"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."
The author claims that WWAC radio station should change its current rock-music form to a news-and-talk format. To support this claim, the author asserts that it is necessary to make new residents to their listeners and many local stores selling recorded music have recently closed. However, this argument is unpersuasive to me since it relies on poor assumptions that are defective in a logical aspect.
First, the author proposes that the population in his or her area grew mainly because people moved to his or her neighborhood after their retirement. Then, he hastily assumes that they have limited interest in music based on the phenomenon that he or she observed how local stores closed. However, this assumption is based on a post hoc fallacy. Just because they moved into the his or her town and local stores that sell recorded music closed, it does not necessarily mean that new residents have limited interest in music. The stores could have closed because of recent advancement in internet platforms that stream music, such as Spotify or Pandora. Or, the listeners could have left temporarily left the town because it was the season for vacation. As it stands, we do not have adequate information why local music stores closed or why the number of listeners has decreased. To better assess the argument, we must have further information about why the stores have closed.
Second, the author believes that switching from its current rock-music form to a news-and-talk format would attract new listeners because the later form is increasingly popular in his or her area. However, where did his observation that a news-and-talk format is popular come from? Probably, it is from other radio stations in his or her area. The fact that there are other radio stations that already adopted the news-and-talk format implies that there are competitors that have been working on this format before WWAC. As it stands, it is unclear how WWAC can attract more listeners to their station while there are other popular stations that already work on the same format. Thus, the author must provide more specific plans of how WWAC will attract more listeners through using the same format that others are using and win over competitors.
Third, the author failed to resolve the issue through other ways besides switching the format. While the author confidently claims that the number of their listeners has been declining because the people in the area are not interested in rock music. However, it could be due to insufficient advertising. WWAC could have attracted more listeners if they had advertised their station to the new residents. To strengthen the claim, the author must provide data that the radio station has tried other possible measures to attract its listeners before they make a huge transition from a rock-music station to a news-and-talk station.
To conclude, the argument relies on several weak assumptions and fallacies. To bolster his argument, he must provide the evidences that are indicated above. Or else, the argument is vulnerable to criticism.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- not OK
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 25 15
No. of Words: 503 350
No. of Characters: 2514 1500
No. of Different Words: 205 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.736 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.998 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.583 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 185 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 133 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 81 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 57 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.12 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.85 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.52 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.311 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.517 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.178 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 376, Rule ID: DT_PRP[1]
Message: Possible typo. Did you mean 'the' or 'his'?
Suggestion: the; his
...c fallacy. Just because they moved into the his or her town and local stores that sell ...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 77, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...several weak assumptions and fallacies. To bolster his argument, he must provide t...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
besides, first, however, if, second, so, then, third, thus, while, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 19.0 19.6327345309 97% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 18.0 11.1786427146 161% => OK
Relative clauses : 21.0 13.6137724551 154% => OK
Pronoun: 64.0 28.8173652695 222% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 52.0 55.5748502994 94% => OK
Nominalization: 20.0 16.3942115768 122% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2576.0 2260.96107784 114% => OK
No of words: 503.0 441.139720559 114% => OK
Chars per words: 5.12127236581 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.73578520332 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.64649291735 2.78398813304 95% => OK
Unique words: 213.0 204.123752495 104% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.423459244533 0.468620217663 90% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 799.2 705.55239521 113% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 4.96107784431 202% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => 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: 25.0 19.7664670659 126% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 47.2111173348 57.8364921388 82% => OK
Chars per sentence: 103.04 119.503703932 86% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.12 23.324526521 86% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.96 5.70786347227 52% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.20758483034 134% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.67664670659 171% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.233976673199 0.218282227539 107% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0687597577495 0.0743258471296 93% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0528976122168 0.0701772020484 75% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.127729087678 0.128457276422 99% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.061289090225 0.0628817314937 97% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.7 14.3799401198 88% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.42 12.5979740519 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.8 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 101.0 98.500998004 103% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => 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.