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 of the television (tv) station concluded that to attract more viewers to the program and to avoid losing any further advertising revenues, the tv station should restore the devoted time given to the weather and local news to its former level. Looking at this conclusion at first glance, one might agree with the manager. However, proper look into this conclusion shows that the manager needs evidence to support his reasons and strengthen his conclusion.
Firstly, the manager made use of ambiguous word "most" to represent the amount of complaints received. Without evidence of the precise number of complaints received, the manager's conclusion is flawed.
Secondly, the manger also made such conclusion because the local business that used to advertise during the late-night news program have cancelled their advertising contract. The manager failed to provide evidence of the reason the local business cancelled its contract. The local business might have cancelled the contract because of other reason, it might be that the local business now has a better deal at other tv station and felt to discontinue the contract. One cannot tell without this evidence not provided.
Additionally, the manger failed to provide evidence of the advantage the change has brought to the tv station. If the change had brought more advantage than the supposedly disadvantage, there will be no need to restore the devoted time to weather and local news. Without this evidence, the manger's conclusion is also flawed.
Also, the manger also gave a reason to restore the time devoted to weather and local news so as to attract more viewers. However, there is no evidence that there will be more viewers if the time is restored. For instance, viewers might have found new tv station that gives them the service they want and there will be no need for them to go back to the manger's station.
Conclusively, without these evidences provided, the conclusion of the business manager is flawed.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- not OK. need to argue this:
During this time period, most of the complaints received from viewers were concerned with our station's coverage of weather and local news.
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- OK
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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: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 16 15
No. of Words: 325 350
No. of Characters: 1630 1500
No. of Different Words: 137 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.246 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.015 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.496 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 128 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 105 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 57 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 30 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.312 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.425 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.562 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.38 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.607 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.136 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 181, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'managers'' or 'manager's'?
Suggestion: managers'; manager's
...cise number of complaints received, the managers conclusion is flawed. Secondly, the ...
^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 291, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'mangers'' or 'manger's'?
Suggestion: mangers'; manger's
... local news. Without this evidence, the mangers conclusion is also flawed. Also, th...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 91, Rule ID: SO_AS_TO[1]
Message: Use simply 'to'
Suggestion: to
... time devoted to weather and local news so as to attract more viewers. However, there is...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, firstly, however, if, look, second, secondly, so, then, as to, for instance
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 9.0 19.6327345309 46% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 6.0 13.6137724551 44% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 20.0 28.8173652695 69% => OK
Preposition: 38.0 55.5748502994 68% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1690.0 2260.96107784 75% => OK
No of words: 325.0 441.139720559 74% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.2 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.24591054749 4.56307096286 93% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.66646942071 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 142.0 204.123752495 70% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.436923076923 0.468620217663 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 523.8 705.55239521 74% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 4.96107784431 20% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
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: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 52.329149083 57.8364921388 90% => OK
Chars per sentence: 105.625 119.503703932 88% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.3125 23.324526521 87% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.5 5.70786347227 96% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
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: 0.265652838123 0.218282227539 122% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0886034954023 0.0743258471296 119% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0752241653022 0.0701772020484 107% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.133862253181 0.128457276422 104% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0520347188852 0.0628817314937 83% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.2 14.3799401198 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.88 12.5979740519 102% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.54 8.32208582834 91% => OK
difficult_words: 60.0 98.500998004 61% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 12.3882235529 85% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => 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.