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 focuses on a major argument which states that restoring the time allocated to weather and local news to its former level would both attract more viewers and avoid losing any further advertising revenues. This was clearly concluded based on complaints received from viewers about the station's coverage of weather and local news as well as the fact that the station has devoted increased time to national news. While these seem understandable, one needs to question the provided evidence and explore indepth if they hold water.
Firstly, the manager assumes that local businesses that used to advertise during the late night news program have canceled their advertising contracts. This assumption needs more evidence as to why they cancelled. Is there data around the conversion of the adverts? Perhaps the businessess have found out that their customers prefer to listen to a different channel or prefer to listen to the station during the day and not in the night. Providing more evidence that answers the 'why' question would give more insight and strenghten the manager's conclusion.
Secondly, the manager assumes that restoring the time dedicated to weather and local news would 'attract' more viewers. While this seems like a logical thing to do, requesting for more evidence around this is in order. With the advent and speed of technology, different channels for consuming news have emerged and based off this, it may not be a laudable step to take. The manager needs to provide some more insight as to what viewers are requesting for - and what keeps the station attractive to them. Perhaps, opening up new streaming, ondemand or social media channels can help attract new user. This can be done, for example, via a survey targeting the specific kind of market/viewers they want. With this information at hand, the manager can be very sure that restoring the time is the solution to attracting more viewers.
In addition, the manager writes that complaints received from viewers in this time period were concerned with the coverage of weather and local news. More evidence needs to be provided here. Data as to what kind of complaints - whether it was time based, or the kind of presenters or the nature or even technical issues. With more insights here, the manager can more strongly back his argument for an extended time.
In conclusion, while the manager has made assumptions based on the insight he/she has, providing more evidence on the above assumptions would go a long way in making the manager's claims stronger. This in turn would help the station to move forward in the right direction.
Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 325, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'stations'' or 'station's'?
Suggestion: stations'; station's
...plaints received from viewers about the stations coverage of weather and local news as w...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 476, Rule ID: THE_HOW[1]
Message: Did you mean 'why'?
Suggestion: why
...t. Providing more evidence that answers the why question would give more insight and st...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 536, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'managers'' or 'manager's'?
Suggestion: managers'; manager's
...ld give more insight and strenghten the managers conclusion. Secondly, the manager as...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
first, firstly, if, may, second, secondly, so, well, while, as to, for example, in addition, in conclusion, kind of, as well as
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: 10.0 12.9520958084 77% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 31.0 28.8173652695 108% => OK
Preposition: 57.0 55.5748502994 103% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2215.0 2260.96107784 98% => OK
No of words: 437.0 441.139720559 99% => OK
Chars per words: 5.06864988558 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.57214883401 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.56929634745 2.78398813304 92% => OK
Unique words: 212.0 204.123752495 104% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.485125858124 0.468620217663 104% => OK
syllable_count: 684.0 705.55239521 97% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 49.8077027802 57.8364921388 86% => OK
Chars per sentence: 105.476190476 119.503703932 88% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.8095238095 23.324526521 89% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.04761904762 5.70786347227 106% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => 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: 0.305268208403 0.218282227539 140% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.094453687298 0.0743258471296 127% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.107755028165 0.0701772020484 154% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.184142501067 0.128457276422 143% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0970868132724 0.0628817314937 154% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.9 14.3799401198 90% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.13 12.5979740519 96% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.31 8.32208582834 100% => OK
difficult_words: 102.0 98.500998004 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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 325, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'stations'' or 'station's'?
Suggestion: stations'; station's
...plaints received from viewers about the stations coverage of weather and local news as w...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 476, Rule ID: THE_HOW[1]
Message: Did you mean 'why'?
Suggestion: why
...t. Providing more evidence that answers the why question would give more insight and st...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 536, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'managers'' or 'manager's'?
Suggestion: managers'; manager's
...ld give more insight and strenghten the managers conclusion. Secondly, the manager as...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
first, firstly, if, may, second, secondly, so, well, while, as to, for example, in addition, in conclusion, kind of, as well as
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: 10.0 12.9520958084 77% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 31.0 28.8173652695 108% => OK
Preposition: 57.0 55.5748502994 103% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2215.0 2260.96107784 98% => OK
No of words: 437.0 441.139720559 99% => OK
Chars per words: 5.06864988558 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.57214883401 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.56929634745 2.78398813304 92% => OK
Unique words: 212.0 204.123752495 104% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.485125858124 0.468620217663 104% => OK
syllable_count: 684.0 705.55239521 97% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 49.8077027802 57.8364921388 86% => OK
Chars per sentence: 105.476190476 119.503703932 88% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.8095238095 23.324526521 89% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.04761904762 5.70786347227 106% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => 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: 0.305268208403 0.218282227539 140% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.094453687298 0.0743258471296 127% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.107755028165 0.0701772020484 154% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.184142501067 0.128457276422 143% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0970868132724 0.0628817314937 154% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.9 14.3799401198 90% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.13 12.5979740519 96% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.31 8.32208582834 100% => OK
difficult_words: 102.0 98.500998004 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.