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 memorandum from the business manager does not mention the time/ duration devoted to national news and the others news. It also doesn't mention how much time was increased for the national news. The relative allocated time duration would be helpful to understand the point of view of locals where they complained of less coverage on weather.
The other aspect that could be relevant would be the content of the news. If important local news is being missed due to decreased time, it would strengthen the argument. For instance, reports and alerts on bad weather getting missed. Or reports on events related to local security where underrated. Such evidences could help strengthen the argument. However, the other way round could be true to. There could be news of national importance and has to aired in that case the argument would go against.
The memorandum reports that there was a loss of viewership. Adding data on the number of viewers pre and post time changes and the viewership per program can help understand the position as late-night news program is mentioned too.
If evidence on magnitude of loss of business of the local vendors could be added, it would support the vendors decision of cancellation of advertisements and strengthen the decision of restoring time limits.
Including losses of advertisement revenues and its impact on the television station can be important to understand how much the station really lost. If it was marginal then perphas it can decrease the time dedicated to local news. If it is ging is losses, the argument then strengthens.
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: 2.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 8 2
No. of Sentences: 16 15
No. of Words: 263 350
No. of Characters: 1289 1500
No. of Different Words: 132 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.027 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.901 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.653 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 92 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 78 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 53 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 30 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 16.438 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.399 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.5 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.328 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.577 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.069 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 111, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'others'' or 'other's'?
Suggestion: others'; other's
...ration devoted to national news and the others news. It also doesnt mention how much t...
^^^^^^
Line 1, column 132, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...ional news and the others news. It also doesnt mention how much time was increased for...
^^^^^^
Line 9, column 150, 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.
...stand how much the station really lost. If it was marginal then perphas it can dec...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, however, if, really, so, then, as to, for instance
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 15.0 19.6327345309 76% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.9520958084 100% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 5.0 13.6137724551 37% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 11.0 28.8173652695 38% => OK
Preposition: 32.0 55.5748502994 58% => More preposition wanted.
Nominalization: 16.0 16.3942115768 98% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1327.0 2260.96107784 59% => More number of characters wanted.
No of words: 262.0 441.139720559 59% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.06488549618 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.02323427807 4.56307096286 88% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.69647506914 2.78398813304 97% => OK
Unique words: 136.0 204.123752495 67% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.519083969466 0.468620217663 111% => OK
syllable_count: 402.3 705.55239521 57% => syllable counts are too short.
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 0.0 4.22255489022 0% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 19.7664670659 81% => 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: 16.0 22.8473053892 70% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 46.7101685262 57.8364921388 81% => OK
Chars per sentence: 82.9375 119.503703932 69% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.375 23.324526521 70% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.5 5.70786347227 61% => 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: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.314865945208 0.218282227539 144% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.106644948472 0.0743258471296 143% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.106299547981 0.0701772020484 151% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.179888730068 0.128457276422 140% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.105448154372 0.0628817314937 168% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.6 14.3799401198 74% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 63.7 48.3550499002 132% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.4 12.197005988 69% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.77 12.5979740519 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.47 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 67.0 98.500998004 68% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 6.5 12.3882235529 52% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
gunning_fog: 8.4 11.1389221557 75% => 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.