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.
According to the memorandum from the business manager of a television station, viewership will be increased by expanding the coverage on weather and local news on all news programs. The conclusion is based on the complaints about decreases of weather and local news and the loss of advertising contracts. However, in order to assess the merit of the argument, a number of unstated assumptions must be examined. If the assumptions are unsubstantiated, then the argument is unwarranted and completely falls apart.
Firstly, the author assumes that all viewers want more weather and local news. The author depends on the evidence that most complaints were made on the station’s coverage on weather and local news. While an increase in the coverage of national news was made, it may not necessarily mean that complaints were based on the minimal coverage on weather and local news. Perhaps, most of the complaints that were made were due to the inaccuracy in weather predictions. On the other hand, it could be possible that the complaints made on local news did not demonstrate coverage of events in the area. If the above possibilities are true, then the assumption would not support the argument.
Secondly, the author implies that advertisers are less interested in national news and more interested in weather and local news. The author relies on the loss of advertising contracts after an increase in national news has been made. However, it could be possible that local businesses removed their advertising contracts in order to save money. Local businesses may be facing an economic downturn or period. Perhaps, local businesses removed their advertising contracts in order to spend more money on another merchandise or need to enhance the franchise of their businesses. Therefore, if the local businesses removed their advertising contracts in order to save money or place income for the flourishing of their own franchise, then the author’s assumption holds no water.
Lastly, the author assumes that the only way to increase viewership is to increase the coverage on weather and local news. The author relies on the premise that the complaints of viewers and loss of advertising contracts were solely due to an increase in weather and local news coverage. However, there is not enough substantial information to determine whether or not viewership was lost when coverage on national news was made. It could be possible that an increase in viewership may not be due to the favoritism of national news, but engagement of news anchors and the accuracy of information being presented. Additionally, and increase of viewership may occur if viewers are more likely to watch the news at a certain time, such as early in the morning or late in the evening. Therefore, the increase in viewership may nkt necessarily happen if viewers are not interested in and increase in weather and local news. If that is true, then the author’s argument falls apart.
In conclusion, the argument is filled with a number of unstated and unaddressed assumptions. Substantial evidence is needed in order to strengthen the argument, such as providing detail on where the complaints of viewers are coming from. Additionally, the author must provide evidence on why local businesses removed their advertising contracts, which can be done by providing a questionnaire or simply by calling the local businesses. Lastly, the author must provide a survey to viewers on what specifically would increase their likelihood of watching the news. If the answers demonstrate that increase in viewership is not due to an increase in local and weather news, then the author can address the need accurately. Furthermore, if the author does not provide sufficient and relevant information, then the author may be losing viewership and addressing the issue incorrectly.
Comments
e-rater score report
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: 29 15
No. of Words: 619 350
No. of Characters: 3151 1500
No. of Different Words: 205 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.988 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.09 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.87 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 225 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 192 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 143 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 93 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.345 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.227 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.724 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.359 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.359 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.143 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 4, column 355, Rule ID: WHETHER[7]
Message: Perhaps you can shorten this phrase to just 'whether'. It is correct though if you mean 'regardless of whether'.
Suggestion: whether
...gh substantial information to determine whether or not viewership was lost when coverage on na...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, firstly, furthermore, however, if, lastly, may, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, while, in conclusion, such as, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 33.0 19.6327345309 168% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 19.0 12.9520958084 147% => OK
Conjunction : 27.0 11.1786427146 242% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 23.0 28.8173652695 80% => OK
Preposition: 85.0 55.5748502994 153% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3225.0 2260.96107784 143% => OK
No of words: 619.0 441.139720559 140% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.21001615509 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.98795655647 4.56307096286 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.96199313764 2.78398813304 106% => OK
Unique words: 214.0 204.123752495 105% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.345718901454 0.468620217663 74% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1014.3 705.55239521 144% => 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: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 29.0 19.7664670659 147% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 37.7563690086 57.8364921388 65% => OK
Chars per sentence: 111.206896552 119.503703932 93% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.3448275862 23.324526521 92% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.06896551724 5.70786347227 89% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 16.0 8.20758483034 195% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
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: 0.322172676167 0.218282227539 148% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.110960942093 0.0743258471296 149% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0903606911085 0.0701772020484 129% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.213604017956 0.128457276422 166% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0633290819006 0.0628817314937 101% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.8 14.3799401198 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.94 12.5979740519 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.54 8.32208582834 91% => OK
difficult_words: 112.0 98.500998004 114% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 12.3882235529 69% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.