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.
While it might be true that new retirement residents of WWAC area are not interested to listen to rock-music format; however, the author's argument does not make a cogent sense. It is easy to understand that decline in local sales of recorded music might be related to new retirement population, but this argument is rife with holes and assumptions therefor, not strong enough to change a radio station’s format from music to news.
The manager of WWAC radio station mentions that there is a decline in radio music listeners despite retirement population growth in WWAC area. However, the author does not indicate if new residents are not interested just about rock-music format or all other music formats too which can make a different perspective. For example, new residents might be interested to listen to classic music. Thus, there is no need to completely switch from music to news to reverse a decline in listener numbers. To strengthen his or her argument, the manager needs investigations about all music types interests for new residents of WWAC area.
Additionally, the author implies that the local music sales has been declined, but the author does not bring enough explanations about declined music sales. For instance, new residents who moved to WWAC area might have already bought local music before which indicates the reason for declined local music sale. On the other hand, music prices might raise up, so residents prefer to download their favorite music from internet.
The manager suggests that they should change a music station to news station; however, there is not enough evidences to guarantee the argument. The author needs to make sure that most of the residents are interested to listen to news or music. Moreover, as mentioned before, the manager needs to investigate about all types of music and not just rock music that is essential to know for more listeners’ attractions. The author can have a survey to ask residents about their music and news interests.
This suggestion is persuasive when the manager gathers information about resident’s music type interests and the reasons for decreased sales in local music. After answering these questions, the author can make such a conclusion.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 4 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 16 15
No. of Words: 363 350
No. of Characters: 1819 1500
No. of Different Words: 160 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.365 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.011 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.562 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 122 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 93 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 68 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 49 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.688 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.431 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.625 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.436 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.436 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.141 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 131, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...sten to rock-music format; however, the authors argument does not make a cogent sense. ...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, however, if, moreover, so, then, thus, while, for example, for instance, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 19.6327345309 71% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.9520958084 77% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 11.1786427146 81% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 17.0 28.8173652695 59% => OK
Preposition: 49.0 55.5748502994 88% => OK
Nominalization: 15.0 16.3942115768 91% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1867.0 2260.96107784 83% => OK
No of words: 363.0 441.139720559 82% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.14325068871 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.3649236973 4.56307096286 96% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.68074794601 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 167.0 204.123752495 82% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.460055096419 0.468620217663 98% => OK
syllable_count: 588.6 705.55239521 83% => 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: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => 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: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 45.7149797659 57.8364921388 79% => OK
Chars per sentence: 116.6875 119.503703932 98% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.6875 23.324526521 97% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.9375 5.70786347227 104% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
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: 0.272937404462 0.218282227539 125% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.117377295027 0.0743258471296 158% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.094255990558 0.0701772020484 134% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.173612314456 0.128457276422 135% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0859427418935 0.0628817314937 137% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.1 14.3799401198 98% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 49.15 48.3550499002 102% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.83 12.5979740519 102% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.25 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 81.0 98.500998004 82% => More difficult words wanted.
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?
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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.