The following appeared in an announcement issued by the publisher of The Mercury, a weekly newspaper:
"Since a competing lower-priced newspaper, The Bugle, was started five years ago, The Mercury's circulation has declined by 10,000 readers. The best way to get more people to read The Mercury is to reduce its price below that of The Bugle, at least until circulation increases to former levels. The increased circulation of The Mercury will attract more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper."
Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.
The author concludes that since the lower priced newspaper, The Bugle, started five years ago, The Mercury's circulation has declined sharply. The author's line of reasoning is that the best way to get people to read The Mercury is to reduce its price below that of another newspaper The Bugle, and the increased circulation of the "The Mercury", to its former levels, will attract more businesses to buy advertising space. The argument is unconvincing for several reasons.
First of all, the author's line of reasoning the reduction in the price of the newspaper The Mercury will help to increase the circulation to its former levels depends on a questionable assumption that the only reason people switched to The Bugle was its low price. On the contrary, it seems quite reasonable to assume that people were not happy with the content of the news that was published in The Mercury. If this were so, the reduction in the price of The Mercury will not achieve its desired result. The author's argument should be backed by solid evidence, for example, people might not be satisfied with the service of The Mercury, or The Mercury might have been compromising on the amount of news because of the advertising. Because the author's argument lacks solid evidence to prove the decline in the sales of The Mercury, it is impossible to assess the persuasiveness of the argument.
Secondly, the author assumes that the increased circulation will attract more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper. Again no evidence is given to support this assumption. The author needs to provide solid evidence that businesses are not willing to advertise in The Mercury because of reduction in sales. Admittedly, if The Bugle, has offered down to earth prices to the businesses, The Mercury will not be able to get the businesses even if The Mercury sales increase to its former level.
In conclusion, the argument is unconvincing as it stands. The author has to provide solid evidence to prove that price is the only that has caused a decline in sales of The Mercury newspaper. Without this evidence the argument lacks several key issues that could make the argument more thorough and convincing.
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mehravikas
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Osirus@VeritasPrep
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"The argument is unconvincing for several reasons" ...reword this. Say something like "this argument is flawed for several reasons. Or, "this argument is problematic for various reasons".
"First of all, the author's line of reasoning the reduction in the price of the newspaper The Mercury will help to increase the circulation to its former levels depends on a questionable assumption that the only reason people switched to The Bugle was its low price."...you need to say "the author's line of reasoning ABOUT the reduction in the price.."
Don't introduce your hypothesis about the readers being unhappy with the quality of the content with "it seems quite reasonable to assume", instead say something like "one possible alternate reason for the decilne in sales of the paper is that the readers were unhappy with the quality of the paper's content".
Your second body paragraph isn't that good in my opinion, because it is reasonable to assume that increased readership would result in increased advertisers. This is how media generally works.
The conclusion is good, I would just not use the word "unconvincing".
"First of all, the author's line of reasoning the reduction in the price of the newspaper The Mercury will help to increase the circulation to its former levels depends on a questionable assumption that the only reason people switched to The Bugle was its low price."...you need to say "the author's line of reasoning ABOUT the reduction in the price.."
Don't introduce your hypothesis about the readers being unhappy with the quality of the content with "it seems quite reasonable to assume", instead say something like "one possible alternate reason for the decilne in sales of the paper is that the readers were unhappy with the quality of the paper's content".
Your second body paragraph isn't that good in my opinion, because it is reasonable to assume that increased readership would result in increased advertisers. This is how media generally works.
The conclusion is good, I would just not use the word "unconvincing".
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mehravikas
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Thanks osirus0830.
I'll write a few more in the next couple of days. Please keep an eye on the essays forum. Can I email you the passages?
Thanks,
Vikas
I'll write a few more in the next couple of days. Please keep an eye on the essays forum. Can I email you the passages?
Thanks,
Vikas
osirus0830 wrote:"The argument is unconvincing for several reasons" ...reword this. Say something like "this argument is flawed for several reasons. Or, "this argument is problematic for various reasons".
