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.
The author claims that the new channel in its late- night news must increase the time of weather and local news to its former level. He expect a increase in viewership and revenue as a result of it. The claim is based on the fact that there is increase in cutomer complaints and decline in advertising revenue due to canellation of contacts. This argument is based of mainly three assumptions, which if left unsubstatiated, dramatically decreases the persuasiveness the argument.
To begin, the author assumes that if they restore the time devoted to weather and local news to its former level, they will get back the viewership and advertising contracts.
It is possible that this may not happen. Maybe the economy of the country is in a decline, and therefore the companies are cutting back on marketing cost, in such a case channel may never get back it's lost revenue. It's is also possible, that audience might have shifted to some alternative sources like internet or newspaper, some may like it better than televison and may never decide to switch back.
Another assumption is that the decline in viewership and revenue is solely dependent on the less coverage of local news and weather, some other factor can also result in such decline. For example, maybe a new channel has come in the market and competing with them for viewership. It's possible that the existing channel may have improved the content of their channel, and therefore might have become more palatable to the audience. In both the cases, the reason for the decline is increase in competition. In such a scenario, even with a incease in timing of the coverage, it may not provide the expected result.
The third assumption of the author is regarding the complaints received and the coverage of local news in shows other than the late night news. The author assume that, the complaint is regarding the less coverage during the late night show, but it is possible that the complaints are not agianst the less coverage but maybe against some other issue. Maybe the consumers are not satisfied with the graphics or the accuracy of the predictions or maybe they are not satisfied with the presenters. It's is also possible that the local news are highly baised in nautre, and people are complaining agaisnt it.
From the above discussion it is clear, that the argument in it'scurrent state is highly flawed and required further evidences and clarification from the author to strengthen it. The author must provide a comprehensive detail about the specifc complaints recevied from the consumers regarding coverage. Also, the author must give data regarding the economy, advertiser demand and market demand to bolster his claim that the revenue wil come back once they increase the time devoted to weather and local news. A competiot
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 472 350
No. of Characters: 2283 1500
No. of Different Words: 193 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.661 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.837 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.565 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 161 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 124 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 82 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 49 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.476 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.661 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.714 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.305 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.521 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.096 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 137, Rule ID: HE_VERB_AGR[1]
Message: The pronoun 'He' must be used with a third-person verb: 'expects'.
Suggestion: expects
... and local news to its former level. He expect a increase in viewership and revenue as...
^^^^^^
Line 1, column 144, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
...cal news to its former level. He expect a increase in viewership and revenue as a...
^
Line 1, column 401, Rule ID: IF_IS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'is'?
Suggestion: is
...ased of mainly three assumptions, which if left unsubstatiated, dramatically decre...
^^
Line 4, column 118, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...n a decline, and therefore the companies are cutting back on marketing cost, in s...
^^
Line 6, column 536, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
...petition. In such a scenario, even with a incease in timing of the coverage, it m...
^
Line 8, column 156, Rule ID: MASS_AGREEMENT[2]
Message: Possible agreement error - use third-person verb forms for singular and mass nouns: 'assumes'.
Suggestion: assumes
...er than the late night news. The author assume that, the complaint is regarding the le...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, if, may, regarding, so, then, therefore, third, for example, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.9520958084 100% => OK
Conjunction : 22.0 11.1786427146 197% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 13.6137724551 95% => OK
Pronoun: 37.0 28.8173652695 128% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 58.0 55.5748502994 104% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 16.3942115768 61% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2340.0 2260.96107784 103% => OK
No of words: 471.0 441.139720559 107% => OK
Chars per words: 4.96815286624 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.65859790218 4.56307096286 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.64551021762 2.78398813304 95% => OK
Unique words: 201.0 204.123752495 98% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.426751592357 0.468620217663 91% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 738.9 705.55239521 105% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 4.96107784431 202% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 2.70958083832 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 51.6890669019 57.8364921388 89% => OK
Chars per sentence: 117.0 119.503703932 98% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.55 23.324526521 101% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.15 5.70786347227 73% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => 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: 0.235999269877 0.218282227539 108% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.073200188974 0.0743258471296 98% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0831958330751 0.0701772020484 119% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.135134706035 0.128457276422 105% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0681770190445 0.0628817314937 108% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.8 14.3799401198 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.3550499002 100% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.84 12.5979740519 94% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.26 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 104.0 98.500998004 106% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.