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 arguement briefly states that a memorandum briefly states the audience of WWAC radio station has decreased due to certain factors. The enumerated factors are increased retired population and interest of the new population in different type of music. It also describes the decrease in number of sales of music record have decreased in local stores and thereby concludes that the people of this area are no more interested in music in general, hence the radio should shut down it's current rock-music format and change to a news and talk format to reverse the decline in number of listeners. I believe that this arguement is heavily flawed for the following reasons.
Firstly, the arguement assumes that just because the population is mostly comprised of old resident, they will not be interested in rock and roll music. The scenario maybe entirely different, maybe they love such music but the timing of the current radio station program does not align with their schedule. Maybe the current format does not include a lot of bands which the population listens to or they play the same songs over and over. On the other hand, even if the retired population does not enjoy present rock format, there is no guarantee that if shifted to a talk format, they will actually listen to the radio. It could be that they would enjoy peaceful and soothing music while relaxing.
Secondly, arguement bases the decline in listeners on the lack of sales of recorded music sales in local stores. I believe this to be vague, because there could be many factors which could account for this decline. A few being that these stores may not be catering to the likes of the population and do not have newer records. The location of the stores maybe odd, hence keeping in mind that majority of the opulation is old, they may not want to travel to a store in order to listen to music and prefer other modes in order to satisfy their musical needs. We should also take into account that these retired people have family members who might have introduced them to platforms such as Spotify and Apple music which caters to the needs of people more efficiently. These platforms not only offer an eclectic choice of music but also have numerous podcasts to listen to in leisure time.
Thirdly, there is no proof that a news and talk format will actually be a success just because it is popular. The arguement assumes that the population will immediately adapt and like a new show without any publicity, or that they would leave their trusted new channels to listen to a radio show. Many households might not have radios anymore as in today's world they are almost obselete and an antique used for decoration.
Finally, to summarize, I feel that this arguement baseless and just because a news and talk format is more famous and growing does not mean it will be sucessfull in gaining more listeners, the WWAC radio station in the process may actually lose some of its true rock music listeners in the process too. They should work on the current program and try to make it better, rather than making any whimsical decisions on the basis of new trends, expecting sudden surge in listeners.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 8 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 8 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 549 350
No. of Characters: 2570 1500
No. of Different Words: 242 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.841 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.681 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.304 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 175 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 132 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 71 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 47 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 27.45 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.379 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.65 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.304 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.514 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.061 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 68, Rule ID: ENTIRELY_COMPRISED_OF[1]
Message: Did you mean 'mostly composed of'?
Suggestion: mostly composed of
...mes that just because the population is mostly comprised of old resident, they will not be interest...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, briefly, but, finally, first, firstly, hence, if, may, second, secondly, so, third, thirdly, while, i feel, in fact, in general, such as, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 19.6327345309 92% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 18.0 12.9520958084 139% => OK
Conjunction : 21.0 11.1786427146 188% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 13.6137724551 125% => OK
Pronoun: 45.0 28.8173652695 156% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 69.0 55.5748502994 124% => OK
Nominalization: 20.0 16.3942115768 122% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2622.0 2260.96107784 116% => OK
No of words: 549.0 441.139720559 124% => OK
Chars per words: 4.77595628415 5.12650576532 93% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.84053189512 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.37388912633 2.78398813304 85% => OK
Unique words: 246.0 204.123752495 121% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.448087431694 0.468620217663 96% => OK
syllable_count: 835.2 705.55239521 118% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 11.0 4.96107784431 222% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 27.0 22.8473053892 118% => OK
Sentence length SD: 67.5669112806 57.8364921388 117% => OK
Chars per sentence: 131.1 119.503703932 110% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.45 23.324526521 118% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.55 5.70786347227 150% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 14.0 8.20758483034 171% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.240829208516 0.218282227539 110% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0714590987199 0.0743258471296 96% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.052535194234 0.0701772020484 75% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.141006617844 0.128457276422 110% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0692236395339 0.0628817314937 110% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.8 14.3799401198 103% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 52.53 48.3550499002 109% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.6 12.197005988 103% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.74 12.5979740519 85% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.23 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 113.0 98.500998004 115% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 18.5 12.3882235529 149% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.8 11.1389221557 115% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => 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.