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 given argument is based on the fact that the purchase of advance tickets for the Glenville Summer Concert series has declined. The arguer attributes this decline to the choice of music for the concert. The arguer rules out inclement weather of the past few years as the reason for the decline in the purchase of advance tickets as people have been attending the concert in bad weather also. The arguer concludes that the organizers of the concert should now include music composed by Richerts as his recordings have been purchased by the residents of Glenville more than those of any other composer. Despite the facts presented by the arguer, the argument contains a number of logical fallacies that succeed in making the argument sound unconvincing.

The arguer mentions that the weather has been unpredictable in the past. It is quite likely that this weather is responsible for making the residents of Glenville stay indoors. They may have been attending the concerts in bad weather earlier but it is possible that their past experiences have influenced their decision of attending concerts in unpredictable weather. As the weather is now unpredictable, they probably do not book the advance tickets as one does not know what the weather will be like on the day of the concert. The argument could have been substantiated with evidence that compared the number of people who have been attending the concerts in bad weather with the attendance at the concerts on good weather days. These statistics would have helped to analyze the effect of the weather on the purchase of the advance tickets. It is likely that the attendance on bad weather days was very less as compared to that on the good weather days and this would then tilt the scales in favor of unpredictable weather being the main cause for the decline in the sale of advance tickets.

The arguer does not consider any other reason that may have been instrumental in keeping people away from the Summer Concert series. It is likely that people are not aware of the procedure for booking advance tickets. Additionally, there is a chance that there might be some other important event going on in the town at the same time. It is likely that the other event is attracting the people leading to a decline in the purchase of advance tickets for the concerts.

Even if it is true that the low attendance at the Glenville Summer Concert series is due to a bad choice of music, it is not necessary that the music composed by Richerts would be successful in drawing large crowds to the concert. There is no mention of the type of music that is currently being played at the concert. Moreover, there is no solid evidence that proves that the residents of Glenville are interested in listening to modern music composed by Richerts alone. It is likely that modern music is appreciated by a small section of people from Glenville and Richerts’ compositions are favored by this small section. Furthermore, it is quite likely that this section of people may like to listen to Richerts’ compositions at home and they would not be interested in listening to it being played at a concert.

Therefore, due to lack of solid evidence in the form of detailed research and concrete facts, the argument fails to convince the reader that the choice of music is the main reason for the decline in the purchase of advance tickets and that playing the music composed by Richerts will solve the problem of low attendance at the Glenville Summer Concert series.