GRE Argument: 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 at hand calls for restoring the time devoted to weather and local news to its former level, which indicates that this time will be increased. The television station cites complaints and the cancellation of advertisement contracts as reasons for their decision. Although their argument may seem compelling, the television station must evaluate the following.
First off, the television station states that most of the complaints received were regarding with the coverage of weather and local news. they, however, do not address what those complaints exactly pertain to. if the compaints specifically state that viewers are not happy with the increased national news time and the decreased weather and local news time, then their argument becomes stronger. however, their argument weakens if the complaints pertain to another facet of the news, such as a change in weather and local news anchors. viewers might also be concerned about the type of local news that is being broadcasted. For example, viewers might want positive and uplifting news, but the station is currently focused on negative, stress-producing news.
Secondly, the television station must evaluate the reasons why local businesses are cancelling adverisement contracts. The answer to this will help determine if restoring coverage time is beneficial to the station. For example, the state of the local and national economy may affect the amount of money that local businesses spend on advertising. if the economy is weak, businesses might be making low profit, therefore not being able to allocate as much money to advertising. this would undermine the station's argument. On the other hand, if businesses explicitly state that they are cancelling contacts due to the change of local news and weather screen time, there is more logic for the television station to revert back to their original news and weather airing times.
Last but not least, the memorandum does not state evidence of how their plan will attract more viewers and help stop the loss of advertising revenue. this assumption needs to be backed up by empirical evidence because it might be the case that they will continue to lose revenue and viewers even if they go along with their plan. if the station obtains testimonies of viewers and businesses stating that they will support the television station again, then the station's plan becomes stronger. however, if they are unable to obtain evidence for the success of their plan, it is as likely for this plan to backfire than it is to succeed.
Overall, the plan of the television station means well and is written to aid the success of the station. however, their plan might fail miseranly unless if they evaluate the assumptions and evidence described.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 5.0 out of 6
Category: Very Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 13 15
No. of Words: 445 350
No. of Characters: 2261 1500
No. of Different Words: 188 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.593 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.081 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.606 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 158 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 141 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 85 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 56 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 34.231 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 22.645 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.846 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.401 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.651 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.128 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 4, column 139, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: They
...the coverage of weather and local news. they, however, do not address what those com...
^^^^
Line 4, column 397, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: However
..., then their argument becomes stronger. however, their argument weakens if the complain...
^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 537, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Viewers
...ange in weather and local news anchors. viewers might also be concerned about the type ...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 348, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: If
... local businesses spend on advertising. if the economy is weak, businesses might b...
^^
Line 7, column 478, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: This
... allocate as much money to advertising. this would undermine the stations argument. ...
^^^^
Line 7, column 503, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'stations'' or 'station's'?
Suggestion: stations'; station's
...o advertising. this would undermine the stations argument. On the other hand, if busines...
^^^^^^^^
Line 10, column 151, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: This
...p stop the loss of advertising revenue. this assumption needs to be backed up by emp...
^^^^
Line 10, column 331, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: If
... even if they go along with their plan. if the station obtains testimonies of view...
^^
Line 10, column 494, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: However
...hen the stations plan becomes stronger. however, if they are unable to obtain evidence ...
^^^^^^^
Line 13, column 106, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: However
...tten to aid the success of the station. however, their plan might fail miseranly unless...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, may, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, well, for example, such as, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.9520958084 116% => OK
Conjunction : 17.0 11.1786427146 152% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 13.6137724551 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 33.0 28.8173652695 115% => OK
Preposition: 44.0 55.5748502994 79% => OK
Nominalization: 24.0 16.3942115768 146% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2327.0 2260.96107784 103% => OK
No of words: 445.0 441.139720559 101% => OK
Chars per words: 5.22921348315 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.59293186426 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.67082787733 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 199.0 204.123752495 97% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.447191011236 0.468620217663 95% => OK
syllable_count: 709.2 705.55239521 101% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 43.2228838357 57.8364921388 75% => OK
Chars per sentence: 110.80952381 119.503703932 93% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.1904761905 23.324526521 91% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.2380952381 5.70786347227 109% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 10.0 5.25449101796 190% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 12.0 6.88822355289 174% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.306744957529 0.218282227539 141% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.109057442963 0.0743258471296 147% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0895737170623 0.0701772020484 128% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.186806341393 0.128457276422 145% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.11319343908 0.0628817314937 180% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.8 14.3799401198 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.05 12.5979740519 104% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.05 8.32208582834 97% => OK
difficult_words: 95.0 98.500998004 96% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 12.3882235529 69% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => 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.