"First of all, the author's line of reasoning the reduction in the price of the newspaper The Mercury will help to increase the circulation to its former levels depends on a questionable assumption that the only reason people switched to The Bugle was its low price."...you need to say "the author's line of reasoning ABOUT the reduction in the price.."
Don't introduce your hypothesis about the readers being unhappy with the quality of the content with "it seems quite reasonable to assume", instead say something like "one possible alternate reason for the decilne in sales of the paper is that the readers were unhappy with the quality of the paper's content".
Your second body paragraph isn't that good in my opinion, because it is reasonable to assume that increased readership would result in increased advertisers. This is how media generally works.
The conclusion is good, I would just not use the word "unconvincing".
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garima99
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Flaws:mehravikas wrote:The following appeared in an announcement issued by the publisher of The Mercury, a weekly newspaper:
"Since a competing lower-priced newspaper, The Bugle, was started five years ago, The Mercury's circulation has declined by 10,000 readers. The best way to get more people to read The Mercury is to reduce its price below that of The Bugle, at least until circulation increases to former levels. The increased circulation of The Mercury will attract more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper."
Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.
1.No direct relation between price and readers,maybe the topics covered interest them
2.Maybe there is a third paper which is a close competitor
3.maybe the advertisers are more interested in the other paper as the crowd who reads it is the target audience
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garima99
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mehravikas wrote:
The author concludes that since the lower priced newspaper, The Bugle, started five years ago, The Mercury's circulation has declined sharply. The author's line of reasoning is that the best way to get people to read The Mercury is to reduce its price below that of another newspaper The Bugle, and the increased circulation of the "The Mercury", to its former levels, will attract more businesses to buy advertising space. The argument is unconvincing for several reasons.
"The starting looks abrupt,be more concise and it would be better if your could give some introduction to the flaws...paragraphs don't connect well"
First of all,(Firstly would look better as you have used secondly later) the author's line of reasoning the reduction in the price of the newspaper The Mercury will help to increase the circulation to its former levels depends on a questionable assumption that the only reason people switched to The Bugle was its low price. On the contrary, it seems quite reasonable to assume that people were not happy with the content of the news that was published in The Mercury. If this were so, the reduction in the price of The Mercury will not achieve its desired result. The author's argument should be backed by solid evidence, for example, people might not be satisfied with the service of The Mercury, or The Mercury might have been compromising on the amount of news because of the advertising. Because the author's argument lacks solid evidence to prove the decline in the sales of The Mercury, it is impossible to assess the persuasiveness of the argument.
(Why not use some other phrases as well like the argument is flawed, the author wrongly assumes etc)
Secondly, the author assumes that the increased circulation will attract more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper. Again no evidence is given to support this assumption. The author needs to provide solid evidence that businesses are not willing to advertise in The Mercury because of reduction in sales. Admittedly, if The Bugle, has offered down to earth prices to the businesses, The Mercury will not be able to get the businesses even if The Mercury sales increase to its former level.
(You have no where provided the method to fix the problem.Add a para for that.)
In conclusion, the argument is unconvincing as it stands. The author has to provide solid evidence to prove that price is the only that has caused a decline in sales of The Mercury newspaper. Without this evidence the argument lacks several key issues that could make the argument more thorough and convincing.
Hi guys.
can you evaluate my argument essay. Thanks for your interest...
The argument recommends that to get more people and return back subscribers, the newspaper Mercury's price should be lowered below the price of the Bugle, which has been started to publish for 5 years as lower-priced level newspaper. The argument relies on some assumptions. Firstly, the argument claims that the lower priced newspaper Bugle has caused to decrease the circulation of Mercury for five years. Secondly, if the Mercury gets more subscribers as keeping lower-priced level, it will attract more advertisements. The argument fails to mention several key factors, on the basis of which it could be evaluated. Unfourtunately, above mentioned recommendation and assumptions have no clear evidence and so the argument is rather weak, unconvincing and have several factors which must be clarified.
