Many consumers ignore commercial advertisements. In response, advertising companies have started using a new tactic, called “buzzing." The advertisers hire people, buzzers, who personally promote (buzz) products to people they know or meet. The key part is that the buzzers do not reveal that they are being paid to promote anything. They behave as though they were just spontaneously praising a product during normal conversation. Buzzing has generated a lot of controversy, and many critics would like to see it banned.
First, the critics complain that consumers should know whether a person praising a product is being paid to praise the product. Knowing this makes a big difference: we expect the truth from people who we believe do not have any motive for misleading us. But with buzzing what you hear is just paid advertising, which may well give a person incorrect information about the buzzed product.
Second, since buzzers pretend they are just private individuals, consumers listen to their endorsements less critically than they should. With advertisements in print or on TV, the consumer is on guard for questionable claims or empty descriptions such as "new and improved." But when consumers do not know they are being lobbied, they may accept claims they would otherwise be suspicious of. This may suit the manufacturers, but it could really harm consumers.
And worst of all is the harmful effect that buzzing is likely to have on social relationships. Once we become aware that people we meet socially may be buzzers with a hidden agenda, we will become less trustful of people in general. So buzzing will result in the spread of mistrust and the expectation of dishonesty.
The reading passage presents three arguments in favor of banning buzzing. However, the speaker in the lecture refutes the claims made in the article. He mentions that the ideas in the reading are misleading and leave out a lot of information.
To begin with, the author assumes that buzzers may give incorrect facts about the product since it's just paid advertising. In contrast, the student explains that companies only hire people who actually use the product and think that it's good. The lecturer gives an example of how he feels that the phone service he has is great and he does not mind to tell other people about it. On the other hand, paid advertising involves actors who just say specific lines.
Secondly, the writer contends that buzzing could harm consumers since they would listen to endorsements less critically than they should. Conversely, the lecturer brings up the fact that buyers do not believe everything they hear from the buzzers. Instead, they always have questions about the price, service and how long the buzzer have had the product. As a result, if the person did not provide adequate answers, individuals would not purchase the item.
Lastly, the excerpt posits that this way of advertising could lead to the spread of mistrust between people and hence deterioration of social relationships. Nevertheless, the lecturer casts doubt on that position. He illustrates that firms will not be capable of recruiting buzzers if the product was bad. Moreover, since buzzers only promote trustworthy merchandise, buzzing will help maintain trust between friends and people in general.
- An international organization has started issuing certifications to wood companies who meet a high ecological standard by conserving resources and recycling materials in an effort to encourage ecological sustainable forestry practices. Certified companies 80
- Many people have a close relationship with their pets. These people treat their birds, cats or other animals as members of their family. In your opinion, are such relationships good? Why or why not? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer 80
- Question: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?Leadership comes naturally: one cannot learn to be a leader.Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. 76
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement It is more interesting to read a good book or see a good movie the second time than the first Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer 58
- Archaeologists have recently found a fossil of a 150-million-year-old mam-mal known as Repenomomus robustus (R. robustus). Interestingly, the mammal's stomach contained the remains of a psittacosaur dinosaur. Some researchers have therefore suggested 73
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 345, Rule ID: ADMIT_ENJOY_VB[1]
Message: This verb is used with the gerund form: 'mind telling'.
Suggestion: mind telling
...service he has is great and he does not mind to tell other people about it. On the other han...
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 13, column 441, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... between friends and people in general.
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, conversely, hence, however, if, lastly, may, moreover, nevertheless, second, secondly, so, in contrast, in general, as a result, to begin with, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 4.0 10.4613686534 38% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 5.04856512141 158% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 12.0772626932 99% => OK
Pronoun: 23.0 22.412803532 103% => OK
Preposition: 31.0 30.3222958057 102% => OK
Nominalization: 3.0 5.01324503311 60% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1361.0 1373.03311258 99% => OK
No of words: 261.0 270.72406181 96% => OK
Chars per words: 5.21455938697 5.08290768461 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.0193898071 4.04702891845 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.61612045944 2.5805825403 101% => OK
Unique words: 164.0 145.348785872 113% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.628352490421 0.540411800872 116% => OK
syllable_count: 396.0 419.366225166 94% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 13.0662251656 115% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 21.2450331126 80% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 27.3190206429 49.2860985944 55% => The essay contains lots of sentences with the similar length. More sentence varieties wanted.
Chars per sentence: 90.7333333333 110.228320801 82% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.4 21.698381199 80% => OK
Discourse Markers: 11.4 7.06452816374 161% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.27373068433 140% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.184030802275 0.272083759551 68% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0510864103668 0.0996497079465 51% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0451044456406 0.0662205650399 68% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0902741095516 0.162205337803 56% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0447706503779 0.0443174109184 101% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.8 13.3589403974 88% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 62.68 53.8541721854 116% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.7 11.0289183223 79% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.64 12.2367328918 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.65 8.42419426049 103% => OK
difficult_words: 69.0 63.6247240618 108% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 7.5 10.7273730684 70% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 10.498013245 84% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 81.6666666667 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.5 Out of 30
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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.