The following is a memorandum from the business manager of a television station. "Over the past year, our evening new program has devoted increased time to national news and decreased time to local and weather news. During this period, most of the complaints we got from viewers were concerned with our station's reportage of local and weather news. In addition, local businesses that used to advertise during our late night evening program have just canceled their advertising contract with us. Therefore, in order to attract more viewers to us and stop losing advertising revenues we should restore time devoted to local and weather news to its former level."
Write a response in which you discuss the specific evidence needed to evaluate argument and explain how the evidence will weaken or strengthen the argument.
The manager of a tv station recommended increasing the airtime of weather and local news during all news program to solve the decrease in rating and advertising contract problems. To support his/her claim, the manager referred to two main evidences: the first one is viewers’ complaints about the coverage of weather and local news, and the second one is the cancellation of advertising contracts from some local businesses. it seems logical and convincing at first glance, but the argument is rife with holes, thus not strong enough to ensure the efficiency of the manager’s solution to the current problems.
Citing feedbacks from viewers, the tv station manager implies that the reason for the declination of rating is the inadequate coverage of weather and local news. it is not clear, however, the specific content of those feedbacks. For example, the late-night news program is scheduled to last an hour, but the viewers would be unable to spend too much time (especially very late at night) on watching tv or wait until the end of the program for local news and weather forecast. thus, the matter does not lie in airtime, it lies in the production process or the arrangement of categories in the program. In the situation mentioned above, the rise in the time devoted to local news and weather might be counterproductive and result in more complains in the future.
Additionally, the manager supposed that local businesses does not renew their contracts with the tv station due to the change in time durations for national and local news. it is not a reliable evidence because there are several other reasons for these decisions. if some local company are actually in limited budget for commercial, thus they cannot afford renewal contract. if the target customer of one gaming company is teenager, so it is an unwise marketing strategy if they continue spending their expenditure on advertising in late-night news program which the viewers are mostly adults or old people. To strengthen his/her argument, the manager would benefit from implementing a survey asking the representative of each company why they ended their ad contracts, otherwise the guess for less weather and local news is in great doubt and his/her conclusion will be rendered much less advisable.
In conclusions, while the cause of drop in viewership and commercial contracts has not been clear, the decision to expand the time for local news and weather on all news program is of high-risk and cursory movement. Thus, a significant amount of additional evidence needs to be examined before an official decision is going to be made.
Comments
e-rater score report
Always need to argue against the conclusion:
Therefore, in order to attract more viewers to us and stop losing advertising revenues we should restore time devoted to local and weather news to its former level.
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 10 15
No. of Words: 434 350
No. of Characters: 2135 1500
No. of Different Words: 210 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.564 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.919 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.702 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 156 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 127 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 81 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 50 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 43.4 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 21.346 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.6 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.43 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.658 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.147 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 426, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: It
...g contracts from some local businesses. it seems logical and convincing at first g...
^^
Line 3, column 163, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: It
...ate coverage of weather and local news. it is not clear, however, the specific con...
^^
Line 3, column 475, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Thus
...am for local news and weather forecast. thus, the matter does not lie in airtime, it...
^^^^
Line 5, column 174, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: It
... durations for national and local news. it is not a reliable evidence because ther...
^^
Line 5, column 265, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: If
...eral other reasons for these decisions. if some local company are actually in limi...
^^
Line 5, column 376, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: If
...us they cannot afford renewal contract. if the target customer of one gaming compa...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, first, however, if, second, so, then, thus, while, for example, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 12.9520958084 39% => OK
Conjunction : 20.0 11.1786427146 179% => OK
Relative clauses : 3.0 13.6137724551 22% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 21.0 28.8173652695 73% => OK
Preposition: 57.0 55.5748502994 103% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2191.0 2260.96107784 97% => OK
No of words: 431.0 441.139720559 98% => OK
Chars per words: 5.08352668213 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.55637350225 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.7981861763 2.78398813304 101% => OK
Unique words: 217.0 204.123752495 106% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.503480278422 0.468620217663 107% => OK
syllable_count: 676.8 705.55239521 96% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 19.7664670659 76% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 28.0 22.8473053892 123% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 62.1535732413 57.8364921388 107% => OK
Chars per sentence: 146.066666667 119.503703932 122% => OK
Words per sentence: 28.7333333333 23.324526521 123% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.13333333333 5.70786347227 107% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 8.20758483034 37% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.313661089293 0.218282227539 144% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.108055543908 0.0743258471296 145% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0941338834068 0.0701772020484 134% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.198175689633 0.128457276422 154% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0441601776433 0.0628817314937 70% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.9 14.3799401198 118% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 43.06 48.3550499002 89% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.197005988 116% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.78 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.17 8.32208582834 110% => OK
difficult_words: 113.0 98.500998004 115% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 19.0 12.3882235529 153% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.2 11.1389221557 119% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.