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 author concludes that changing the news timings have had an effect on their viewers and their advertising revenues. This arguement is fallacious and relies on assumptions for which there is no clear evidence.
Firstly, the author assumes that the local business that use to advertise during their late night news program have cancelled their advertising contracts due to the change in the time of the national news. But an indept analysis of this statement reveals that the author's assumptions is totally irrevelant. The author presumes the reason for the cancellation of the contracts is the change in time of the local news which in case is not true as the local businesses have cancelled the contracts due to their investment in some other marketing aspect. If this is true that the author's arguement doesn't hold water.
In addition, the author assumes that to not further lose any advertising revenues they should restore the previous arrangements. In fact, the writer does not mentions if there were any national businesses that were in talks with them for the advertising of their company with in turn would have generated more revenue for the television station as it would be a national company. The arguement would have strengthened considerably if the author would have given the current advertising status information.
Finally, the author assumes that the national news doesn't cover most of the local news. The author provides no evidence, though to indicate that this is the case. As the arguement stands it is highly possible that the national news covers all the local news. Only if the author provides evidence that the national news doesn't contain any information about the local news and the weather forecast then the arguement does hold good.
In conclusion, this arguement depends on certain simplified assumption about the national news, the advertising revenues and the local businesses. The author could strengthen the arguement by discussing other factors like the statistics of the veiwers before and after the change in the program before concluding that the change has led to the decrease veiwers of the program.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 4 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 7 2
No. of Sentences: 15 15
No. of Words: 351 350
No. of Characters: 1772 1500
No. of Different Words: 150 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.328 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.048 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.63 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 127 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 99 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 73 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 45 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.4 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.744 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.6 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.423 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.643 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.128 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 58, Rule ID: USE_TO_VERB[1]
Message: Did you mean 'used'?
Suggestion: used
...or assumes that the local business that use to advertise during their late night ne...
^^^
Line 3, column 172, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... advertising contracts due to the change in the time of the national news. But an...
^^
Line 3, column 553, 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.
...estment in some other marketing aspect. If this is true that the authors arguement...
^^
Line 3, column 596, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...this is true that the authors arguement doesnt hold water. In addition, the author ...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 159, Rule ID: DID_BASEFORM[3]
Message: The verb 'does' requires base form of the verb: 'mention'
Suggestion: mention
...angements. In fact, the writer does not mentions if there were any national businesses t...
^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 446, Rule ID: IF_WOULD_HAVE_VBN[1]
Message: Did you mean 'had given'?
Suggestion: had given
...strengthened considerably if the author would have given the current advertising status informat...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 52, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...e author assumes that the national news doesnt cover most of the local news. The autho...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 164, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “As” 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.
...ough to indicate that this is the case. As the arguement stands it is highly possi...
^^
Line 7, column 320, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...rovides evidence that the national news doesnt contain any information about the local...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, first, firstly, if, so, then, in addition, in conclusion, in fact
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 11.0 19.6327345309 56% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 12.9520958084 46% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 11.1786427146 54% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 27.0 28.8173652695 94% => OK
Preposition: 37.0 55.5748502994 67% => OK
Nominalization: 18.0 16.3942115768 110% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1808.0 2260.96107784 80% => OK
No of words: 348.0 441.139720559 79% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.19540229885 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.31911543099 4.56307096286 95% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.66535342218 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 154.0 204.123752495 75% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.442528735632 0.468620217663 94% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 549.0 705.55239521 78% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 4.96107784431 40% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 19.7664670659 76% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 61.1462363701 57.8364921388 106% => OK
Chars per sentence: 120.533333333 119.503703932 101% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.2 23.324526521 99% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.26666666667 5.70786347227 92% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 9.0 5.25449101796 171% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.262992130558 0.218282227539 120% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.106625300818 0.0743258471296 143% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0968903179309 0.0701772020484 138% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.153968685929 0.128457276422 120% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0860777426066 0.0628817314937 137% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.7 14.3799401198 102% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.3550499002 100% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.18 12.5979740519 105% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.13 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 74.0 98.500998004 75% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.