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 argument in question relates the loss of advertising revenues and complaints from the viewers to its recent preference to give more prime time to National news and lessen that of local news and weather telecasts. The business manager notes that ever since the national news usurped the time that local news and weather appeared in, viewers have been complaining on the station's coverage.
This argument lies on the assumption that the complaints recieved from the viewers are targeted towards the reduced time slot for weather and local news. The exact nature of complaints needs more evidence. There is a possibility that the viewers concerns towards the coverage on weather and local news is based on the quality of the local news and weather forecast that the channel broadcasts. If indeed true, then the argument can be refuted as most viewers are concerned of the quality of reporting rather than tha paucity of time given to it.
Also, the argument to associate loss in advertisement revenues and reduced time to weather and local news is not backed up by circumstantial evidences. What was the reason behind the local businesses canceling on adventisement contracts ? The advertisement companies are more concerned about the time slots that they get to advertise and not on what news is actually being telecast. The argument wrongly tries to relate the lost advertisement contracts to the local news.
As the change in the late-night schedule has been made over the past year, the statistics on the premises of the argument i.e. the complaints from viewers on the station's coverage and its advertising revenues of the time before a year also needs to be evaluated. If the advertising revenues of the previous year was better off than the latest figures or if the viewer compaints were far lesser i number during the times weather and local-news reigned the late-night shows, then we can gather conclusive evidence that the new findings may well be due to the mentioned argument, i.e. preference to national news. However if neither the viewers compaints nor the advertising withdrawals were lesser a year ago, it would seriously weaken the assumption that more coverage on national media as being the culpable scenario.
Also, we have to take into account the certainty of the new proposal in reversing the losses the television statement is incurring currently. In order to verify this more evidence is needed on the the constitution of the viewership, the scope of the station's coverage. The facts and figures of the time when local news was given prominence must be evaluated to strengthen the proposed plan.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Sentence: What was the reason behind the local businesses canceling on adventisement contracts ?
Error: adventisement Suggestion: advertisement
Sentence: If the advertising revenues of the previous year was better off than the latest figures or if the viewer compaints were far lesser i number during the times weather and local-news reigned the late-night shows, then we can gather conclusive evidence that the new findings may well be due to the mentioned argument, i.e. preference to national news.
Error: compaints Suggestion: complaints
Sentence: However if neither the viewers compaints nor the advertising withdrawals were lesser a year ago, it would seriously weaken the assumption that more coverage on national media as being the culpable scenario.
Error: compaints Suggestion: complaints
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argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- not exactly. Need to argue against the conclusion always. For this topic it is:
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.
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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: 3 2
No. of Sentences: 16 15
No. of Words: 433 350
No. of Characters: 2163 1500
No. of Different Words: 195 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.562 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.995 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.71 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 153 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 130 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 97 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 57 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 27.062 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.013 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.438 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.379 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.616 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.121 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 374, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'stations'' or 'station's'?
Suggestion: stations'; station's
...n, viewers have been complaining on the stations coverage. This argument lies on the...
^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 163, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'stations'' or 'station's'?
Suggestion: stations'; station's
...i.e. the complaints from viewers on the stations coverage and its advertising revenues o...
^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 612, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: However,
...ment, i.e. preference to national news. However if neither the viewers compaints nor th...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 194, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: the
... verify this more evidence is needed on the the constitution of the viewership, the sco...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 194, Rule ID: DT_DT[1]
Message: Maybe you need to remove one determiner so that only 'the' or 'the' is left.
Suggestion: the; the
... verify this more evidence is needed on the the constitution of the viewership, the sco...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 251, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'stations'' or 'station's'?
Suggestion: stations'; station's
...ion of the viewership, the scope of the stations coverage. The facts and figures of the ...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, however, if, may, so, then, well
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 22.0 19.6327345309 112% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 12.9520958084 39% => OK
Conjunction : 15.0 11.1786427146 134% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 20.0 28.8173652695 69% => OK
Preposition: 59.0 55.5748502994 106% => OK
Nominalization: 22.0 16.3942115768 134% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2201.0 2260.96107784 97% => OK
No of words: 433.0 441.139720559 98% => OK
Chars per words: 5.0831408776 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.56165014514 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.73839468549 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 197.0 204.123752495 97% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.454965357968 0.468620217663 97% => OK
syllable_count: 692.1 705.55239521 98% => 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
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => 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: 27.0 22.8473053892 118% => OK
Sentence length SD: 69.6030878895 57.8364921388 120% => OK
Chars per sentence: 137.5625 119.503703932 115% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.0625 23.324526521 116% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.0 5.70786347227 53% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 8.20758483034 37% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.387342381365 0.218282227539 177% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.14246062596 0.0743258471296 192% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0920815029235 0.0701772020484 131% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.239374769807 0.128457276422 186% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0800140423999 0.0628817314937 127% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.0 14.3799401198 111% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 44.07 48.3550499002 91% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.8 12.197005988 113% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.48 12.5979740519 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.44 8.32208582834 101% => OK
difficult_words: 95.0 98.500998004 96% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 12.3882235529 85% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.8 11.1389221557 115% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.