First, the argument readily assumes that the lower priced newspaper Bugle has caused to decrease the circulation of Mercury for five years. However, the argument omitted many factors that caused to decrease the sale level of Mercury. For example, may be the economic recession has occurred during this time period and it caused to decrease the circulation of Mercury. On the other hand, it is possible to say that in that period the majority of the columnists of the Mercury resigned and the loyal subscribers have abondened to buy newspaper. Also the internet lately has affected the circulation of all newspaper. To strengthen his argument the author should poll and show the main reasons why the circulation of the Mercury decrease is the lower price of the Bugle.
Secondly, the argument claims that the Mercury gets more subscribers as keeping lower-priced level, it will attract more advertisements. This is again a very weak and unsupported claim as the argument does not demonstrate any correlation between the increase of advertisement and the increase of circulation. Of course this argument may be a major effect to attract more business to buy advertising space, but this is not a requirement to do that. For example, the circulation of newspaper may have increased but the quality and the news subject has changed what the advertisers do not want. The author should explain and make strong evidence how the number of advertisements in newspapers change as the circulation increase. May be it should be versy useful to compare the the soace of advertisements and circulation.
Finally, the argument concludes that to get more people and return back subscribers, the newspaper Mercury's price should be lowered below the price of the Bugle, which has been started to publish for 5 years as lower-priced level newspaper. This conclusion again does not depend on strong evidence. Because the falling prices generally mean concede to decrease the quality newspaper and this may affect negatively the circulation of newspaper.
To sum up, the argument is flawed and therefore unconvincing. It could be strengthened if the author clearly identify and explore above mentioned recommendations before concluding that lowering subscription prices will increase circulation and, thereby, increase advertising revenues.
can you evaluate my argument essay. Thanks for your interest...
The argument recommends that to get more people and return back subscribers, the newspaper Mercury's price should be lowered below the price of the Bugle, which has been started to publish for 5 years as lower-priced level newspaper. The argument relies on some assumptions. Firstly, the argument claims that the lower priced newspaper Bugle has caused to decrease the circulation of Mercury for five years. Secondly, if the Mercury gets more subscribers as keeping lower-priced level, it will attract more advertisements. The argument fails to mention several key factors, on the basis of which it could be evaluated. Unfourtunately, above mentioned recommendation and assumptions have no clear evidence and so the argument is rather weak, unconvincing and have several factors which must be clarified.
First, the argument readily assumes that the lower priced newspaper Bugle has caused to decrease the circulation of Mercury for five years. However, the argument omitted many factors that caused to decrease the sale level of Mercury. For example, may be the economic recession has occurred during this time period and it caused to decrease the circulation of Mercury. On the other hand, it is possible to say that in that period the majority of the columnists of the Mercury resigned and the loyal subscribers have abondened to buy newspaper. Also the internet lately has affected the circulation of all newspaper. To strengthen his argument the author should poll and show the main reasons why the circulation of the Mercury decrease is the lower price of the Bugle.
Secondly, the argument claims that the Mercury gets more subscribers as keeping lower-priced level, it will attract more advertisements. This is again a very weak and unsupported claim as the argument does not demonstrate any correlation between the increase of advertisement and the increase of circulation. Of course this argument may be a major effect to attract more business to buy advertising space, but this is not a requirement to do that. For example, the circulation of newspaper may have increased but the quality and the news subject has changed what the advertisers do not want. The author should explain and make strong evidence how the number of advertisements in newspapers change as the circulation increase. May be it should be versy useful to compare the the soace of advertisements and circulation.
Finally, the argument concludes that to get more people and return back subscribers, the newspaper Mercury's price should be lowered below the price of the Bugle, which has been started to publish for 5 years as lower-priced level newspaper. This conclusion again does not depend on strong evidence. Because the falling prices generally mean concede to decrease the quality newspaper and this may affect negatively the circulation of newspaper.
To sum up, the argument is flawed and therefore unconvincing. It could be strengthened if the author clearly identify and explore above mentioned recommendations before concluding that lowering subscription prices will increase circulation and, thereby, increase advertising revenues.
