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 business manager of a television station states that the late-night news should restore the time devoted to weather and local news to its former level to attract more viewers. The reason for this is the amount of complaints concerned with the coverage of weather and local news. In addition, local businessess that used to advertise during the late-night news program have canceled their advertising contracts. The argument is not entirely logically convincing, since it ignores certain crucial assumptions.
First, the business manager states that during the time of increased time to national news and less time to weather and local news, most of the complaints received from viewes were concerned with the coverage of weather and local news. The author doesn't provide a table with numbers of the amount of the complaints. Maybe they only got 5 complaints in total and the number of the complaints about the coverage of weather and local news can't be very much. The author needs to provide information, such as a table, with information about all complaints and the number of complaints about coverage of local news and weather.
Furthermore, the arguments assumes that the cancelation of advertising contracts is due the increased time to national news and decreased time of weather and local news. It could be that there is no relationship between these two. It is possible that companies that advertised during the late-night news got better offers, like cheaper advertising contracts. It is also a possability that the companies who advertise at the late-night show are having a hard economic time, and can't afford advertising anymore and therefore have canceled their contracts. The author should provide evidence that the advertising contracts got cancelled due the decreased time in local and weather news.
Finally, the author make the assumptions that restoring the time devoted to weather and local news should increase the number of viewers and avoid losing any further advertising revenues. This is not necessarily true. Nowhere in the argument is stated that due the increased time in national news the number of viewers decreased, so maybe restoring the time will not increase the number of viewers. In addition, it is also not just to say that restoring the time will avoid any further advertising revenues. Maybe these companies will also be offered a better deal or are struggling with economic hardship. The author could strengthen the argument with a local survey about why people do not watch to the late-night news and why previous advertising contracts got cancelled. If the reason is that there is lack of weather and local news, this would bolster the argument.
In conclusion, the argument is not quite plausible. It ignores some certain crucial assumptions and there is more evidence needed to buttress these assumptions. The author should provide more information about the number of complaints regarding time coverage of weather and local news. There is also more information needed about the reason of the cancelling of advertising contracts with the television station. The author could strengthen his argument with a survey about why people do not watch the late-night news, if the reason is not provided, we can not make any conclusions.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
samples:
https://www.testbig.com/gmatgre-argument-task-essays/over-past-year-our…
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 25 15
No. of Words: 530 350
No. of Characters: 2706 1500
No. of Different Words: 176 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.798 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.106 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.681 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 202 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 157 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 112 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 77 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.2 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.08 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.56 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.363 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.521 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.114 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 248, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...e of weather and local news. The author doesnt provide a table with numbers of the amo...
^^^^^^
Line 3, column 437, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
... the coverage of weather and local news cant be very much. The author needs to provi...
^^^^
Line 5, column 360, 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.
...rs, like cheaper advertising contracts. It is also a possability that the companie...
^^
Line 5, column 478, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
...ow are having a hard economic time, and cant afford advertising anymore and therefor...
^^^^
Line 5, column 490, Rule ID: AFFORD_VBG[1]
Message: This verb is used with infinitive: 'to advertise'.
Suggestion: to advertise
...g a hard economic time, and cant afford advertising anymore and therefore have canceled the...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, furthermore, if, may, regarding, so, then, therefore, in addition, in conclusion, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 21.0 11.1786427146 188% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 31.0 28.8173652695 108% => OK
Preposition: 65.0 55.5748502994 117% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2759.0 2260.96107784 122% => OK
No of words: 529.0 441.139720559 120% => OK
Chars per words: 5.21550094518 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.79583152331 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.74975337975 2.78398813304 99% => OK
Unique words: 182.0 204.123752495 89% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.34404536862 0.468620217663 73% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 849.6 705.55239521 120% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 4.96107784431 161% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.76447105788 148% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 25.0 19.7664670659 126% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 48.2512756308 57.8364921388 83% => OK
Chars per sentence: 110.36 119.503703932 92% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.16 23.324526521 91% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.64 5.70786347227 81% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 18.0 6.88822355289 261% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.415690122877 0.218282227539 190% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.138484810412 0.0743258471296 186% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.136243581109 0.0701772020484 194% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.281881647194 0.128457276422 219% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0794175134548 0.0628817314937 126% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.7 14.3799401198 95% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.0 12.5979740519 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.25 8.32208582834 87% => OK
difficult_words: 86.0 98.500998004 87% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => 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.