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.
The memorandum from the business manager of a television station asserts the restoration of time allocated to the weather and local news to their original level. The manager came to this conclusion based on the complaints from viewers who wanted more coverage on weather and local news reports as well as the cancellation of advertisements from local businesses which used to cooperate with the television station during late-night news program. However, the manager's assertion is based on unwarranted assumptions and is seriously flawed.
To begin with, the complaints received from the viewers about the coverage of weather and local news doesn't represent the majority of the audiences. It is possible that very few proportion of the viewers have been complaining about it and a large number of viewers are finding the national news more suited to their taste. Also, it is not easy to convey a detailed weather report for all the places viewers reside in. For example, if a person watches the weather report from Edinburg city in Texas while the program is providing information about a hurricane in Austin, Texas, the person doesn't benefit a lot merely by watching the weather report; they would still keep on complaining. It is still a big question whether restoring the time for weather and local news would certainly increase the viewers. Other entertaining programs such as movies, dramas, and sports could be better alternatives as well. If this has merit, then the argument presented by the manager is significantly weakened.
Secondly, the cancellation of advertising contracts and restoration of time for weather and local news might not be correlated with each other al all. There is potential for a myriad of factors to influence the local businesses in cancelling their contracts with the television station: It could be the form or amount of charges, potentially better advertising options, no longer interested to continue business with the particular station or they could be targeting a different audience from before. Maybe the local businesses are cancelling the contracts, because the programs are not creative enough to attract the attention of the viewers. Therefore, before analyzing all the factors that would affect the relationship of the local businesses with the television station, it is not feasible to make such conclusion as that of manager's.
Another reason for stating restoring the time for weather and local news to its former level as a bad idea is that restoring the time dedicated for weather and local news might infact upset the viewers of national news and the television station could lose a wider audience. The current audience, for instance, could have been interested to watch a nation wide coverage of events; as such, bringing back the program concentrated on weather reports and local news could potentially push those viewers away. Even if we consider the weather and local news to be restored back, the right amount of time that needs to be dedicated for each program is still a huge dilemma. Amidst all these confusions, making baseless and unscientific assumptions might be fatal for the television station in terms of number of viewers.
To sum up, the argument, as it stands now, is based on several unwarranted assumptions and is seriously lacking in persuasiveness. If the station can take into account of several factors that might influence the local business and potentially consider other alternatives of weather and local news as well, it could prove to be advantageous for the station in increasing their audience. Considering these several reasons, the manager's idea of restoring the original time allocated to weather and local news does not hold water.
Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 460, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'managers'' or 'manager's'?
Suggestion: managers'; manager's
...g late-night news program. However, the managers assertion is based on unwarranted assum...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 102, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
... the coverage of weather and local news doesnt represent the majority of the audiences...
^^^^^^
Line 3, column 175, Rule ID: MANY_NN[1]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun proportion seems to be countable; consider using: 'few proportions'.
Suggestion: few proportions
...the audiences. It is possible that very few proportion of the viewers have been complaining ab...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 240, Rule ID: LARGE_NUMBER_OF[1]
Message: Specify a number, remove phrase, or simply use 'many' or 'numerous'
Suggestion: many; numerous
...wers have been complaining about it and a large number of viewers are finding the national news m...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 589, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
... hurricane in Austin, Texas, the person doesnt benefit a lot merely by watching the we...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 350, Rule ID: NATION_WIDE[1]
Message: Did you mean 'nationwide'?
Suggestion: nationwide
..., could have been interested to watch a nation wide coverage of events; as such, bringing b...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 426, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'managers'' or 'manager's'?
