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 radio station concludes that they should include more call in advice programs to gain a larger audience share in Medway’s listening area.
Nonetheless, it reveals several instances of poor reasoning and ill-defined terminology. To support his inference, the station manager mentioned the success of a radio station in Rockville and cites a nationwide survey which indicated that many radio listeners are interested in such programs. Howbeit, careful scrutiny of the evidence shows that it provides little tenable support to the manager’s supposition and hence the argument can be considered incomplete. Many questions are to be answered to hold the manager’s inference.
First of all, what worked for a radio station in Rockville might not work for the KICK radio station in Medway. It might be the case that the listening area of Rockville is different from the listening area in Medway. So, if that is the case then we cannot except to get the success for KICK radio station as WCQP station in Rockville. The preferences of the audience in Rockville might be different from the audience’s preferences in Medway. For example, the audience in Medway might prefer news and debate programs instead of call in advice programs. Also, the competition between businesses might be different in both the areas. Suppose, WCQP might not have any competing radio station in Rockville whereas, KICK radio station might have a rival radio station in Medway covering a larger listening area. So, it was easier for WCQP to succeed and not the call in advice program but lack of a rival radio company might have led to WCQP’s success. If the manager provides a proper comparative and comprehensive study, which compares all the aforementioned points between Medway and Rockville, it will be easier to decide whether his conclusion is reasonable or not.
Furthermore, WCQP increased their call in advice programs two years ago. So, what was in demand two years ago might not be in demand today. Audience preferences might have changed in the past two years. So, concluding the argument based on this is not valid unless there is evidence supporting that call in advice programs are still in demand and are preferred by the audience.
Lastly, the station master cites a nationwide survey which showed that many radio listeners are still quite interested in such programs. Now, the manager failed to mention the details of the survey. If the questions were asked only related to call in advice programs and it is obvious to obtain favourable results. If the survey questions compare call in programs with other radio programs such as news and debate, then this survey can be used to substantiate the manager’s inference.
To sum up what has been stated so far, the manager’s argument is unpersuasive as it stands. To bolster it further, more evidence is required, perhaps in the form of a detailed analysis of the points discussed above.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 2 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 24 15
No. of Words: 487 350
No. of Characters: 2410 1500
No. of Different Words: 201 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.698 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.949 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.642 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 185 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 140 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 93 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 62 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.292 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.197 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.667 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.325 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.325 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.095 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 138, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...programs to gain a larger audience share in Medway’s listening area. Nonetheless...
^^
Line 3, column 46, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... of all, what worked for a radio station in Rockville might not work for the KICK...
^^
Line 3, column 284, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...then we cannot except to get the success for KICK radio station as WCQP station ...
^^
Line 3, column 316, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... success for KICK radio station as WCQP station in Rockville. The preferences of...
^^
Line 3, column 423, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...e might be different from the audience’s preferences in Medway. For example, the ...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, furthermore, hence, if, lastly, nonetheless, so, still, then, whereas, for example, such as, first of all, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.6327345309 127% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.9520958084 116% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 22.0 28.8173652695 76% => OK
Preposition: 64.0 55.5748502994 115% => OK
Nominalization: 29.0 16.3942115768 177% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2481.0 2260.96107784 110% => OK
No of words: 487.0 441.139720559 110% => OK
Chars per words: 5.09445585216 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.69766713281 4.56307096286 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.7487635015 2.78398813304 99% => OK
Unique words: 208.0 204.123752495 102% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.427104722793 0.468620217663 91% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 770.4 705.55239521 109% => 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: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 45.3043527158 57.8364921388 78% => OK
Chars per sentence: 103.375 119.503703932 87% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.2916666667 23.324526521 87% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.58333333333 5.70786347227 98% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 11.0 4.67664670659 235% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.336575912754 0.218282227539 154% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.101079510164 0.0743258471296 136% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0982256365145 0.0701772020484 140% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.16152364496 0.128457276422 126% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0964216202556 0.0628817314937 153% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.7 14.3799401198 88% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.24 12.5979740519 97% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.13 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 108.0 98.500998004 110% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 12.3882235529 93% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => 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.