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 given argument states that the ctime devoted to weather and local news should be increased to its former levels to avoid losing any advertising revenues. The argument is flawed for a number of reasons as it does not not comment on the advertising sources, viewership numbers. Though, the argument does sound convincing at the first look, careful analysis lead to lack of evidence presented to support the claim. Hence the truth of the argument is limited.
First, the argument fails to talk about the change in viewership statistics. It merely states that most of complaints from viewers were related to the coverage of weather and local news. It doesn't talk if any new viewers started watching the channel. It can be possible that the number of viewers increased manifold . Moreover, since the coverage was reduced only for the late night period, it is insufficient to come to a solid conclusion. What if the coverage of weather and local news was increased during the day time and national news decreased during the same? There is also another possibility that the overall number of complaints could have decreased but the number of complaints relating to local news and weather could have stayed the same, increasing the fraction of complaints that belong to the weather and local news. This could mean a positve rather than a negative effect. Data ad atatictics about viewrship, coverage of news across categories, complaints specific to categories and their factions will throw more light and help reach a solid decision.
Further, the argument states that local businesses have canceled advertising contracts. It does not comment about the advertising from other sources like national businesses, or even international businesses. The national and international ones could have increased, thereby compensating for the loss from local businesses. Or, the national and international advertising revenues could have exceeded the local business advertising revenue by a huge amount since the coverage of national news has increased in late night. Moreover, the author does not talk about the change in time allocated to advertising duration or athe cost associated to play the advertisement. The channel could have reduced the time for advertisements and also increased the cost to air advertisements, making it likely possible that the local businesses found it too expensive and infeasible to air their ads. Hence they could have cancelled it. The author should consider quoting numbers and statstics about the above the share of revenues from different advertising sources, the changes in reveues and also the cost of airing the advertisements. This will strengthen or weaken the conclusion. Else, the conclusion keeps the reader in dark.
Finally, the argument also fails to throw light on the correalation between advertising revenues and the time alotted to different news items. is it positive or negative correlation? It could even be both for individual cases. Data about these could help warrant the argument.
In a nutshell, the argument fails to present the numbers, data, statistics and comparision of all the issues like viewership, advertising revenues, etc that are stated above and all these challenge the validity of the argument . Thus, the veracity of the argument is limited
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Sentence: This could mean a positve rather than a negative effect.
Error: positve Suggestion: positive
Sentence: Data ad atatictics about viewrship, coverage of news across categories, complaints specific to categories and their factions will throw more light and help reach a solid decision.
Error: viewrship Suggestion: view ship
Error: atatictics Suggestion: statistics
Sentence: Moreover, the author does not talk about the change in time allocated to advertising duration or athe cost associated to play the advertisement.
Error: athe Suggestion: ate
Sentence: The author should consider quoting numbers and statstics about the above the share of revenues from different advertising sources, the changes in reveues and also the cost of airing the advertisements.
Error: reveues Suggestion: revenues
Error: statstics Suggestion: statistics
Sentence: Finally, the argument also fails to throw light on the correalation between advertising revenues and the time alotted to different news items. is it positive or negative correlation?
Error: alotted Suggestion: No alternate word
Error: correalation Suggestion: correlation
Sentence: In a nutshell, the argument fails to present the numbers, data, statistics and comparision of all the issues like viewership, advertising revenues, etc that are stated above and all these challenge the validity of the argument .
Error: comparision Suggestion: comparison
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flaws:
the arguments are not exactly right on the point. Here goes a sample:
https://www.testbig.com/gmatgre-argument-task-essays/following-memorand…
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 9 2
No. of Sentences: 28 15
No. of Words: 526 350
No. of Characters: 2719 1500
No. of Different Words: 219 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.789 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.169 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.761 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 195 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 160 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 118 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 68 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18.786 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.104 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.464 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.289 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.462 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.099 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 217, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: not
...awed for a number of reasons as it does not not comment on the advertising sources, vie...
^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 417, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Hence,
...vidence presented to support the claim. Hence the truth of the argument is limited. ...
^^^^^
Line 1, column 451, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...laim. Hence the truth of the argument is limited. First, the argument fails to...
^^
Line 3, column 100, 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
...rship statistics. It merely states that most of complaints from viewers were related to the covera...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 191, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
... coverage of weather and local news. It doesnt talk if any new viewers started watchi...
^^^^^^
Line 3, column 221, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... news. It doesnt talk if any new viewers started watching the channel. It can be ...
^^
Line 3, column 253, 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.
... viewers started watching the channel. It can be possible that the number of vie...
^^
Line 3, column 271, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...watching the channel. It can be possible that the number of viewers increased man...
^^
Line 3, column 318, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Don't put a space before the full stop
Suggestion: .
...the number of viewers increased manifold . Moreover, since the coverage was reduce...
^^
Line 3, column 1002, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...s, complaints specific to categories and their factions will throw more light and...
^^
Line 5, column 328, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... for the loss from local businesses. Or, the national and international advertisi...
^^
Line 5, column 886, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Hence,
...ensive and infeasible to air their ads. Hence they could have cancelled it. The autho...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 145, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Is
... time alotted to different news items. is it positive or negative correlation? It...
^^
Line 9, column 227, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Don't put a space before the full stop
Suggestion: .
...e challenge the validity of the argument . Thus, the veracity of the argument is l...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, hence, if, look, moreover, so, then, thus
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 19.6327345309 66% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 22.0 11.1786427146 197% => OK
Relative clauses : 8.0 13.6137724551 59% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 27.0 28.8173652695 94% => OK
Preposition: 66.0 55.5748502994 119% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2787.0 2260.96107784 123% => OK
No of words: 525.0 441.139720559 119% => OK
Chars per words: 5.30857142857 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.78673985869 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.8467842725 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 237.0 204.123752495 116% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.451428571429 0.468620217663 96% => OK
syllable_count: 868.5 705.55239521 123% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 4.96107784431 161% => OK
Article: 15.0 8.76447105788 171% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 29.0 19.7664670659 147% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 22.8473053892 79% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 64.2572120346 57.8364921388 111% => OK
Chars per sentence: 96.1034482759 119.503703932 80% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.1034482759 23.324526521 78% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.34482758621 5.70786347227 41% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 14.0 5.25449101796 266% => Less language errors wanted.
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.20758483034 134% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 15.0 6.88822355289 218% => 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: 0.251829340901 0.218282227539 115% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.063801427504 0.0743258471296 86% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0883082726626 0.0701772020484 126% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.124115141101 0.128457276422 97% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.10759337164 0.0628817314937 171% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.6 14.3799401198 88% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 44.75 48.3550499002 93% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.22 12.5979740519 105% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.99 8.32208582834 96% => OK
difficult_words: 115.0 98.500998004 117% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.1389221557 83% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.9071856287 67% => The average readability is low. Need to imporve the language.
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.