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 that the restoration of time devoted to weather and local news will substantially alleviate the current problem of revenue loss may seem logical at first glance. The author makes a valid argument, one that would be correct if its premises were true. However, the manager's conclusion relies on assumptions for which there is no clear evidence.
First, the manager assumes that restoring time devoted to weather and local news will cease advertising revenue loss based on complaints from viewers. In fact, the complaints might entirely be irrelevant. For example, the complaints are not sufficient to explain why local businesses are canceling advertising contracts. It could be any number of reasons such as extremely low viewership or that local businesses simply did not have the money to continue the advertising contracts.
Additionally, the manager does not provide evidence that restoring time devoted to weather and local news will attract more viewers and avoid losing advertising revenues. In its current form, the argument implies that the problem is based on viewer complaints. However, there is no guaranteed correlation between increased viewership and increased advertising revenue. The argument's conclusion requires more supporting evidence such as statistical data that demonstrates a strong likelihood of increased viewership and revenue.
The notion that viewership and revenue will increase would be strengthened by complaints from the local businesses as to why they are canceling their contracts. The manager's argument would be strengthened considerably if there was evidence supporting that changing the program will result in more viewers and advertising revenue.
In conclusion, the manager would not necessarily be wrong to assert that listening to viewer complaints will attract more viewers. After all, a business is all about pleasing the customers. But to support the conclusion that the change will increase advertising revenue, the manager must provide more conclusive evidence that the change in the late-night news program will, in fact, attract more viewers and avoid any lost revenue.
Comments
Should I leave the fourth
Should I leave the fourth paragraph out then?
Better to put the content of
Better to put the content of fourth paragraph inside the second and third paragraphs.
I don't understand. I thought
I don't understand. I thought it was a pretty good essay. I mentioned most of what you talk about in the arguments as well. An essay like this based on what I have read in Kaplan would get a 5 or a 6.
Well, let's first figure out
Well, let's first figure out the structure of the topic:
condition 1:
During this period, most of the complaints received from viewers were concerned with our station's coverage of weather and local news.
condition 2:
In addition, local businesses that used to advertise during our late-night news program have canceled their advertising contracts with us.
conclusion:
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
So what we do: argue against the condition 1, 2 and conclusion in the essay body by three paragraphs.
Let us know if you have different ideas.
flaws:
The complains and why local businesses are canceling advertising contracts should be argued separately like this:
argument 1 -- about complains. for example, If the station has 100,000 viewers, but there are only 10 complains for the programs
argument 2 -- why local businesses are canceling advertising contracts. maybe the business is not in a good condition (bankrupt...)
argument 3 -- argue against the conclusion: 'we should expand our coverage of weather and local news on all our news programs'. Maybe the quality is not good enough.
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 3.0 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: 323 350
No. of Characters: 1779 1500
No. of Different Words: 145 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.239 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.508 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.86 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 138 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 124 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 79 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 60 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.188 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.493 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.875 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.359 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.585 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.082 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5