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 time 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 just canceled their advertising contracts with us. Therefore, in order to attract more viewers to the program and to avoid losing any further advertising revenues, we should restore the time devoted to weather and local news to its former level."
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
In the given memorandum, the business manager predicts that due to reducing the time to weather and local news, the number of viewers and the revenue from advertising companies had been affected. Further, the author inadequately concludes that with restoring the time devoted to weather and local news, both the above factors can be re-acquired. Though the flow of the statement seems to be adequate, it is flooded with assumptions and loopholes, thus, cannot be accepted as it is.
In his statement, the manager tells that they had been receiving many complaints regarding the station's coverage of weather and local news from the viewers. While describing this fact the author fails to provide the details about the complaints. There is a possibility that the complaint is regarding things other than reduced time such as incorrect content, the accuracy of news, details not provided, lacking the effectiveness of news, and many more. Also, the author does not mention specific details of the show, thus, the show may be other than a late-night show. Therefore, without all such details, we cannot jump to a direct conclusion as done by the author.
Additionally, the author brings into the limelight the cancellation of contracts by advertising companies at the time of late-night news programs. Though time can be considered as one possibility, other alternative explanations also exist. It can be the case, that product survey revealed to show advertising at some different timing. Also, it may happen that the production company is facing a certain financial crisis or has stopped manufacturing the product, thus advertisement is not required now. We can also question that before reducing time do advertising companies always prefer the time? Due to such numerous questions arising the claim cannot be accepted directly.
Finally, while concluding the author vaguely predicts that with restoring the time devoted to weather and local news, the profit can be re-acquired. This is the really bad logical prediction made by the author. Without taking into account, the other possible factors just based on a single factor he is suggesting to make such a vital decision. So, it is not acceptable in the current scenario.
Thus, in the end, I would suggest to the author that without considering all possible factors should not give any piece of advice to the television station.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 4 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 385 350
No. of Characters: 1946 1500
No. of Different Words: 194 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.43 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.055 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.752 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 149 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 117 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 76 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 53 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.263 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.758 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.684 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.318 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.318 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.088 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 96, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'stations'' or 'station's'?
Suggestion: stations'; station's
...receiving many complaints regarding the stations coverage of weather and local news from...
^^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 157, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “While” 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.
...eather and local news from the viewers. While describing this fact the author fails t...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, if, may, really, regarding, so, therefore, thus, while, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 19.0 19.6327345309 97% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 13.6137724551 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 22.0 28.8173652695 76% => OK
Preposition: 47.0 55.5748502994 85% => OK
Nominalization: 9.0 16.3942115768 55% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2000.0 2260.96107784 88% => OK
No of words: 385.0 441.139720559 87% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.19480519481 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.4296068528 4.56307096286 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.82352835349 2.78398813304 101% => OK
Unique words: 199.0 204.123752495 97% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.516883116883 0.468620217663 110% => OK
syllable_count: 616.5 705.55239521 87% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 9.0 4.96107784431 181% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 42.3878020399 57.8364921388 73% => OK
Chars per sentence: 105.263157895 119.503703932 88% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.2631578947 23.324526521 87% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.10526315789 5.70786347227 72% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.261180968685 0.218282227539 120% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0820105364702 0.0743258471296 110% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.090369061002 0.0701772020484 129% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.146351735131 0.128457276422 114% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0695590619956 0.0628817314937 111% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.1 14.3799401198 91% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.82 12.5979740519 102% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.65 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 98.0 98.500998004 99% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.