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.
In the memorandum sent by the business manager of the television station, it was concluded that the television station should return to the previously used schedule (which would devote more time to weather and local news than the current) for their late night show in order to attract more viewers and eschew the lost of advertising revenues. This conclusion was made as a result of the complaints received from viewers concerning the station's coverage of weather and local news and the loss of local businesses that advertise on the platform. However, the manager conclusion is based on two unproven conditional statements and unwarranted assumptions that must be further backed with substantial evidence to make his or her proposed contention plausible.
First, the manager assumed that the proportion of complaints received from viewers is profound when compared to the total amount of viewers of the late night show. Perhaps, the current schedule which focus on national news have increased the pool viewers that make the complaints of people less significant when the statistical evidence are proven. It is also possible that the amount of complaints received by the television station has drastically reduced since the adoption of their current schedule. In other words, viewers need to complain might have been eliminated as they now enjoy the wide range of the late night covering of the national news. Hypothetically, the television might have been receiving about 5,000 complaints annually before the adoption of such the current template and sequel to the use of the current schedule, the maximum complaints ever received was about 500 which just 260 focused on the weather and local news issues. Of course, it would be absurd to return the previously used schedule because of such amount complaints when introspectively considering the former statistics. If either of the scenarios are true, the manager conclusion on the need to devote more time to local and weather news would be devastating for the station. To this foregoing, the manager should properly explore the statistical evidence and not rely on mere reports properly gotten from his or her staff on the nature of complains received.
Further, the manager assumed without evidence that the major cause in the reduction of local businesses that comes for advertisement were a result of the reduction in local news and weather reports. This is a presumptive assumption as there might have been lots of other reasons for the recent plummet in advertising businesses. Perhaps, the prices charged from other companies have recently become lesser than the prices charged by the television station. It is possible that the recent increase in the charges of advertisement costs drove clients away from advertising in the station. It is also possible that a new company advocacy for a social or political cause might have driven client away. There are lots of businesses that would not want to associate with stations that have political bias or commitments. Consequently, there is a need for the manager to properly introspect and explore all other possible causes before making a presumptuous conclusion on the cause of the reduction in financial revenues generated from advertising businesses. If either of the scenarios has merit, then the manager's conclusion does not hold water.
In conclusion, while there is a possibility that the cause in the reduction of advertising revenues and complaints of viewers were contingent on the reduction in the amount of time dedicated to weather reports and local news, the manager conclusion is not convincing and rife with overly forward assumptions (without evidence) that must be ascertain on two fronts: is the proportion of complaints received substantial enough to necessitate a change and is the lack of local news and weather reports the main causes of the reduction in advertising business. Unless the manager prove beyond doubt these two circumstances, then the conclusion is implausible and not convincing.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 13 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 22 15
No. of Words: 642 350
No. of Characters: 3339 1500
No. of Different Words: 244 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.034 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.201 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.812 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 250 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 205 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 143 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 97 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 29.182 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 15.062 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.545 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.337 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.479 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.102 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 434, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'stations'' or 'station's'?
Suggestion: stations'; station's
...ts received from viewers concerning the stations coverage of weather and local news and ...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 86, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...n of complaints received from viewers is profound when compared to the total amou...
^^
Line 5, column 1101, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'managers'' or 'manager's'?
Suggestion: managers'; manager's
...er of the scenarios has merit, then the managers conclusion does not hold water. In c...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, consequently, first, however, if, so, then, while, in conclusion, of course, as a result, in other words
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 27.0 19.6327345309 138% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.9520958084 116% => OK
Conjunction : 21.0 11.1786427146 188% => OK
Relative clauses : 20.0 13.6137724551 147% => OK
Pronoun: 30.0 28.8173652695 104% => OK
Preposition: 92.0 55.5748502994 166% => OK
Nominalization: 25.0 16.3942115768 152% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3388.0 2260.96107784 150% => OK
No of words: 642.0 441.139720559 146% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.27725856698 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.03365860172 4.56307096286 110% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.86755344221 2.78398813304 103% => OK
Unique words: 252.0 204.123752495 123% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.392523364486 0.468620217663 84% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1052.1 705.55239521 149% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 30.0 22.8473053892 131% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 101.008003544 57.8364921388 175% => OK
Chars per sentence: 161.333333333 119.503703932 135% => OK
Words per sentence: 30.5714285714 23.324526521 131% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.2380952381 5.70786347227 92% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 12.0 6.88822355289 174% => 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: 0.318671752417 0.218282227539 146% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0982892473015 0.0743258471296 132% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0821801773899 0.0701772020484 117% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.217086376243 0.128457276422 169% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0706498585882 0.0628817314937 112% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 18.7 14.3799401198 130% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 41.03 48.3550499002 85% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.0 12.197005988 123% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.94 12.5979740519 111% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.3 8.32208582834 100% => OK
difficult_words: 129.0 98.500998004 131% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 19.0 12.3882235529 153% => OK
gunning_fog: 14.0 11.1389221557 126% => OK
text_standard: 19.0 11.9071856287 160% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
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.