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."
The business manager of a television station makes an interesting argument that late-night news has increased time to national news and less time to weather and local news and that made the television station less lucrative. His/her argument depends on the fact that most of complaints were about coverage of weather and local news. Moreover, because local businesses that advertised during late-night news program has canceled their advertising contracts with the station, the business manager assumes that the local businesses are rejecting contract renewal due to the decrease in time of weather and local news. This argument, however, did not fully exploit specific details and thus is far-fetched to be true.
The First detail that needs to be answered is whether most complaints related to the station's coverage of weather and local news are related to the late-night news program. The station may have several news programs that cover weather and local news. If there were no complaints about late-night news program, then it would be unnecessary for the station to change the contents of late-night news program. Moreover, the manager is assuming that the station has changed the contents of late night news over the past year, and the complaints are from similar time period, all complaints are related to the late night news program. However, this may and may not be the case as similar time interval alone does not guarantee that these two care closely related. We need to see who and to what program that the viewers are not satisfied.
Secondly, we need to see the detail of reason for the cancellation of local businesses for the advertisement of late-night news. While the manager is assuming that they have canceled advertisements because of less time in weather and local news, we need to investigate that led those companies to decline the renewal of advertisements. They might be in a deadlock in their businesses, and they might not have enough cash for the renewal. The reason for the cancellation may lie on the side of businesses, not lie on the late night news. Moreover, there could be other companies that want to contract with the station. If there are alternative advertisements, then there would be no harm to the station and the late night news.
Last but not least, we need to know the exact situation of the late night news program. The only evidence given by the business manager is that the station is having complaints regarding station's coverage of weather and local news and local businesses are rejecting advertisement contract with the station. However, these facts alone do not let us know what current situation of the late night news program. What we need exactly is how many viewers are watching the late night news program. We are not sure whether the late night news is losing viewers, and even if it is losing viewers, we do not know what caused it. What we need, instead of a brief summary of complaints in a similar period, is a survey to the viewers and trend of numbers of viewers.
In conclusion, the evidence given by the business manager are so weak that we cannot be sure that the station should increase the time to weather and local news. What we need instead is specific facts that exactly question the situation of the late night news.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- not OK, wrong:
The station may have several news programs...
while maybe it is the only news programs, then how to argue?
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- not on the right track. Need to argue against the conclusion always. For this topic it is:
... we should restore the time devoted to weather and local news to its former level.
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Let's analyze the structure of the statement and argue accordingly:
condition 1:
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. //
we have to suppose this is the only news program. we may argue like:
1. maybe the complaints are much less than after devoted more time to national news.
2. what are the contents of the complaints? maybe they are about the quality of the weather and local news.
condition 2:
In addition, local businesses that used to advertise during our late-night news program have just canceled their advertising contracts with us. //your argument 2 -- OK
conclusion:
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. //suppose condition 1 and condition 2 are correct, it doesn't men we we should restore the time devoted to weather and local news to its former level. maybe need to do something else, like improve the quality of TV programs.
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 24 15
No. of Words: 560 350
No. of Characters: 2686 1500
No. of Different Words: 186 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.865 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.796 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.539 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 175 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 159 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 87 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 51 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.333 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.04 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.708 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.398 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.549 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.241 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 268, Rule ID: MOST_SOME_OF_NNS[1]
Message: After 'most of', you should use 'the' ('most of the complaints') or simply say ''most complaints''.
Suggestion: most of the complaints; most complaints
...s/her argument depends on the fact that most of complaints were about coverage of weather and loca...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 86, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'stations'' or 'station's'?
Suggestion: stations'; station's
... whether most complaints related to the stations coverage of weather and local news are ...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 195, Rule ID: MANY_NN_U[8]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun news seems to be uncountable; consider using: 'some news'.
Suggestion: some news
...ight news program. The station may have several news programs that cover weather and local n...
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, if, may, moreover, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, thus, while, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 31.0 19.6327345309 158% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 18.0 12.9520958084 139% => OK
Conjunction : 20.0 11.1786427146 179% => OK
Relative clauses : 18.0 13.6137724551 132% => OK
Pronoun: 43.0 28.8173652695 149% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 61.0 55.5748502994 110% => OK
Nominalization: 24.0 16.3942115768 146% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2749.0 2260.96107784 122% => OK
No of words: 559.0 441.139720559 127% => OK
Chars per words: 4.91771019678 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.86242540663 4.56307096286 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.61161319644 2.78398813304 94% => OK
Unique words: 193.0 204.123752495 95% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.345259391771 0.468620217663 74% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 845.1 705.55239521 120% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 11.0 4.96107784431 222% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 55.7149865137 57.8364921388 96% => OK
Chars per sentence: 114.541666667 119.503703932 96% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.2916666667 23.324526521 100% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.375 5.70786347227 77% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 13.0 6.88822355289 189% => 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: 0.490552660365 0.218282227539 225% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.177068004082 0.0743258471296 238% => Sentence topic similarity is high.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.123383718679 0.0701772020484 176% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.334262509862 0.128457276422 260% => Maybe some contents are duplicated.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.103350535537 0.0628817314937 164% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.4 14.3799401198 93% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 56.59 48.3550499002 117% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.55 12.5979740519 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.09 8.32208582834 85% => OK
difficult_words: 82.0 98.500998004 83% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.