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.
In the passage, the manager argues that WWAC radio station should change its current rock-music format to a news and talk format. Stated in this way, the argument distorts the view of the situation by manipulating facts and by providing weak evidence. In support of the above argument, the manager reasons that despite the population growth in the area mainly due to retired people, there is a decrease in listener numbers and also it has observed a curtailed interest for music at local sales. Thus, the station should apply a news and talk format which is increasingly popular in the area. However, careful scrutiny og the the evidence reveals that it provides little credible support for his/her recommendation.
Fist of all, the manager readily assumes that the observed increasing interest from the side of the locals concerning news and talks is a result of the new residents of the city, the retired people. This is merely an assumption made without much solid ground. For example, the increasing interest may is a result of the preferences of the people who live many years and are not new in the city. It is possible that new residents are totally indifferent for the local radio stations. Hence the argument would have been more convincing if it explicity stated that the retired people who live now in the city are indeed interested to hear local news.
Moreover, the manager points out that the decline in local music store is an indicator that locals are lacking of interest about music. This again is weak and unsupported claim as it does not demonstrate any clear correlation between the decline at local music store with the supposed lacking of interest for music from locals. To illustrate further, it is possible that the servant at local store to be rude and very inconsistent with his/her service or people prefer the source of Internet as a mean of listening music.
In conclusion, the manager’s argument is unpersuasive as it stands. To bolster it further, the manager must provide more concrete evidence, perhaps by the way of a reliable survey among the local people of the area relative with their actual preferences about the music and the station. Finally, to better evaluate the argument, it would be necessary to know more information about what are the main reason that local people seem uninterested for the station.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 8 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 7 2
No. of Sentences: 16 15
No. of Words: 398 350
No. of Characters: 1915 1500
No. of Different Words: 190 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.467 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.812 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.546 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 140 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 105 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 64 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 33 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.875 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.453 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.562 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.342 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.554 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.092 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
In the passage, the manager argues that ...
^^
Line 1, column 624, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: the
... the area. However, careful scrutiny og the the evidence reveals that it provides littl...
^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 624, Rule ID: DT_DT[1]
Message: Maybe you need to remove one determiner so that only 'the' or 'the' is left.
Suggestion: the; the
... the area. However, careful scrutiny og the the evidence reveals that it provides littl...
^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...le support for his/her recommendation. Fist of all, the manager readily assumes...
^^
Line 2, column 485, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Hence,
...different for the local radio stations. Hence the argument would have been more convi...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... indeed interested to hear local news. Moreover, the manager points out that th...
^^^
Line 3, column 525, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... Internet as a mean of listening music. In conclusion, the manager’s argument is...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, hence, however, if, may, moreover, so, thus, for example, in conclusion, by the way
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 19.6327345309 92% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 12.9520958084 46% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 13.6137724551 95% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 28.8173652695 97% => OK
Preposition: 53.0 55.5748502994 95% => OK
Nominalization: 18.0 16.3942115768 110% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1961.0 2260.96107784 87% => OK
No of words: 396.0 441.139720559 90% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.95202020202 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.46091344257 4.56307096286 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.62412864933 2.78398813304 94% => OK
Unique words: 197.0 204.123752495 97% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.497474747475 0.468620217663 106% => OK
syllable_count: 630.9 705.55239521 89% => 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: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 2.70958083832 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => 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: 24.0 22.8473053892 105% => OK
Sentence length SD: 52.0801290681 57.8364921388 90% => OK
Chars per sentence: 122.5625 119.503703932 103% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.75 23.324526521 106% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.125 5.70786347227 107% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 7.0 5.25449101796 133% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => 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: 0.193827743842 0.218282227539 89% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0636137148991 0.0743258471296 86% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0799492533426 0.0701772020484 114% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.112326187188 0.128457276422 87% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0660333998198 0.0628817314937 105% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.3 14.3799401198 99% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 47.12 48.3550499002 97% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.197005988 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.73 12.5979740519 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.65 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 96.0 98.500998004 97% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 11.1389221557 104% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.