The following appeared in a memorandum from the manager of WWAC radio station.
"To reverse a decline in listener numbers, our owners have decided that WWAC must change from its current rock-music format. The decline has occurred despite population growth in our listening area, but that growth has resulted mainly from people moving here after their retirement. We must make listeners of these new residents. We could switch to a music format tailored to their tastes, but a continuing decline in local sales of recorded music suggests limited interest in music. Instead we should change to a news and talk format, a form of radio that is increasingly popular in our area."
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
The writer of the argument alleges that the decline of the number of the listeners is directly correlated to the rock-music format that is playing in the radio station. Although the argument seems cogent at first glance but when we delve deeper into the argument it is rife of fallacious which I explain three of them now.
First of all, the author of the argument assumes that retired people do not like rock-music and as the number of them are increasing so the total number of the listeners decrease. To support his idea, the author do not present any evidence like statistical data or survey. Maybe the number of retired people are not huge in comparison with the total population of the city. Moreover, he do not any evidence that shows retired persons do not like rock-music. In order to improve the argument, the writer could hold a survey with scientific method that study all of the possibilities.
Secondly, the author provide some evidence of a decline in local sale of music track to demonstrate music listener are decreasing in this area while neglect other possibilities. Maybe, due to the advance in technology the number of buying recorded music decreased and people prefer to download online their favorite music. Another possibility is that people may buy their music on the concert tour when they are outside the city. In order to more persuasive the argument, the author should scrutinize other possibilities and provide some evidence to refute them.
Finally, even if we accept the listener do not like any kind of music, the writer suggest to change the program of the radio station to news and talk to attract the listeners. the author do not provide any information that why he has chosen these kinds of program and not other types like sports, comedy, or politics. To make more believable the argument for the reader, the author should hold a comprehensive survey about different types of program that may attract the local listeners and then he could decide about the future program of the radio station.
In conclusion, though the writer try to suggest different solution to attract listeners for radio station, he fails to present persuasive evidence to convince the reader.
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: 14 15
No. of Words: 372 350
No. of Characters: 1798 1500
No. of Different Words: 165 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.392 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.833 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.52 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 136 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 93 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 57 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 32 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 26.571 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 11.005 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.571 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.396 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.645 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.203 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 388, Rule ID: HE_VERB_AGR[1]
Message: The pronoun 'he' must be used with a third-person verb: 'does'.
Suggestion: does
...al population of the city. Moreover, he do not any evidence that shows retired per...
^^
Line 3, column 558, Rule ID: ALL_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'all the'.
Suggestion: all the
...urvey with scientific method that study all of the possibilities. Secondly, the author ...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 177, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: The
...news and talk to attract the listeners. the author do not provide any information t...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, first, if, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, then, while, in conclusion, kind of, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 8.0 19.6327345309 41% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 12.9520958084 46% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 11.1786427146 81% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 25.0 28.8173652695 87% => OK
Preposition: 57.0 55.5748502994 103% => OK
Nominalization: 20.0 16.3942115768 122% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1843.0 2260.96107784 82% => OK
No of words: 372.0 441.139720559 84% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.95430107527 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.39173103935 4.56307096286 96% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.59448991229 2.78398813304 93% => OK
Unique words: 174.0 204.123752495 85% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.467741935484 0.468620217663 100% => OK
syllable_count: 594.9 705.55239521 84% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 4.96107784431 40% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 19.7664670659 76% => 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: 24.0 22.8473053892 105% => OK
Sentence length SD: 40.1194881988 57.8364921388 69% => OK
Chars per sentence: 122.866666667 119.503703932 103% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.8 23.324526521 106% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.4 5.70786347227 130% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.67664670659 21% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.149115906658 0.218282227539 68% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0591717505418 0.0743258471296 80% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0658369040087 0.0701772020484 94% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0882035330237 0.128457276422 69% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0257633225812 0.0628817314937 41% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.3 14.3799401198 99% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 47.12 48.3550499002 97% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.197005988 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.73 12.5979740519 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.14 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 78.0 98.500998004 79% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 12.3882235529 105% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 11.1389221557 104% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.