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 argument that the television station ought to restore the time alloted to weather and local news to its previous level so as to attract more audience and to prevent losing any further marketing revenues is not complete. There are gaps in the logic that render it unconvincing. The following essay will expose these flaws and demonstrate how the argument could be made more cogent.
First, the fact that over the past year the station received most of the complaints from viewers who were concerned with the station's coverage of weather and local news is little indication that restoring the time devoted to weather and regional news to its former level would lead to an increase in the number of the station's viewers. It is highly probable that the complaints come from the minority of the station's audience, and that those people following the station's nation-wide news actually account for the majority of its viewers. The manager just fails to provide us with some pertinent figures regarding how the station's national and local news fans contribute to the overall number of the sation's viewers. Since the writer fails to consider and rule out the above-mentioned considerations, the argument remains dubious. If the author had shown that those people following the station's news about their localities in fact markedly constitute the total number of the station's audience, the argument could have been strengthened.
What is more, the manager unfairly presumes that the majority of the station's revenues come from the advertisements offered to be on the air by the local businesses, yet he/she has presented no information that this is necessarily the case. It is entirely possible that the revenues obtained through the advertising contracts made by these local businesses contribute to a small fraction of the station's overall revenues. Hence, changing the station's timetable to its previous condition would not be that fruitful in terms of preventing the station's lost revenues from rising. Such possibility casts grave doubts on the validity of the argument. The author could reinforce their case by statistically informing us with regard to the true contribution made to the station's overall level of revenues through the local businesses' advertising contracts, and by underscoring the fact that such contribution is in fact remarkable.
To summarize, the argument is not wholly sensible. The evidence in support of the recommendation that the station should return its time spent on weather and regional news to its former state with the aim of thwarting more advertising profits from being lost and also raising the number of the station's viewers does little to substantiate that suggestion, since it does not address the suppositions already brought up.
Comments
e-rater score report
One more argument wanted.
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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: 15 15
No. of Words: 445 350
No. of Characters: 2311 1500
No. of Different Words: 206 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.593 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.193 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.807 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 168 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 144 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 107 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 64 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 29.667 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 15.653 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.6 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.392 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.566 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.123 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 124, Rule ID: SO_AS_TO[1]
Message: Use simply 'to'
Suggestion: to
...er and local news to its previous level so as to attract more audience and to prevent lo...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... argument could be made more cogent. First, the fact that over the past year ...
^^^
Line 3, column 129, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'stations'' or 'station's'?
Suggestion: stations'; station's
...rom viewers who were concerned with the stations coverage of weather and local news is l...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 412, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'stations'' or 'station's'?
Suggestion: stations'; station's
...omplaints come from the minority of the stations audience, and that those people followi...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 891, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'stations'' or 'station's'?
Suggestion: stations'; station's
...d shown that those people following the stations news about their localities in fact mar...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 980, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'stations'' or 'station's'?
Suggestion: stations'; station's
...edly constitute the total number of the stations audience, the argument could have been ...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 1042, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... argument could have been strengthened. What is more, the manager unfairly pr...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 446, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'stations'' or 'station's'?
Suggestion: stations'; station's
...s overall revenues. Hence, changing the stations timetable to its previous condition wou...
^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... contribution is in fact remarkable. To summarize, the argument is not wholly...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, hence, if, regarding, so, then, as to, in fact, what is more, with regard to
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 15.0 19.6327345309 76% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 35.0 28.8173652695 121% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 67.0 55.5748502994 121% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2335.0 2260.96107784 103% => OK
No of words: 444.0 441.139720559 101% => OK
Chars per words: 5.25900900901 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.5903493882 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.82886738225 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 208.0 204.123752495 102% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.468468468468 0.468620217663 100% => OK
syllable_count: 715.5 705.55239521 101% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 4.96107784431 40% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => 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: 29.0 22.8473053892 127% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 93.4343738793 57.8364921388 162% => OK
Chars per sentence: 155.666666667 119.503703932 130% => OK
Words per sentence: 29.6 23.324526521 127% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.93333333333 5.70786347227 121% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 9.0 5.25449101796 171% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.302340019014 0.218282227539 139% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0940729983857 0.0743258471296 127% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0960425258938 0.0701772020484 137% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.175549112595 0.128457276422 137% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0973444190316 0.0628817314937 155% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 18.1 14.3799401198 126% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 42.04 48.3550499002 87% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.6 12.197005988 120% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.82 12.5979740519 110% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.74 8.32208582834 105% => OK
difficult_words: 103.0 98.500998004 105% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.6 11.1389221557 122% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => 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.