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 given prompt concludes that in order to reverse a decline in listerner numbers, the owners decided that WWAC must change from its current rock-music format. To bolster this argument the author has provided certain evidence. Firstly, the population in their area has increased. Furthermore, that growth has resulted mainly from people moving here after their retirement. Thus, WWAC must switch to a music format tailored to their tastes even though there is a decline in sales of recorded music suggesting limited interest in it. Thus, WWAC should change to a news and talk format, a form of radio that is increasingly popular in their area. Even though, the author has provided certain evidence, the argument has many assumptions which can be exploited to undermine the author's argument.
Firstly, the author assumes that the growing population of retired people have enough awareness about WWAC rock-music. However, this might not be the case. The people shifting here might not be much aware about WWAC and its rock music format. Thus, instead of changing to news and talk, WWAC should focus on advertising their rock-music format. It is possibility that this might increase awareness and in turn increase the sales of their rock-music. In fact, it is probable that people might like it so much that the boost in the sales may be commendable and hence there might be no need to changing the format to news and talk shows.
Secondly, the author does not provide much information about the duration in which the data is collected. There might be the case where people are retiring almost every month and hence are shifting in their area. This means that they have to get settled and get accustomed to their way of life. This might take time and hence, duration of the data is crucial in determining it. If the data is just a year of 6 months old, then there is a high probability that people are still getting use to the life. This means that they may not have time to try different genre of music. Hence the duration of the data is of vital importance and can't be ignored.
Lastly, the author author assumes that the number of shops that sold music (in general) have more or less been the same. However, it is a high probability that the number of shops have reduced. Consequently, the shops that are still working are at a great distance. Hence people might not want travel there only to buy certain rock-music. Hence instead of focusing on changing the format of their rock-music, they might have to buy or rent a shop which provides easy access to their music. This might again restore the sales of local music and preclude the possibility of changing the format.
Thus, all the above points attack the basic assumptions of the author undermining the conclusion. Furthermore, there might be more assumptions on which the author's argument is based and they can be attacked if they have a potential flaw. Thus, these weaken the argument and in turn the conclusion stated by the author in the above passage.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 6 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 29 15
No. of Words: 519 350
No. of Characters: 2440 1500
No. of Different Words: 209 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.773 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.701 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.387 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 155 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 106 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 74 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 40 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 17.897 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.488 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.759 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.296 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.495 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.087 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 775, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...which can be exploited to undermine the authors argument. Firstly, the author assume...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 584, Rule ID: NEED_TO_VBG[1]
Message: Did you mean 'need to change'?
Suggestion: need to change
...commendable and hence there might be no need to changing the format to news and talk shows. S...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 575, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Hence,
...e time to try different genre of music. Hence the duration of the data is of vital im...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 633, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
... of the data is of vital importance and cant be ignored. Lastly, the author autho...
^^^^
Line 7, column 13, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: author
...nce and cant be ignored. Lastly, the author author assumes that the number of shops that s...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 265, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Hence,
... still working are at a great distance. Hence people might not want travel there only...
^^^^^
Line 9, column 157, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
... might be more assumptions on which the authors argument is based and they can be attac...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
consequently, first, firstly, furthermore, hence, however, if, lastly, may, second, secondly, so, still, then, thus, in fact, in general, more or less
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.6327345309 132% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 20.0 12.9520958084 154% => OK
Conjunction : 15.0 11.1786427146 134% => OK
Relative clauses : 20.0 13.6137724551 147% => OK
Pronoun: 46.0 28.8173652695 160% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 63.0 55.5748502994 113% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 16.3942115768 98% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2504.0 2260.96107784 111% => OK
No of words: 519.0 441.139720559 118% => OK
Chars per words: 4.8246628131 5.12650576532 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.7730044521 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.47100342733 2.78398813304 89% => OK
Unique words: 214.0 204.123752495 105% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.412331406551 0.468620217663 88% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 771.3 705.55239521 109% => 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: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 29.0 19.7664670659 147% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 22.8473053892 74% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 34.1215913526 57.8364921388 59% => The essay contains lots of sentences with the similar length. More sentence varieties wanted.
Chars per sentence: 86.3448275862 119.503703932 72% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.8965517241 23.324526521 77% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.1724137931 5.70786347227 91% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 7.0 5.25449101796 133% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 14.0 8.20758483034 171% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 10.0 4.67664670659 214% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.246290483353 0.218282227539 113% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0730780478923 0.0743258471296 98% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0869796842775 0.0701772020484 124% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.137505973246 0.128457276422 107% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.110683672001 0.0628817314937 176% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.2 14.3799401198 71% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 62.68 48.3550499002 130% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.7 12.197005988 71% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.38 12.5979740519 82% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.34 8.32208582834 88% => OK
difficult_words: 94.0 98.500998004 95% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 11.1389221557 79% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.