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 from the business manager, it is stated that the coverage of weather and local news should be expanded on all news programs to attract more viewers and avoid losing any additional advertising revenues. The manager has concluded based on the complaints received from viewers who were mainly concerned with the station's coverage of weather and local news and the cancellation of the local businesses' advertising contracts. However, before this recommendation can be properly evaluated, three questions must be evaluated.
First of all, can all these complainers represent all the viewer's opinions? In other words, can opinions from specific viewers be used to make generalizations and predictions about the other? It is possible that most viewers like the national news more than local news. Further, there is a possibility that those complainers complain just for no reason. If either of these scenarios has merit, then the conclusion drawn in the original argument is significantly weakened.
Secondly, is the cancellation of the advertising contract caused by the complainers? The manager in the argument assumes that the complainers induce most cancellations. However, this might not be the case. Perhaps most of these local businesses have encountered some financial problems recently. There might be another reason cause the cancellation of the advertisement in the actual situation. If the above is true, then the argument doesn't hold water.
Lastly, aren't these complaints be made up? Competitors could make up these complaints. We can't promise that all the complaints are actually from the station's viewer. Thus, under such circumstances, the expansion of local news would maybe not resolve the current problem. If it is true, then the recommendation is not warranted.
In conclusion, as it stands now, the argument is considerably flawed due to its reliance on several unwarranted assumptions. If the author is able to answer the three question above and offer more evidence (perhaps in the form or systemic study), then it will be possible to fully evaluate the viability of the proposed recommendation to expand the local and the weather news.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 3 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 343 350
No. of Characters: 1792 1500
No. of Different Words: 179 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.304 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.224 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.978 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 125 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 106 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 83 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 50 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 16.333 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.463 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.619 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.276 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.506 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.066 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 328, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'stations'' or 'station's'?
Suggestion: stations'; station's
...wers who were mainly concerned with the stations coverage of weather and local news and ...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
..., three questions must be evaluated. First of all, can all these complainers ...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... argument is significantly weakened. Secondly, is the cancellation of the adv...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 442, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...If the above is true, then the argument doesnt hold water. Lastly, arent the...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...hen the argument doesnt hold water. Lastly, arent these complaints be made u...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 15, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: aren't
...nt doesnt hold water. Lastly, arent these complaints be made up? Competitor...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 97, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
...tors could make up these complaints. We cant promise that all the complaints are act...
^^^^
Line 7, column 156, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'stations'' or 'station's'?
Suggestion: stations'; station's
...ll the complaints are actually from the stations viewer. Thus, under such circumstances,...
^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...the recommendation is not warranted. In conclusion, as it stands now, the arg...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, first, however, if, lastly, may, second, secondly, so, then, thus, in conclusion, first of all, in other words, it is true
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.9520958084 77% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 6.0 13.6137724551 44% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 20.0 28.8173652695 69% => OK
Preposition: 40.0 55.5748502994 72% => OK
Nominalization: 15.0 16.3942115768 91% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1843.0 2260.96107784 82% => OK
No of words: 341.0 441.139720559 77% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.40469208211 5.12650576532 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.29722995808 4.56307096286 94% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.03922126013 2.78398813304 109% => OK
Unique words: 183.0 204.123752495 90% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.536656891496 0.468620217663 115% => OK
syllable_count: 568.8 705.55239521 81% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 4.0 8.76447105788 46% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
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: 16.0 22.8473053892 70% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 57.0340631004 57.8364921388 99% => OK
Chars per sentence: 87.7619047619 119.503703932 73% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.2380952381 23.324526521 70% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.28571428571 5.70786347227 110% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 9.0 5.25449101796 171% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 11.0 6.88822355289 160% => 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: 0.218526883976 0.218282227539 100% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0609535332629 0.0743258471296 82% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0833141629596 0.0701772020484 119% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.122192852399 0.128457276422 95% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0713560396631 0.0628817314937 113% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.1 14.3799401198 84% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 46.78 48.3550499002 97% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.74 12.5979740519 109% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.64 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 91.0 98.500998004 92% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 12.3882235529 97% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.4 11.1389221557 75% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 54.17 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.25 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.