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, that the number of people in our listening area over fifty years of age has increased dramatically, while our total number of listeners has declined. Also, music stores in our area report decreased sales of recorded music. Finally, continuous news stations in neighboring cities have been very successful. The switch from rock-and-roll music to 24-hour news will attract older listeners and secure KNOW radio's future."
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.
Memorandum from general manager of KNOW radio station states that, if they switch from rock and roll music to 24- hour news then it will attract the listeners. This conclusion is based on three reasons viz, the number of people over fifty has increased in the broadcasting area, the sales of music store has declined and the continuous news stations in the neighboring areas are successful. However, in order to evaluate this conclusion, following assumptions need to be clarified.
First of all, it is assumed that the broadcasting areas for the continuous stations in the neighboring area is comparable to the broadcasting area of the KNOW radio station. There is a possibility that the population that is addressed by the neighboring cities’ continuous station is different than that of the population where KNOW radio broadcasts. Maybe the people are older in the neighboring areas than that of in the area where KNOW focuses. Furthermore, there is a possibility that the neighboring cities don’t have other source of news which may not be the case in the KNOW broadcasted area. If the above scenarios are true, then the conclusion made by the general manager is significantly weakened.
Secondly, an assumption has been made that the older people like news and therefore the shift from music to news will benefit the radio station. It is possible that this older population like music and the reason number of listeners is declined is because the music preferred by this population is not played by KNOW station. One more thing is possible that the KNOW station broadcast lots of advertisements which are not liked by this population. In case if above is true, then the conclusion does not hold water.
Furthermore, it is also assumed that, since the sales of music stores in the area have declined, people do not like the music. There is a possibility that people like music and are accessing it through other channels such as other radio station or maybe from internet. In the event of above being true, it will weaken the author’s conclusion.
By taking into consideration above reasoning it is clear that, the conclusion made by general manager is flawed and in order to evaluate this conclusion, further information regarding above assumptions is required.
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: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 16 15
No. of Words: 378 350
No. of Characters: 1851 1500
No. of Different Words: 152 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.409 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.897 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.754 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 110 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 92 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 69 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 54 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.625 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.21 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.625 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.372 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.372 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.099 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 151, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
... comparable to the broadcasting area of the KNOW radio station. There is a possibility t...
^^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 294, Rule ID: RATHER_THEN[2]
Message: Did you mean 'different 'from''? 'Different than' is often considered colloquial style.
Suggestion: from
...cities’ continuous station is different than that of the population where KNOW radio...
^^^^
Line 2, column 573, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...ce of news which may not be the case in the KNOW broadcasted area. If the above scenario...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 358, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...tation. One more thing is possible that the KNOW station broadcast lots of advertisement...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, furthermore, however, if, may, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, as for, such as, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 12.9520958084 39% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 13.6137724551 125% => OK
Pronoun: 27.0 28.8173652695 94% => OK
Preposition: 55.0 55.5748502994 99% => OK
Nominalization: 15.0 16.3942115768 91% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1902.0 2260.96107784 84% => OK
No of words: 377.0 441.139720559 85% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.0450928382 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.4064143971 4.56307096286 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.83913071209 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 155.0 204.123752495 76% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.411140583554 0.468620217663 88% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 594.0 705.55239521 84% => 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: 4.0 8.76447105788 46% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 19.7664670659 81% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 46.1169962568 57.8364921388 80% => OK
Chars per sentence: 118.875 119.503703932 99% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.5625 23.324526521 101% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.6875 5.70786347227 135% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 6.88822355289 29% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.317428747337 0.218282227539 145% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.111291174764 0.0743258471296 150% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.101464239848 0.0701772020484 145% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.182633414272 0.128457276422 142% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0994384313929 0.0628817314937 158% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.1 14.3799401198 98% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.3550499002 100% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.31 12.5979740519 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.5 8.32208582834 90% => OK
difficult_words: 65.0 98.500998004 66% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 12.3882235529 105% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.