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.
At first glance, the recommendation put forth by the station manager of KICK certainly seems reasonable. However, on evaluating the given paragraph more carefully, it seems that the premise upon which the recommendation has been made leaves a lot to be desired. There are a myriad of questions that need to be answered before the efficacy of the recommendation can be determined.
First and foremost, one must ask whether or not call-in advice programs were the only reason for the increase in WCQP's radio audience. There is a possibility that during the time WCQP introduced its call-in advice programs, it also decided to make some other changes that might have boosted its radio audience. If no such changes were made, WCQP's increased share can be attributed entirely to the call-in advice programs it introduced.
Secondly, one must also question the authenticity of the nationwide survey cited by the station manager. Without knowing the specifics of the survey, for example, the sample size, the demographics of the survey audience, the credibility of the organization/institute that carried out the survey, it is highly credulous to make this survey a prop for introducing the idea of call-in advice programs. If the survey is, in fact, carried out by a reliable institute with sample consisting of people from diverse demographics, then the survey can serve as a reasonable premise for the suggestion propounded by the station manager.
Lastly, one must also dispute the degree of clout a two-year-old case holds in the current settings. WCQP's case and the cited survey might have been relevant two years ago, but there is no guarantee that the conclusions drawn from them have not become obsolete. If one can learn anything from the past few decades, it's that people are capricious and their preferences change very quickly. The introduction of social media has specially played a major role in this. What is cool today, might get outmoded tomorrow. Call-in advice programs might have been the talk of the country two years ago, but they might not ensure greater share of radio audience today. One should therefore ensure the relevance of the quoted survey and the example listed in today’s age.
The answers that the aforementioned questions elicit are required to evaluate the judiciousness of the recommendation put forth by KICK’s station manager.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 5 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 17 15
No. of Words: 385 350
No. of Characters: 1939 1500
No. of Different Words: 194 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.43 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.036 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.735 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 146 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 105 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 68 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 43 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.647 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.95 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.765 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.326 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.586 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.115 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 275, Rule ID: THERE_RE_MANY[3]
Message: Possible agreement error. Did you mean 'myriads'?
Suggestion: myriads
...leaves a lot to be desired. There are a myriad of questions that need to be answered b...
^^^^^^
Line 3, column 34, 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
...ed. First and foremost, one must ask whether or not call-in advice programs were the only r...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 316, Rule ID: IT_IS[6]
Message: Did you mean 'it's' (='it is') instead of 'its' (possessive pronoun)?
Suggestion: it's; it is
...arn anything from the past few decades, its that people are capricious and their pr...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, lastly, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, for example, in fact
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 19.6327345309 87% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 13.6137724551 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 20.0 28.8173652695 69% => OK
Preposition: 49.0 55.5748502994 88% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1993.0 2260.96107784 88% => OK
No of words: 384.0 441.139720559 87% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.19010416667 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.4267276788 4.56307096286 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.92196203636 2.78398813304 105% => OK
Unique words: 202.0 204.123752495 99% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.526041666667 0.468620217663 112% => OK
syllable_count: 627.3 705.55239521 89% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 19.7664670659 86% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 55.3819702589 57.8364921388 96% => OK
Chars per sentence: 117.235294118 119.503703932 98% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.5882352941 23.324526521 97% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.76470588235 5.70786347227 101% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 6.88822355289 29% => More negative sentences wanted.
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: 0.195783248566 0.218282227539 90% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0593620229814 0.0743258471296 80% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0740920330583 0.0701772020484 106% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0963038427706 0.128457276422 75% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0989880513141 0.0628817314937 157% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.3 14.3799401198 99% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 49.15 48.3550499002 102% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.12 12.5979740519 104% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.8 8.32208582834 106% => OK
difficult_words: 99.0 98.500998004 101% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 12.3882235529 97% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => 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.