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.
The general manager of KNOW radio station concludes that the radio station should switch from playing rock-and-roll music to broadcasting news all day long. The author comes to this contention citing the fact that the news stations in neighboring cities saw an increase in listeners after switching to continuous news format. Before we assess the validity of this argument, the author needs to provide additional evidence against the three unwarranted assumptions stated below.
Firstly, the author assumes that the number of people over age 50 living within the vicinity of KNOW radio station has increased substantially, and that they are more inclined to listen to news than music. However, even if we consider that the population of people over age 50 prefer news over rock-and-roll, it cannot be stated with certainty that these people will resort to use radio for news. Perhaps, they prefer to consume news visually through television. It is also probable that this new generation of old people listen to radio for their daily entertainment and would prefer to hear music than news. If either of the above scenarios holds, then the author's contentions fail to hold water.
Secondly, the author assumes that the decline in sales of recorded music in stores is due to the fact that the people have grown disinterested of music. It is possible that the reason behind the drop in sales of music stores is that the recorded music is now available even in the general stores which offer discounts on bulk buy. However, there can be other reasons because of which the stores saw decline in sales. Like maybe, the people have start to use online music services, which does not require to buy a physical copy. Either of the above cases is likely to hinder the credibility of the author's assumption.
Lastly, the author assumes that there are no significant differentiating factors between the KNOW radio station and the radio stations of nearby cities, which are contributing to the success of the latter. However, it is probable that area in which that latter does business have no other means of consuming news, while the former have an efficient newspaper distribution center. It may also be possible that the latter radio stations does a trivia in addition to 24 hours news, to keep the listeners engage to the radio. In either scenario, the author's assumption is significantly weakened.
In conclusion, the general manager might be right that the switch from rock-and-roll music to 24-hour news will attract older listeners and secure KNOW radio's future. However, as it stands now the conclusion stands on three assumptions that hinder its validity. The author needs to provide evidence for above mentioned assumptions to increase the persuasiveness of their argument
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 455 350
No. of Characters: 2277 1500
No. of Different Words: 207 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.619 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.004 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.629 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 169 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 110 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 75 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 44 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.75 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.777 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.55 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.334 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.547 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.112 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 505, Rule ID: ALLOW_TO[1]
Message: Did you mean 'buying'? Or maybe you should add a pronoun? In active voice, 'require' + 'to' takes an object, usually a pronoun.
Suggestion: buying
... music services, which does not require to buy a physical copy. Either of the above ca...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 598, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...likely to hinder the credibility of the authors assumption. Lastly, the author assum...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 90, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...ificant differentiating factors between the KNOW radio station and the radio stations of...
^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 547, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...e to the radio. In either scenario, the authors assumption is significantly weakened. ...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, however, if, lastly, may, second, secondly, so, then, while, in addition, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 15.0 19.6327345309 76% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 22.0 13.6137724551 162% => OK
Pronoun: 34.0 28.8173652695 118% => OK
Preposition: 69.0 55.5748502994 124% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 16.3942115768 98% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2327.0 2260.96107784 103% => OK
No of words: 455.0 441.139720559 103% => OK
Chars per words: 5.11428571429 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.61852021839 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.68539053102 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 215.0 204.123752495 105% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.472527472527 0.468620217663 101% => OK
syllable_count: 715.5 705.55239521 101% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 43.5454934523 57.8364921388 75% => OK
Chars per sentence: 116.35 119.503703932 97% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.75 23.324526521 98% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.7 5.70786347227 100% => 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 : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.322248888342 0.218282227539 148% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0942363958562 0.0743258471296 127% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.118242101636 0.0701772020484 168% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.190398283151 0.128457276422 148% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0871966659822 0.0628817314937 139% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.0 14.3799401198 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 49.15 48.3550499002 102% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.65 12.5979740519 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.37 8.32208582834 101% => OK
difficult_words: 105.0 98.500998004 107% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => 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.