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 bussiness manager decided to restore the time devoted to weather and local news to its former level. The conclusion was based on the low adversiting revenues and complaints concerned with coverage of weather and local news. The conclusion is flawed in many respects.
Firstly, Is Change in program only reason for cancelling of advertising contract? The author prematurely assumes that it is because of time devoted to national news the local bussiness are cancelling their contracts. There can be external factors that would have resulted in cancelling of the contract. For instance, In this ongoing pandemic majority of the local bussiness are facing severe loss and therefore they prefer not to invest any money in advertising. The Bussiness Manager should take their feedback to find exact reason for the cancellation of contract.
Secondly, What percentage of complaints station received regarding coverage of weather? The Bussiness Manager only mention's most of the complain but fails to provide any more details. It might be possible that the total viewership for late night program has increased after covering national news, so even though the number of complaints are increased the overall percentage might have dropped. A proper statical analysis is required to check the viability of this claim.
Thirdly, What time is alloted to each category? The author only tells us about late night program and not about full day coverage. For instance, If the station is covering national news full day and even in late night then its probably boring its audiences. The manager has to find at what time its audience prefer news and accoeding alot slots to categories. For instance, Most people after work at night prefer watching national news so alot national news at night and weather and local news in the morning.
In conclusion, the conclusion is based on several unwarranted assumption. If Author provide answers to above mention question through proper research and surveys the conclusion can be examined more properly.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 9 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 10 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 325 350
No. of Characters: 1677 1500
No. of Different Words: 164 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.246 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.16 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.567 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 131 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 110 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 75 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 37 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 17.105 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.472 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.526 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.305 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.547 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.074 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 229, 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.
...ith coverage of weather and local news. The conclusion is flawed in many respects. ...
^^^
Line 5, column 133, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...Bussiness Manager only mentions most of the complain but fails to provide any more details. ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, firstly, if, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, third, thirdly, as to, for instance, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 19.6327345309 71% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 12.9520958084 46% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 3.0 13.6137724551 22% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 15.0 28.8173652695 52% => OK
Preposition: 44.0 55.5748502994 79% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 16.3942115768 61% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1721.0 2260.96107784 76% => OK
No of words: 325.0 441.139720559 74% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.29538461538 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.24591054749 4.56307096286 93% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.6575176387 2.78398813304 95% => OK
Unique words: 161.0 204.123752495 79% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.495384615385 0.468620217663 106% => OK
syllable_count: 532.8 705.55239521 76% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 4.96107784431 20% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 22.8473053892 74% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 39.3163178996 57.8364921388 68% => OK
Chars per sentence: 90.5789473684 119.503703932 76% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.1052631579 23.324526521 73% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.57894736842 5.70786347227 115% => 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 : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.67664670659 171% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.345316881825 0.218282227539 158% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0972183317078 0.0743258471296 131% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0924062938837 0.0701772020484 132% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.178549862273 0.128457276422 139% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.109884320449 0.0628817314937 175% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.1 14.3799401198 84% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 54.22 48.3550499002 112% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 12.197005988 81% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.16 12.5979740519 104% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.56 8.32208582834 103% => OK
difficult_words: 84.0 98.500998004 85% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 6.5 12.3882235529 52% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
gunning_fog: 8.8 11.1389221557 79% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.