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 author of this passage concludes that the recent decline in the sale of Newsbeat magazine issues can be mitigated by the publisher’s recommendation to digress the focus of the magazine from political news to economics and personal finance. The publisher supports her argument by two assumptions, which, however if not substantiated, would weaken the strength of the recommendation.
Firstly, the publisher presumes that the reason for poor sale of the issues on the newsstands over the past three years was the presence of political news on the front cover. It is possible that maybe the cause of poor readership was due to irrelevant news articles, or some fake or unverified claims present in those issues. It might be the case that the news featured on the cover page was related to some controversial issue which did not bode well with the intended audience. It is also possible that if the front cover featured some popular political figure, the sale would’ve skyrocketed. The publisher also has not presented any data on the sale of the magazine issues where the front cover featured something apart from political news. If any of these possibilities is true, the publisher’s recommendation to increase the sale of the magazine does not hold water.
Secondly, the publisher does not provide the number of readers that participated in the recent survey of magazine readers she mentions. It might be possible that the survey was taken by only a handful of people, or only a specific group of people who are inclined towards economics and finance, and are not that interested in political news that they would buy an associated magazine. There is also no evidence that the readers who filled the survey were presented with the Newsbeat as an option in the survey, or whether or not they gave accurate information in the questionnaire. Maybe the readers were wooed by the economics and finance segment magazines to give preference to their magazine in the survey. The publisher’s argument backing the proposed recommendation would be weakened if any of these scenarios is true.
In conclusion, it is possible that shifting the focus of Newsbeat magazine from political news to economics and personal finance would help in boosting the sales. However, as it stands now, the proposal relies on three unwarranted assumptions, which render the conclusion unpersuasive. Thus, the publisher needs to provide additional evidence on the sale numbers of all the issues in the past three years, and the reader base that participated in the survey.
Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 481, 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.
...t bode well with the intended audience. It is also possible that if the front cove...
^^
Line 5, column 515, Rule ID: WHETHER[7]
Message: Perhaps you can shorten this phrase to just 'whether'. It is correct though if you mean 'regardless of whether'.
Suggestion: whether
...Newsbeat as an option in the survey, or whether or not they gave accurate information in the q...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, firstly, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, thus, well, apart from, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 19.6327345309 92% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 13.6137724551 125% => OK
Pronoun: 27.0 28.8173652695 94% => OK
Preposition: 55.0 55.5748502994 99% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2145.0 2260.96107784 95% => OK
No of words: 418.0 441.139720559 95% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.13157894737 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.52162009685 4.56307096286 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.91874754752 2.78398813304 105% => OK
Unique words: 187.0 204.123752495 92% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.447368421053 0.468620217663 95% => OK
syllable_count: 682.2 705.55239521 97% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 5.0 1.67365269461 299% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
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: 26.0 22.8473053892 114% => OK
Sentence length SD: 39.762920463 57.8364921388 69% => OK
Chars per sentence: 134.0625 119.503703932 112% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.125 23.324526521 112% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.1875 5.70786347227 108% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.37342752349 0.218282227539 171% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.125770293731 0.0743258471296 169% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0940662226998 0.0701772020484 134% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.231377051535 0.128457276422 180% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0646506510592 0.0628817314937 103% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.8 14.3799401198 110% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 45.09 48.3550499002 93% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 12.197005988 110% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.77 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.17 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 86.0 98.500998004 87% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.1389221557 111% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 481, 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.
...t bode well with the intended audience. It is also possible that if the front cove...
^^
Line 5, column 515, Rule ID: WHETHER[7]
Message: Perhaps you can shorten this phrase to just 'whether'. It is correct though if you mean 'regardless of whether'.
Suggestion: whether
...Newsbeat as an option in the survey, or whether or not they gave accurate information in the q...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, firstly, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, thus, well, apart from, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 19.6327345309 92% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 13.6137724551 125% => OK
Pronoun: 27.0 28.8173652695 94% => OK
Preposition: 55.0 55.5748502994 99% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2145.0 2260.96107784 95% => OK
No of words: 418.0 441.139720559 95% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.13157894737 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.52162009685 4.56307096286 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.91874754752 2.78398813304 105% => OK
Unique words: 187.0 204.123752495 92% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.447368421053 0.468620217663 95% => OK
syllable_count: 682.2 705.55239521 97% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 5.0 1.67365269461 299% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
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: 26.0 22.8473053892 114% => OK
Sentence length SD: 39.762920463 57.8364921388 69% => OK
Chars per sentence: 134.0625 119.503703932 112% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.125 23.324526521 112% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.1875 5.70786347227 108% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.37342752349 0.218282227539 171% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.125770293731 0.0743258471296 169% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0940662226998 0.0701772020484 134% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.231377051535 0.128457276422 180% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0646506510592 0.0628817314937 103% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.8 14.3799401198 110% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 45.09 48.3550499002 93% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 12.197005988 110% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.77 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.17 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 86.0 98.500998004 87% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.1389221557 111% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.