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 cancelled 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 given memorandum the manager recommends to restore their time devoted for weather and local news in order to attract viewers and not lose any further advertising revenues. This proposal is based upon his deduction that they receieved complaints about the chages in late-news programs of the television stations and the loss of an advertising contract with a local business. The author has drawn several hasty conclusions with inadequate evidence to support the same.
Mentioning the complaints recieved from the concerned viewers, the authors assumes that a majority of viewers would like to restore the former way of time alocation of the news. The author does not provide any evidence regarding the number of complaints and the type of complaints recieved about the changes in new program. It could be a very small proportion of people of who would like to change back to old way while other may infact be enjoying listening to the national news more than the weather and local news. Moreover, the author doesn't mention if the change has caused any decrease in the number of viewers. If there is no reduction in the number of viewers then changing back to the old level may not attract more viewers. Thus without enough data the author's recommendation does not seems to make a cogent case. The author must provide more information to make his prediction reliable.
Additionally, the author the author states that if they continue with current late-news program they might lose several advertising contracts with local businesses. The author makes this baseless assumption on just one loss of contract. He doesn't consider the possibility that showing national news could attract advertising contracts from national companies and thus increase the revenue. He also doesn't take into note that possibly only this company was unhappy with the change in the news programs while it wouldn't affect the other local businesses. He also doesn't consider other factors which may have lead to the company terminating their contract. It possible they found a better station or they just could't further continue the advertising for their business due their personal losses. Thus the author doesn't provide relevant and supporting data which weakens his argument.
Examining all various factors and angles involved in the changing the late-news program, the argument fails to provide enough evidence to justify the autors recommendation of adopting the former level again.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 8 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 11 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 403 350
No. of Characters: 2044 1500
No. of Different Words: 190 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.48 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.072 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.597 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 155 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 125 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 81 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 41 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.389 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.492 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.556 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.341 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.509 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.123 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 37, Rule ID: ADMIT_ENJOY_VB[1]
Message: This verb is used with the gerund form: 'recommends restoring'.
Suggestion: recommends restoring
In the given memorandum the manager recommends to restore their time devoted for weather and loca...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 540, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...er and local news. Moreover, the author doesnt mention if the change has caused any de...
^^^^^^
Line 3, column 619, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
... any decrease in the number of viewers. If there is no reduction in the number of ...
^^
Line 3, column 735, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Thus,
...old level may not attract more viewers. Thus without enough data the authors recomme...
^^^^
Line 3, column 764, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...e viewers. Thus without enough data the authors recommendation does not seems to make a...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 796, Rule ID: DOES_X_HAS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'seem'? As 'do' is already inflected, the verb cannot also be inflected.
Suggestion: seem
...ata the authors recommendation does not seems to make a cogent case. The author must...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 796, Rule ID: DID_BASEFORM[3]
Message: The verb 'does' requires base form of the verb: 'seem'
Suggestion: seem
...ata the authors recommendation does not seems to make a cogent case. The author must...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 15, Rule ID: PHRASE_REPETITION[1]
Message: This phrase is duplicated. You should probably leave only 'the author'.
Suggestion: the author
...s prediction reliable. Additionally, the author the author states that if they continue with curre...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 241, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...mption on just one loss of contract. He doesnt consider the possibility that showing n...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 399, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
... and thus increase the revenue. He also doesnt take into note that possibly only this ...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 511, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: wouldn't
...he change in the news programs while it wouldnt affect the other local businesses. He a...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 554, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...ldnt affect the other local businesses. He also doesnt consider other factors whic...
^^
Line 5, column 562, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...ect the other local businesses. He also doesnt consider other factors which may have l...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 794, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Thus,
...eir business due their personal losses. Thus the author doesnt provide relevant and ...
^^^^
Line 5, column 810, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
... their personal losses. Thus the author doesnt provide relevant and supporting data wh...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, if, may, moreover, regarding, so, then, thus, while
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 5.0 19.6327345309 25% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 12.9520958084 69% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 11.1786427146 81% => OK
Relative clauses : 8.0 13.6137724551 59% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 26.0 28.8173652695 90% => OK
Preposition: 50.0 55.5748502994 90% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 16.3942115768 98% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2077.0 2260.96107784 92% => OK
No of words: 396.0 441.139720559 90% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.24494949495 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.46091344257 4.56307096286 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.61636026507 2.78398813304 94% => OK
Unique words: 191.0 204.123752495 94% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.482323232323 0.468620217663 103% => OK
syllable_count: 637.2 705.55239521 90% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 44.4757181637 57.8364921388 77% => OK
Chars per sentence: 115.388888889 119.503703932 97% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.0 23.324526521 94% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.16666666667 5.70786347227 55% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 15.0 5.25449101796 285% => Less language errors wanted.
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => 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: 0.244100535993 0.218282227539 112% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0750098909596 0.0743258471296 101% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0769298664873 0.0701772020484 110% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.159553494636 0.128457276422 124% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0660733532971 0.0628817314937 105% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.3 14.3799401198 99% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 49.15 48.3550499002 102% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.11 12.5979740519 104% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.44 8.32208582834 101% => OK
difficult_words: 93.0 98.500998004 94% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 15.0 11.9071856287 126% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.