The following is a memorandum from the business manager of a television station."Over the past year, our late-night news program has devoted increased time to national news and less time to weather and local news. During this period, most of the complaint

Essay topics:

The following is a memorandum from the business manager of a television station.

"Over the past year, our late-night news program has devoted increased time to national news and less time to weather and local news. During this period, most of the complaints received from viewers were concerned with our station's coverage of weather and local news. In addition, local businesses that used to advertise during our late-night news program have canceled their advertising contracts with us. Therefore, in order to attract more viewers to our news programs and to avoid losing any further advertising revenues, we should expand our coverage of weather and local news on all our news programs."

Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.

Over the past year, a television station's late-night news program has devoted more time to national news than to weather and local news. As a result, it received several complaints regarding the lack of coverage of weather and local news. Also, local businesses that used to advertise during their late-night news programs have cancelled their advertising contracts. Hence, the business manager posits that to attract more viewers and the avoid further loss of advertising revenues, they should restore the time devoted to weather and local news as earlier. While the argument seems logical, on closer look there needs to be more evidence to adopt the plan of action successfully.

Firstly, it is required to know whether local businesses cancelled their advertising contracts solely because of lack of coverage of weather and local news during the late-night news program. It is quite possible that they were unhappy about the contract because the station didn't air their advertisements as per the agreement in terms of frequency. Also, it might be that they got more attracted to a rival television station which offered cheaper advertising contracts or had a larger viewer base. In either of these cases, the small businesses are likely to withdraw from advertising contract with the station. Then, it would undermine the argument that they cancelled the contract as a result of decreased coverage of weather and local news.

The source of the complaints received were not mentioned. It needs to be determined if the complaints were from a larger variety of viewers, from different parts of the region where the station operates. Possibly, the complaints came from viewers in a certain town since it is quite essential for them to keep track of the weather since it has been erratic in the recent past. Else, a certain town may be seeing several important events taking place and thus, the residents are more interested in updates about the events than in the national news. Such a scenario would make viewers in the region discontent with the increased coverage of national news and hence prompted them to complain aboutt the matter.

Also, it not made clear what the contents of the complaints were. The manager says most of the complaints were regarding the coverage if weather and local news but doesn't state if these complaints were about their decreased coverage. The complaints might have been about the inappropriate coverage by say, a newly recruited set of anchors. They might not have been as appealing as the earlier anchors. Also, probably the content of coverage of local news was of declining standards. The news items covered might not have been relevant or even trivial. The weather reports might have been inaccurate and unrealiable. If the complaints from the viewers were about any of these issues, then just increasing the time devoted to weather and local news wouldn't solve the problem.

Hence, the recommendation shouldn't be taken for granted without examining certain specific evidence. The reason for the cancellation of advertising contracts by local businesses needs to be determined. The demography of the viewers who complained has to be researched to see if it was an isolated case. Finally, the contents of the complaints should be subjected to further examination to determine the real issue. Without enough evidence in these matters, the manager's argument remains weak.

Votes
Average: 5.8 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 436, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...posits that to attract more viewers and the avoid further loss of advertising revenues, t...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 276, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: didn't
... about the contract because the station didnt air their advertisements as per the agr...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 165, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
... coverage if weather and local news but doesnt state if these complaints were about th...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 748, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: wouldn't
... time devoted to weather and local news wouldnt solve the problem. Hence, the recomm...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 27, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: shouldn't
...e problem. Hence, the recommendation shouldnt be taken for granted without examining ...
^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 462, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'managers'' or 'manager's'?
Suggestion: managers'; manager's
...t enough evidence in these matters, the managers argument remains weak. ...
^^^^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, firstly, hence, if, look, may, regarding, so, then, thus, while, as to, as a result

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 27.0 19.6327345309 138% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.9520958084 77% => OK
Conjunction : 14.0 11.1786427146 125% => OK
Relative clauses : 8.0 13.6137724551 59% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 31.0 28.8173652695 108% => OK
Preposition: 79.0 55.5748502994 142% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2886.0 2260.96107784 128% => OK
No of words: 553.0 441.139720559 125% => OK
Chars per words: 5.21880650995 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.84932490483 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.69348383227 2.78398813304 97% => OK
Unique words: 241.0 204.123752495 118% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.435804701627 0.468620217663 93% => OK
syllable_count: 881.1 705.55239521 125% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 9.0 4.96107784431 181% => OK
Interrogative: 0.0 0.471057884232 0% => OK
Article: 17.0 8.76447105788 194% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 28.0 19.7664670659 142% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => OK
Sentence length SD: 40.2647330115 57.8364921388 70% => OK
Chars per sentence: 103.071428571 119.503703932 86% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.75 23.324526521 85% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.92857142857 5.70786347227 69% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 15.0 6.88822355289 218% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.377874228427 0.218282227539 173% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.106312741942 0.0743258471296 143% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.121928116939 0.0701772020484 174% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.216574685943 0.128457276422 169% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.136018879267 0.0628817314937 216% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.0 14.3799401198 90% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 52.19 48.3550499002 108% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.0 12.5979740519 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.95 8.32208582834 96% => OK
difficult_words: 118.0 98.500998004 120% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 Out of 6 -- The score is based on the average performance of 20,000 argument essays. This e-grader is not smart enough to check on arguments.
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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.