"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 prompt is from a memorandum of a manager of a radio station that asserts that there has been a decline of listeners, they should either transform their rock-music format or shying from their original format and make it a news and talk format station. In support, at first, they wanted to make change to their music flavors, but local sales of recorded musics suggested otherwise, so they want to fully renovate their station to a news and talk format. The argument is rife with numerous assumptions that leads to a illogical hypothesis.
At first, it is stated that there is population growth in their area but most of them are not young. They came to that area after their retirement. Their primary assumption was that they may not listen to their rock-music format. There may lie other reasons. Such as, there may have been decline in all kinds of music in that area. The locals may have switched their interest. There may have been big parks or football fields, where the young one goes for a run or play football, soccer, or other sports. And perhaps a new radio station have more lucrative songs for the people. Also, the former listeners may have stopped listening to radios. If any of these are true, the argument is significantly weakened.
Additionally, radio station wanted to change their rock-music format to the taste of the people. But as there is a decline in local sales of recorded music, they came to the conclusion that the people have a parochial interest in music. This may be true, but they maybe opting for other ways to listen to music. Buying a physical recorded music is merely one way of listening to music. From this, it is falsely concluded that they have blinkered music interest and they do not listen to music that much. There are so many websites and apps in mobile phones that are dedicated to songs. Such as, Itunes, spotify and many more. And youtube alone has thousands and thousands of songs that you can stream for free. Therefore, the people may have find other means of listening to the music. Maybe the quality of sounds of the radio station has plummeted over the years which may led to gradual decline of listeners. Radio station may think about spicing up their game by inviting some singer or band to their radio station, and performing live music fests through radio.
Furthermore, the prompt stated that news and talk format is the new trend in that area. More and more people are listening to this types of radio stations. Hence, they should also transform their rock-music format to a calm and not very original or innovative news and talk format radio station. There are no empirical evidence behind the statement. There has to be a study or research that undeniably states that it is true that this news and talk format is popular in their area. Otherwise, this may be a fluke or spurious news. Without some statistical figures, this should not be trusted. If these are true, the argument does not hold water.
In conclusion, the argument, as it stands now, is flawed with several unwarranted assumptions. Argument needs to address these assumptions with proper evidences that strengthens the arguments, else all the above assumptions weakens the argument significantly. Only by providing cohesive evidences regarding these assumptions, the argument will be a cogent one.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 35 15
No. of Words: 571 350
No. of Characters: 2688 1500
No. of Different Words: 238 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.888 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.708 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.406 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 173 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 119 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 84 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 55 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 16.314 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.283 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.657 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.258 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.427 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.092 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 518, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
...with numerous assumptions that leads to a illogical hypothesis. At first, it i...
^
Line 7, column 127, Rule ID: THIS_NNS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'these'?
Suggestion: these
.... More and more people are listening to this types of radio stations. Hence, they sh...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, furthermore, hence, if, may, regarding, so, then, therefore, as to, in conclusion, such as, it is true
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 16.0 12.9520958084 124% => OK
Conjunction : 27.0 11.1786427146 242% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 20.0 13.6137724551 147% => OK
Pronoun: 59.0 28.8173652695 205% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 68.0 55.5748502994 122% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2769.0 2260.96107784 122% => OK
No of words: 571.0 441.139720559 129% => OK
Chars per words: 4.84938704028 5.12650576532 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.88831323574 4.56307096286 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.50665640448 2.78398813304 90% => OK
Unique words: 248.0 204.123752495 121% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.434325744308 0.468620217663 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 855.0 705.55239521 121% => 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: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 7.0 1.67365269461 418% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 35.0 19.7664670659 177% => OK
Sentence length: 16.0 22.8473053892 70% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 47.0279465329 57.8364921388 81% => OK
Chars per sentence: 79.1142857143 119.503703932 66% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.3142857143 23.324526521 70% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.42857142857 5.70786347227 60% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 14.0 8.20758483034 171% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 13.0 4.67664670659 278% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.195309984036 0.218282227539 89% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0546268919066 0.0743258471296 73% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0571548084758 0.0701772020484 81% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.109535229427 0.128457276422 85% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0638272278483 0.0628817314937 102% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 9.6 14.3799401198 67% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 63.7 48.3550499002 132% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.4 12.197005988 69% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.55 12.5979740519 84% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.55 8.32208582834 91% => OK
difficult_words: 113.0 98.500998004 115% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.4 11.1389221557 75% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.9071856287 67% => The average readability is low. Need to imporve the language.
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.