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 manager based on the prompt avers that for a proclivity by local businesses in advertising with the television station, it is expedient that they ascribe more time to weather and local news or be faced with dwindling advertising revenues. However, this conclusion is tenuous and is based on three unfounded assumptions that if not substantiated renders the argument unpersuasive.
Firstly, the manager presumes without evidence that they were no other factors that affected the reduction of advertising contracts and this was solely based on the decrease in the level of weather and local news report. It is possible that local businesses made a sole decision to cut costs from advertisements and not due to the the present status of the television station. Perhaps, there was national depreciation or recession and the local companies deemed it fit to reduce the investment on advertising to substantiate for any losses and prevent running at a loss. If either case were true, then the Author's conclusion on increasing the frequency of local news and weather report is not overly persuasive
Secondly, The manger assumes that they were no other shows that were cut off which initially attracted audience views. It is possible that there could be a daily documentary that could be national acclaim and had not be properly represented in the complaints recieved due to negligence, as the audiences might feel the station wont take it seriously as compared to weather reports which typically affect daily movements of the people and guide their decision on whether to leave their residence or not. For example, the audiences might have been interested in a documentary such as 'Quest Means Business' as apart from being educative they find it appealing to watch, and the show being cancelled would casued the reduction of viewers, not salient enough for the Manager to suspect as there were peradventure little complaints from the viewers. If either of the aforementioned are true, then the manager's conclusion is spurious and not grounded.
Thirdly. the manager bases his conclusion on the assumption that there is a direct relationship with the number of viewers and advertisement contracts. Although this could be true, hwever there is no proper evidence that there is a substantial reduction in viewers based on the complaints recieved. Perhaps, there was no or a meager reduction in the viewers of the televison station and the complaints recieved had no correlation to the viewers perception of watching the station.
In conclusion, the manager needs to provide evidence on three fronts; the local business reason for cancellation of advertisement contract, other possible shows that may have been cancelled on the station and study on the actual viewers ratio over the year. Otherwise, the
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 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: 451 350
No. of Characters: 2313 1500
No. of Different Words: 205 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.608 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.129 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.854 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 167 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 142 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 99 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 69 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 30.067 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 15.018 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.533 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.339 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.579 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.073 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 328, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: the
...osts from advertisements and not due to the the present status of the television statio...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 328, Rule ID: DT_DT[1]
Message: Maybe you need to remove one determiner so that only 'the' or 'the' is left.
Suggestion: the; the
...osts from advertisements and not due to the the present status of the television statio...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 218, Rule ID: HAVE_PART_AGREEMENT[2]
Message: Possible agreement error -- use past participle here: 'been'.
Suggestion: been
...t could be national acclaim and had not be properly represented in the complaints ...
^^
Line 5, column 895, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'managers'' or 'manager's'?
Suggestion: managers'; manager's
...f the aforementioned are true, then the managers conclusion is spurious and not grounded...
^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 10, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: The
... spurious and not grounded. Thirdly. the manager bases his conclusion on the ass...
^^^
Line 7, column 319, Rule ID: NOW[2]
Message: Did you mean 'now' (=at this moment) instead of 'no' (negation)?
Suggestion: now
...complaints recieved. Perhaps, there was no or a meager reduction in the viewers of...
^^
Line 7, column 361, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... or a meager reduction in the viewers of the televison station and the complaints...
^^
Line 7, column 439, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'viewers'' or 'viewer's'?
Suggestion: viewers'; viewer's
...ints recieved had no correlation to the viewers perception of watching the station. ...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 460, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...correlation to the viewers perception of watching the station. In conclusion,...
^^
Line 9, column 230, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'viewers'' or 'viewer's'?
Suggestion: viewers'; viewer's
... on the station and study on the actual viewers ratio over the year. Otherwise, the
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
first, firstly, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, third, thirdly, apart from, for example, in conclusion, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.9520958084 54% => OK
Conjunction : 19.0 11.1786427146 170% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 29.0 28.8173652695 101% => OK
Preposition: 52.0 55.5748502994 94% => OK
Nominalization: 25.0 16.3942115768 152% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2360.0 2260.96107784 104% => OK
No of words: 451.0 441.139720559 102% => OK
Chars per words: 5.23281596452 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.60833598836 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.90202822831 2.78398813304 104% => OK
Unique words: 207.0 204.123752495 101% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.458980044346 0.468620217663 98% => OK
syllable_count: 728.1 705.55239521 103% => 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: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 19.7664670659 66% => 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: 34.0 22.8473053892 149% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 92.0940346846 57.8364921388 159% => OK
Chars per sentence: 181.538461538 119.503703932 152% => OK
Words per sentence: 34.6923076923 23.324526521 149% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.61538461538 5.70786347227 168% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 10.0 5.25449101796 190% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 8.20758483034 37% => 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: 0.211489544468 0.218282227539 97% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0709942235221 0.0743258471296 96% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0556183794293 0.0701772020484 79% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.125244471974 0.128457276422 97% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0625279125326 0.0628817314937 99% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 20.5 14.3799401198 143% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 36.97 48.3550499002 76% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 16.6 12.197005988 136% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.65 12.5979740519 108% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.24 8.32208582834 111% => OK
difficult_words: 112.0 98.500998004 114% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 15.0 12.3882235529 121% => OK
gunning_fog: 15.6 11.1389221557 140% => OK
text_standard: 21.0 11.9071856287 176% => 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.