Suggestion: managers'; manager's
... Considering these several reasons, the managers idea of restoring the original time all...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, still, then, therefore, well, while, for example, for instance, such as, as well as, to begin with, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.6327345309 132% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.9520958084 116% => OK
Conjunction : 21.0 11.1786427146 188% => OK
Relative clauses : 8.0 13.6137724551 59% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 27.0 28.8173652695 94% => OK
Preposition: 76.0 55.5748502994 137% => OK
Nominalization: 27.0 16.3942115768 165% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3131.0 2260.96107784 138% => OK
No of words: 601.0 441.139720559 136% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.20965058236 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.95129289623 4.56307096286 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.82838797138 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 252.0 204.123752495 123% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.419301164725 0.468620217663 89% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 974.7 705.55239521 138% => 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: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 8.0 2.70958083832 295% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 28.0 22.8473053892 123% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 71.2724325191 57.8364921388 123% => OK
Chars per sentence: 149.095238095 119.503703932 125% => OK
Words per sentence: 28.619047619 23.324526521 123% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.38095238095 5.70786347227 129% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 7.0 5.25449101796 133% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 11.0 6.88822355289 160% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.383135420959 0.218282227539 176% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.13326387041 0.0743258471296 179% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.107334035988 0.0701772020484 153% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.258838318368 0.128457276422 201% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0872151103223 0.0628817314937 139% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.4 14.3799401198 121% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 43.06 48.3550499002 89% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.197005988 116% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.53 12.5979740519 107% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.52 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 133.0 98.500998004 135% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 15.0 12.3882235529 121% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.2 11.1389221557 119% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 460, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'managers'' or 'manager's'?
Suggestion: managers'; manager's
...g late-night news program. However, the managers assertion is based on unwarranted assum...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 102, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
... the coverage of weather and local news doesnt represent the majority of the audiences...
^^^^^^
Line 3, column 175, Rule ID: MANY_NN[1]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun proportion seems to be countable; consider using: 'few proportions'.
Suggestion: few proportions
...the audiences. It is possible that very few proportion of the viewers have been complaining ab...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 240, Rule ID: LARGE_NUMBER_OF[1]
Message: Specify a number, remove phrase, or simply use 'many' or 'numerous'
Suggestion: many; numerous
...wers have been complaining about it and a large number of viewers are finding the national news m...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 589, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
... hurricane in Austin, Texas, the person doesnt benefit a lot merely by watching the we...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 350, Rule ID: NATION_WIDE[1]
Message: Did you mean 'nationwide'?
Suggestion: nationwide
..., could have been interested to watch a nation wide coverage of events; as such, bringing b...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 426, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'managers'' or 'manager's'?
Suggestion: managers'; manager's
... Considering these several reasons, the managers idea of restoring the original time all...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, still, then, therefore, well, while, for example, for instance, such as, as well as, to begin with, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.6327345309 132% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.9520958084 116% => OK
Conjunction : 21.0 11.1786427146 188% => OK
Relative clauses : 8.0 13.6137724551 59% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 27.0 28.8173652695 94% => OK
Preposition: 76.0 55.5748502994 137% => OK
Nominalization: 27.0 16.3942115768 165% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3131.0 2260.96107784 138% => OK
No of words: 601.0 441.139720559 136% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.20965058236 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.95129289623 4.56307096286 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.82838797138 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 252.0 204.123752495 123% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.419301164725 0.468620217663 89% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 974.7 705.55239521 138% => 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: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 8.0 2.70958083832 295% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 28.0 22.8473053892 123% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 71.2724325191 57.8364921388 123% => OK
Chars per sentence: 149.095238095 119.503703932 125% => OK
Words per sentence: 28.619047619 23.324526521 123% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.38095238095 5.70786347227 129% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 7.0 5.25449101796 133% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 11.0 6.88822355289 160% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.383135420959 0.218282227539 176% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.13326387041 0.0743258471296 179% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.107334035988 0.0701772020484 153% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.258838318368 0.128457276422 201% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0872151103223 0.0628817314937 139% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.4 14.3799401198 121% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 43.06 48.3550499002 89% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.197005988 116% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.53 12.5979740519 107% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.52 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 133.0 98.500998004 135% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 15.0 12.3882235529 121% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.2 11.1389221557 119% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.