Since those issues of Newsbeat magazine that featured political news on their front cover were the poorest-selling issues over the past three years, the publisher of Newsbeat has recommended that the magazine curtail its emphasis on politics to focus more exclusively on economics and personal finance. She points to a recent survey of readers of general interest magazines that indicates greater reader interest in economic issues than in political ones. Newsbeat's editor, however, opposes the proposed shift in editorial policy, pointing out that very few magazines offer extensive political coverage anymore.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
The publisher of Newsbeat argues that the magazine should shift from political to more economic and personal finance coverage. The publisher has come to this conclusion because the magazines featuring political news were the poorest selling over the last three years and because a survey indicated a greater interest in economic issues. Newsbeat’s editor, however, argues against this due to the lack of political coverage in magazines today. Before this recommendation can be properly evaluated, three questions must be answered.
First of all, how was the design of the political featured covers compared to the front cover to features of other topics? That is, were the front cover designs of other topics more captivating than politically related covers? It is possible that the front cover of the political magazines more plain and ‘bland’, while the front cover of other features, such as personal finance, incorporated more colour and had pictures of one hundred-dollar bills. Colour and pictures of desirable objects are more likely to capture the attention individuals. If this were the case, then the recommendation to curtail political coverage would not be reasonable. Rather, it may be more effective to allocate greater funding to hiring new designers.
Secondly, were the surveyors subscribed to Newsbeat magazine? Perhaps respondents are located in regions where citizens value economic coverage and have no interest in political issues, while Newsbeat magazines are distributed in an area where people are not educated or have no interest in economic coverage. It is also possible that many Newsbeat subscribers who value political coverage did not partake in the survey. If any of the above is true, then shifting from political to economic coverage may result in a loss of readers and decreased sales.
Lastly, it is also important to examine the recommendation made by the editor. Why does there exist only a few magazines offering extensive political coverage? Why is there not more? It is possible that most magazine companies have already realized that political coverage is no longer a ‘hot’ topic, and has therefore shifted to alternative topics to increase their sales. If this case is true, then it seems that Newsbeat would lag behind if they continue covering political news. Therefore, the editors opposition against the publisher would not hold water.
In conclusion, both the editor and publisher must provide additional information to answer these questions. Without these answers, the viability of their argument, as it stands now, cannot be properly evaluated.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 22 15
No. of Words: 407 350
No. of Characters: 2138 1500
No. of Different Words: 199 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.492 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.253 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.741 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 168 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 138 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 109 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 59 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18.5 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.564 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.636 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.294 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.507 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.073 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 7, column 499, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'editors'' or 'editor's'?
Suggestion: editors'; editor's
...covering political news. Therefore, the editors opposition against the publisher would ...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, lastly, may, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, while, in conclusion, such as, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 23.0 19.6327345309 117% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.9520958084 77% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 24.0 28.8173652695 83% => OK
Preposition: 47.0 55.5748502994 85% => OK
Nominalization: 9.0 16.3942115768 55% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2213.0 2260.96107784 98% => OK
No of words: 407.0 441.139720559 92% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.43734643735 5.12650576532 106% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.49157444576 4.56307096286 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.83584494517 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 211.0 204.123752495 103% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.518427518428 0.468620217663 111% => OK
syllable_count: 729.9 705.55239521 103% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.8 1.59920159681 113% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 4.0 8.76447105788 46% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 22.0 19.7664670659 111% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 22.8473053892 79% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 53.9344567029 57.8364921388 93% => OK
Chars per sentence: 100.590909091 119.503703932 84% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.5 23.324526521 79% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.72727272727 5.70786347227 100% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
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: 0.389423599747 0.218282227539 178% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.111861585507 0.0743258471296 151% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0750392118455 0.0701772020484 107% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.200930755779 0.128457276422 156% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.101450149513 0.0628817314937 161% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.4 14.3799401198 93% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 36.28 48.3550499002 75% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.197005988 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.27 12.5979740519 113% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.91 8.32208582834 107% => OK
difficult_words: 113.0 98.500998004 115% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 12.3882235529 97% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.1389221557 83% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => 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.