Two years ago, radio station WCQP in Rockville decided to increase the number of call-in advice programs that it broadcast; since that time, its share of the radio audience in the Rockville listening area has increased significantly. Given WCQP's recent success with call-in advice programming, and citing a nationwide survey indicating that many radio listeners are quite interested in such programs, the station manager of KICK in Medway recommends that KICK include more call-in advice programs in an attempt to gain a larger audience share in its listening area.
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 station manager of KICK in Medway recommends that KICK include more call-in programs in an attempt to gain a larger audience share in its listening area. The manager has come to this conclusion based on the experience of the WCQP radio station in Rockville when it decided to increase the number of call-in advice programs that it broadcasts, leading to an increase in the audience significantly. However, before this recommendation can be properly evaluated, three questions must be answered.
First of all, don’t the trend and the choices of people change in a period of two years? In other words, circumstances two years back would have been different than the current situation. It is possible that people have had enough of call-in advice programs- perhaps people are waiting for something new to be launched. It is also possible that WCQP is already planning to launch some new programs to further increase the audience share in the area. If either of these scenarios has merit, then conclusion drawn in the original argument is significantly weakened.
Secondly, are the audience living in Rockville and Medway similar in nature? The manager prematurely assumes that he will gain the same attention from the people in Medway as in the case of people in Rockville when the Call-in advice program was launched. However, this might not be the case. It is possible that people in Rockville are younger in age and need more advice in their daily life while people in Medway are older and capable and bold enough of making their own decisions without any piece of advice. It may also be possible that people in Medway don’t like the trend of call-in advice programs. If the above is true then the argument does not hold water.
Additionally, is a nationwide survey indicating quite a few people interested in listening to call-in advice programs enough to start the programs on a large scale at a particular place? It might be possible that the survey does not ask about the choices of people instead, people are insisted to choose between the options available to them. It may be the case, that out of the majority of people stating their interest in such programs, many might be residing in the Rockville itself while only a few of them are residing in the Medway. If so, is the case, then the argument presented is rife and with assumptions.
In conclusion, the argument as it stands now is considerably flawed due to its reliance on several unwarranted assumptions. If the manager is able to answer the three questions above and offer some more evidence and facts regarding the same, then it might be possible to fully evaluate the viability of the proposed recommendation to increase the number of call-in advice programs in Medway.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 468 350
No. of Characters: 2234 1500
No. of Different Words: 202 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.651 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.774 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.61 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 170 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 122 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 85 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 41 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.4 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.575 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.7 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.321 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.321 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.106 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 162, Rule ID: RATHER_THEN[2]
Message: Did you mean 'different 'from''? 'Different than' is often considered colloquial style.
Suggestion: from
...wo years back would have been different than the current situation. It is possible t...
^^^^
Line 3, column 609, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...e the trend of call-in advice programs. If the above is true then the argument doe...
^^
Line 4, column 439, Rule ID: MANY_NN_U[1]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun might seems to be uncountable; consider using: 'much might', 'a good deal of might'.
Suggestion: much might; a good deal of might
...tating their interest in such programs, many might be residing in the Rockville itself whi...
^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, however, if, may, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, while, in conclusion, first of all, in other words
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 32.0 28.8173652695 111% => OK
Preposition: 79.0 55.5748502994 142% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2291.0 2260.96107784 101% => OK
No of words: 466.0 441.139720559 106% => OK
Chars per words: 4.91630901288 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.64618479453 4.56307096286 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.6791886315 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 209.0 204.123752495 102% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.448497854077 0.468620217663 96% => OK
syllable_count: 728.1 705.55239521 103% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 4.96107784431 161% => OK
Article: 4.0 8.76447105788 46% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 60.981370106 57.8364921388 105% => OK
Chars per sentence: 114.55 119.503703932 96% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.3 23.324526521 100% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.0 5.70786347227 105% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 8.20758483034 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 6.88822355289 29% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.258288815114 0.218282227539 118% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.077301634369 0.0743258471296 104% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0936156888888 0.0701772020484 133% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.155477229171 0.128457276422 121% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0949168230321 0.0628817314937 151% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.4 14.3799401198 93% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.3550499002 100% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.55 12.5979740519 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.59 8.32208582834 91% => OK
difficult_words: 83.0 98.500998004 84% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => 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.