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 text, the author cites a memorandum from the manager of the WWAC radio station who is highlighting the decline in listener numbers from the WWAC listener area. The manager goes on to say that this is because the people who have recently moved to the mentioned area are not a fan of the rock-music format, or perhaps not a fan of music at all. He further suggests that WWAC should change into a news and talk format which is popular.
This argument rests on a series of unsubstantiated assumptions and needs specific evidence on many aspects to evaluate it.
Firstly, the manager states that even though the population has increased in the area, there has been a decline in the listener numbers. Also, it has been stated that the growth is mainly from people moving here after their retirement. This is an assumption because population growth, in a particular area cannot fluctuate much in a given time. If the population growth in that area has increased less, compared to a decline in listener numbers, this weakens the argument significantly. The time duration in which the decline in listener numbers was observed needs to be stated to match it with the population change that occurred in that time to strengthen the argument. This will denote if the real reason for the decline is population change or not.
Secondly, it has been assumed that changing to a music format tailored to the tastes of the new residents may bring in more listeners. If the WWAC radio station switches the music format according to people's liking, it may lose the listener's interest as it will be in line with the other radio channels which are already in this new format of music. People may listen to the conventional channels rather than WWAC because it is new in the market for that particular music format. This weakens the argument. This can be strengthened by providing evidence of formats used by other radio channels.
Thirdly, it is stated that because there is a continuing decline in local sales of recorded music, it suggests that people have limited interest in music and may like news and talk format which is popular. Music as a domain is technically vast and has many genres. It has not been stated that the recorded music is of which genre and the success statistics of the recorded music-makers whose albums are facing a sales decline in that area. This weakens the argument and is unconvincing. To strengthen the argument, sales statistics of those recorded music albums must be analyzed.
In conclusion, the recommendation is not well supported by the provided facts and is unconvincing in the aspects stated.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 5 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 449 350
No. of Characters: 2131 1500
No. of Different Words: 179 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.603 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.746 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.626 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 154 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 112 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 76 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 38 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.381 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.459 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.429 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.319 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.528 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.091 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 6, column 201, Rule ID: TO_NON_BASE[1]
Message: The verb after "to" should be in the base form: 'people'.
Suggestion: people
... switches the music format according to peoples liking, it may lose the listeners inter...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, firstly, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, third, thirdly, well, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 27.0 19.6327345309 138% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.9520958084 77% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 21.0 13.6137724551 154% => OK
Pronoun: 35.0 28.8173652695 121% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 58.0 55.5748502994 104% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2182.0 2260.96107784 97% => OK
No of words: 449.0 441.139720559 102% => OK
Chars per words: 4.85968819599 5.12650576532 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.60321845022 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.68394033033 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 188.0 204.123752495 92% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.418708240535 0.468620217663 89% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 685.8 705.55239521 97% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 14.0 4.96107784431 282% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 50.2029893139 57.8364921388 87% => OK
Chars per sentence: 103.904761905 119.503703932 87% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.380952381 23.324526521 92% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.47619047619 5.70786347227 78% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => 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: 0.33978253954 0.218282227539 156% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0983024045261 0.0743258471296 132% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0892106943484 0.0701772020484 127% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.151602338924 0.128457276422 118% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.125505074326 0.0628817314937 200% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.2 14.3799401198 85% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 58.62 48.3550499002 121% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 12.197005988 84% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.91 12.5979740519 87% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.95 8.32208582834 96% => OK
difficult_words: 93.0 98.500998004 94% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 12.3882235529 105% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => 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.