is clear that this reasoning is based on several shaky assumptions for which the manager provides no relevant and conclusive evidence. Thus it is in the best interest of the manager to reevaluate her/his recommended strategy to determine if it is worth following through.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 9 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 7 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 587 350
No. of Characters: 2890 1500
No. of Different Words: 254 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.922 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.923 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.644 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 213 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 161 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 95 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 59 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.522 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.728 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.652 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.35 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.532 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.115 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 216, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'radios'' or 'radio's'?
Suggestion: radios'; radio's
...is recommendation on the claim that the radios audience has switched to an aging popul...
^^^^^^
Line 3, column 555, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'stations'' or 'station's'?
Suggestion: stations'; station's
... perhaps in the form of a survey of the stations audience - regarding whether they prefe...
^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 263, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'stations'' or 'station's'?
Suggestion: stations'; station's
...eople represent a sizeable chunk of the stations audience. There is a chance that these ...
^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 353, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Thus,
...es no relevant and conclusive evidence. Thus it is in the best interest of the manag...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, first, firstly, however, if, look, may, moreover, regarding, so, thus, well, for example, in conclusion, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 19.6327345309 87% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 18.0 12.9520958084 139% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 20.0 13.6137724551 147% => OK
Pronoun: 43.0 28.8173652695 149% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 88.0 55.5748502994 158% => OK
Nominalization: 28.0 16.3942115768 171% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2963.0 2260.96107784 131% => OK
No of words: 585.0 441.139720559 133% => OK
Chars per words: 5.06495726496 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.9180050066 4.56307096286 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.7514142824 2.78398813304 99% => OK
Unique words: 262.0 204.123752495 128% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.447863247863 0.468620217663 96% => OK
syllable_count: 916.2 705.55239521 130% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 15.0 8.76447105788 171% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 6.0 1.67365269461 358% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 8.0 4.22255489022 189% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 22.8473053892 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 41.3096564094 57.8364921388 71% => OK
Chars per sentence: 128.826086957 119.503703932 108% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.4347826087 23.324526521 109% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.73913043478 5.70786347227 101% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.408750960224 0.218282227539 187% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.132630824202 0.0743258471296 178% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.139979047686 0.0701772020484 199% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.254947093364 0.128457276422 198% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0806347747212 0.0628817314937 128% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.1 14.3799401198 105% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 46.1 48.3550499002 95% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.36 12.5979740519 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.49 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 134.0 98.500998004 136% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.1389221557 108% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.