ARGUMENT190

tibowUID: 2596743

TOPIC: ARGUMENT190 - The following is a letter to the editor of the Glenville Gazette, a local newspaper.

"Over the past few years, the number of people who have purchased advance tickets for the Glenville Summer Concert series has declined, indicating lack of community support. Although the weather has been unpredictable in the past few years, this cannot be the reason for the decline in advance ticket purchases, because many people attended the concerts even in bad weather. Clearly, then, the reason for the decline is the choice of music, so the organizers of the concert should feature more modern music in the future and should be sure to include music composed by Richerts, whose recordings Glenville residents purchase more often than any other contemporary recordings. This strategy will undoubtedly increase advance ticket purchases and will increase attendance at the concerts."

The author claimsthat organizers of the concert should feature more modern music in the futurein order attract more audiences. To support his conclusion, the author pointsout that the number of people who have purchased advance tickets for theconcert series has declined. In addition, he insists that Richerts's songsshould be included in the concert because people in Gkenville purchase hisrecordings more than any other contemporary. However, close scrutiny of thisargument reveals that it is unconvincing in several aspects.

First andforemost, the author saw the decline of advance tickets for Glenville SummerConcert series, hence he straightly declare the lack of community support.However, there are several questions about the conclusion. Firstly, the authormentioned nothing about the selling condition of other kinds of tickets. It ispossible that the number of low and middle price tickets has increased andtherefore, communities still support this activity. In addition, as the authormentioned, the weather has been unpredictable in the past few years, which canalso prevent the audience from going to the concert. Moreover, as we know, onlythose hard core fans would not afraid of bad weather while the number of thiskind of people is very small. Therefore, it is unwise for the author to make arash conclusion on the decline of the audiences.

In addition, evenif the number of the audience did decline, the author unfairly concludes thatit is the problem of the choice of music while ignores other possible factorsthat may give rise to the decline. It is possible that the location of theconcert is too far away from the downtown therefore, fewer people want to cometo the concert. The quality of the singers may also be a possible reason; maybethere are not too many famous singers in the concert so that it cannot attractpeople. Without ruling out these possibilities, the author's is completelyunfounded.

Finally, theauthor claims that the concert should include more modern songs and songs ofRicherts because people buy his recordings more than other contemporaryrecordings. However, the author provides no evidence that modern songs canattract more people. It is possible that people don't like modern songs. Inaddition, the author didn't mention a word about the selling condition aboutsingers of other times. It is possible that the records of other new singerssells much better than Richerts' and therefore their songs can attract morepeople than Richerts'. Moreover, it is possible that Richerts has nothing to dowith the good selling because he is the person who compose the song, but notthe person who actually sing it. Usually it is the singers who perform the songthat make it popular. Most importantly, there may be more people from othercities maybe the major part of the audience so we cannot make decision base onlocal selling condition. Therefore further investigation on what kind of songsthat audiences actually like is needed before the final conclusion.
To sum up, theconclusion made by the author is not based on valid evidence nor soundinginvestigation, neither of which is dispensable for the conclusion. In order toconvincing the organizers, the author should reason more convincingly and takeevery possible consideration into account.