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 indicates that since the television station has devoted less time to weather and local news, there has been some complaints as well as cancellation of advertising contracts from local businesses. To reverse this trend, he recommends that the station should restore the time devoted to weather and local news. The argument seems to be cogent at first glance, but it reveals several logical flaws, as some key evidences are not shown.
To begin with, the manager points out that the complaints received in the past year are mainly concerned with the station’s coverage of weather and local news, and thus, indicating viewers’ desire to watch such programs. However, the manager does not mention the total number of complaints received last year(how many complaints received last years). Perhaps the complaints are only from a very small proportion of viewers and most people are satisfied with the time reduction of the weather and local news programs. If this is the case, such complaints can not represent the overall situations. To clarify the credibility of complaints, the manager could have included the exact number of people who dislike the news coverage.
Secondly, the cancellation of advertisement contracts between the station and local firms is mentioned by the manager to support his recommendation, as he assumes that the termination of advertising compacts is related to the program adjustment which was to reduce the time of weather and local news. However, the termination of advertising contracts may just be a coincidence with the time reduction of weather and local news programs. It is entirely possible that the economic instability has caused major losses to local firms and they have to cut down their cost in order to withstand the dilemma. Moreover, perhaps local enterprises are switching to online advertisements, as such type of advertisements are more effective to attract viewers. Thus, unless the manager presents detailed investigation to verify the cancellation of contracts is due to the time reduction of the weather and local news program, the recommendation he makes to restore such program is unacceptable.
In sum, the manager fails to point out some significant evidences to buttress his suggestion which is to restore the time devoted to weather and local news, for example the data about the exact number of the complaints and reasons why local businesses terminate the contracts. Without such evidences, it leaves the argument unwarranted.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 359, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Don't put a space before the full stop
Suggestion: .
... how many complaints received last years . Perhaps the complaints are only from a ...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, if, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, thus, well, as to, for example, as well as, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 19.6327345309 87% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 12.9520958084 31% => OK
Conjunction : 14.0 11.1786427146 125% => OK
Relative clauses : 8.0 13.6137724551 59% => OK
Pronoun: 17.0 28.8173652695 59% => OK
Preposition: 57.0 55.5748502994 103% => OK
Nominalization: 23.0 16.3942115768 140% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2123.0 2260.96107784 94% => OK
No of words: 399.0 441.139720559 90% => OK
Chars per words: 5.32080200501 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.46933824581 4.56307096286 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.96065765498 2.78398813304 106% => OK
Unique words: 190.0 204.123752495 93% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.47619047619 0.468620217663 102% => OK
syllable_count: 656.1 705.55239521 93% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Interrogative: 0.0 0.471057884232 0% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 19.7664670659 76% => OK
Sentence length: 26.0 22.8473053892 114% => OK
Sentence length SD: 67.8712506638 57.8364921388 117% => OK
Chars per sentence: 141.533333333 119.503703932 118% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.6 23.324526521 114% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.93333333333 5.70786347227 139% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => 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: 0.385040450693 0.218282227539 176% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.140041995484 0.0743258471296 188% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.113594492456 0.0701772020484 162% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.252503408347 0.128457276422 197% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0606256645117 0.0628817314937 96% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.9 14.3799401198 118% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 45.09 48.3550499002 93% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 12.197005988 110% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.87 12.5979740519 110% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.53 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 91.0 98.500998004 92% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.1389221557 111% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6 -- The score is based on the average performance of 20,000 argument essays. This e-grader is not smart enough to check on arguments.
---------------------
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.