The following is a memo from the business manager of a TV 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 time 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 just canceled their advertising contracts with us. Therefore, in order to attract more viewers to the program and to avoid losing any further advertising revenues, we should restore the time devoted to weather and local news to its former level."
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
Over the past year, the local news stations has lost advertisement and recieved complaints about their coverage. The memorandum from the manager states that this is due to increased national coverage and decreased coverage on local news and weather. Several pieces of evidence are needed to back up this claim. There are multiple reasons why viewership can decrease and several arguments need to be analyzed.
The manager for the station indicates that the recent complaints have indicated that more time should be spent on local issues. However, this claim needs to be further backed up. The manager should look into whether the filed complaints are representative of the population. If a certain demographic of the population, say people over the age of 55, were the ones complaining, this may not accurately represent the whole viewership. What do people younger than 55 think about the recent coverage? Using the complaints alone to make a change is a weak argument. Correlations do not equal causations. Therfore, even though their is a correlation between switching to national news and decreased viewership, this is not necessarily the cause.
The TV station should look into what age demographics have stopped watching their show. Based on this, they can come up with a reasons why this has happened. There are many reasons for why people stop watching live TV. Did their viewership start reading online articles? Did their viewership start watching YouTube clips instead of the live program? Is it just one age demographic that decreased the viewership or is it even across the board? These clues can give a better idea as to why their TV viewership has decreased. It would be a stronger argument than complaints and lost advertisment claims.
If the TV station wants a strong argument to back up their claim that they should go back to local issues, they should adminsiter a local survey. This survey can ask viewers on their interests and what they would like covered during the news show. It can also ask whether they have stopped watching the show and how they are obtaining their local and national news. This would help the local station determine whether their efforts, such as advertisment sales should shift to another type media or whether they should truly adjust their show.
The claim that the local media show has to change its content needs further evidence. Reduced advertisements and complaints are not strong enough evidence to dictate what the real problem is. Now-a-days, most TV channels are losing viewership to online platforms and this could very well explain the problem the local station is experiencing. Additional studies and questionnaires would be much stronger evidence to determine what change needs to happen. Over the past year, the local news stations has lost advertisement and recieved complaints about their coverage. The memorandum from the manager states that this is due to increased national coverage and decreased coverage on local news and weather. Several pieces of evidence are needed to back up this claim. There are multiple reasons why viewership can decrease and several arguments need to be analyzed.
The manager for the station indicates that the recent complaints have indicated that more time should be spent on local issues. However, this claim needs to be further backed up. The manager should look into whether the filed complaints are representative of the population. If a certain demographic of the population, say people over the age of 55, were the ones complaining, this may not accurately represent the whole viewership. What do people younger than 55 think about the recent coverage? Using the complaints alone to make a change is a weak argument. Correlations do not equal causations. Therfore, even though their is a correlation between switching to national news and decreased viewership, this is not necessarily the cause.
The TV station should look into what age demographics have stopped watching their show. Based on this, they can come up with a reasons why this has happened. There are many reasons for why people stop watching live TV. Did their viewership start reading online articles? Did their viewership start watching YouTube clips instead of the live program? Is it just one age demographic that decreased the viewership or is it even across the board? These clues can give a better idea as to why their TV viewership has decreased. It would be a stronger argument than complaints and lost advertisment claims.
If the TV station wants a strong argument to back up their claim that they should go back to local issues, they should adminsiter a local survey. This survey can ask viewers on their interests and what they would like covered during the news show. It can also ask whether they have stopped watching the show and how they are obtaining their local and national news. This would help the local station determine whether their efforts, such as advertisment sales should shift to another type media or whether they should truly adjust their show.
The claim that the local media show has to change its content needs further evidence. Reduced advertisements and complaints are not strong enough evidence to dictate what the real problem is. Now-a-days, most TV channels are losing viewership to online platforms and this could very well explain the problem the local station is experiencing. Additional studies and questionnaires would be much stronger evidence to determine what change needs to happen.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
samples:
https://www.testbig.com/gmatgre-argument-task-essays/over-past-year-our…
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 2.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 56 15
No. of Words: 900 350
No. of Characters: 4518 1500
No. of Different Words: 202 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.477 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.02 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.618 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 314 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 242 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 160 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 102 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 16.071 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 5.732 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.321 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.266 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.443 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.067 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 9 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...veral arguments need to be analyzed. The manager for the station indicates th...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 627, Rule ID: THEIR_IS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'there'?
Suggestion: there
...equal causations. Therfore, even though their is a correlation between switching to n...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... this is not necessarily the cause. The TV station should look into what age...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...aints and lost advertisment claims. If the TV station wants a strong argumen...
^^^^^
Line 9, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...hey should truly adjust their show. The claim that the local media show has ...
^^^^^
Line 11, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...veral arguments need to be analyzed. The manager for the station indicates th...
^^^^^
Line 11, column 627, Rule ID: THEIR_IS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'there'?
Suggestion: there
...equal causations. Therfore, even though their is a correlation between switching to n...
^^^^^
Line 13, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... this is not necessarily the cause. The TV station should look into what age...
^^^^^
Line 15, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...aints and lost advertisment claims. If the TV station wants a strong argumen...
^^^^^
Line 17, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...hey should truly adjust their show. The claim that the local media show has ...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, however, if, look, may, so, well, as to, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 42.0 19.6327345309 214% => Less to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 38.0 12.9520958084 293% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 28.0 11.1786427146 250% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 80.0 28.8173652695 278% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 84.0 55.5748502994 151% => OK
Nominalization: 36.0 16.3942115768 220% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 4628.0 2260.96107784 205% => Less number of characters wanted.
No of words: 900.0 441.139720559 204% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.14222222222 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.47722557505 4.56307096286 120% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.68778306003 2.78398813304 97% => OK
Unique words: 213.0 204.123752495 104% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.236666666667 0.468620217663 51% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1377.0 705.55239521 195% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 20.0 4.96107784431 403% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 56.0 19.7664670659 283% => Too many sentences.
Sentence length: 16.0 22.8473053892 70% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 35.4770693403 57.8364921388 61% => OK
Chars per sentence: 82.6428571429 119.503703932 69% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.0714285714 23.324526521 69% => OK
Discourse Markers: 0.964285714286 5.70786347227 17% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 9.0 5.15768463074 174% => Less paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 10.0 5.25449101796 190% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 16.0 8.20758483034 195% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 22.0 6.88822355289 319% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 18.0 4.67664670659 385% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.200096721559 0.218282227539 92% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0541754211118 0.0743258471296 73% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.060901487824 0.0701772020484 87% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.123572951666 0.128457276422 96% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0575085875524 0.0628817314937 91% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.8 14.3799401198 75% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 63.7 48.3550499002 132% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.4 12.197005988 69% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.24 12.5979740519 97% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 6.04 8.32208582834 73% => OK
difficult_words: 92.0 98.500998004 93% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 7.0 12.3882235529 57% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
gunning_fog: 8.4 11.1389221557 75% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Maximum six paragraphs wanted.
Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 Out of 6
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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.