"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 complains received from viewers were concerned with our station's coverage of weather and local news. In addition, local business 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 describe what specific examples or evidence are needed to evaluate the argument and how those examples or evidences would weaken or strengthen the argument.
The business manager of a television station is concerned about complaints that the channel has received from their viewers. In fact, in the last year, those were about local news and weather covered by the station. The manager also says the complaints came in the same time in which the TV has decided to allocate more space to national news during the late-hour news, reducing the local and weather ones; moreover, he says that local business that use to advertised during the channel's night shows have canceled their agreement with the TV.
From these observation, he suggests that they should restore the original time to both prevent other revenues to move away from them and also to attract more viewers to the program.
While it is undoubted that spectators of the night time show have complained, and that the concerns of the manager are therefore legit, the changes he suggests about the time are not necessarily giving the expected results. In fact, more evidences are needed to evaluate the problem he is presenting.
First of all, we are told that "viewers complained", but we don't actually know how many of them did. The business manager could suggest the market department to make a survey, for example via telephone, amongst the audience to check exactly how many people are watching their show, and what percentage of them are unsatisfied. It would be completely different is the sample of unhappy costumers were 80% or 10%. From the information given in the memorandum, we don't know.
The manager is also concerned about how to increase the audience for their programs. I don't agree with the solution he is suggesting, because it is not based upon any proven facts: we don't know, and apparently he does not either, if the new costumers could be interested in watch local news. Maybe a new launched program with horror movies could be more appealing to new costumers. He could check the program on air on more successful competitor channels to find out what they are transmitting, and take inspiration from them.
Secondly, he addresses the problem of local business stopping advertising during their show. Again, several evidence are needed to support the conclusion he draws.
There could be many reasons for locals to cancel their contracts. Still, a market survey could help solving the question: maybe the costs of the advertising have increased and local business cannot afford the pricey services, or, to be fair, they could have found more effective to put their products and services on local newspapers or billboards.
On the other hand, those local business have found out that the late hours in the evening or the night are not the most favorable time for advertise their products: a good example could be the new toys shop in XXX street ,normally the client interested in toys (aka children), is already asleep by that time.
In conclusion, based on the information the manager gives, I am not persuaded about the effectiveness of restoring original time slots in preventing revenues from canceled contracts and attracting more viewers. On the contrary, he could work on improving the channel visibility itself to attract new costumers, ask them what they would like to watch on late hours, and check the exact reasons for the decline of local business contracts.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
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argument 1 -- not OK
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- ???
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samples:
https://www.testbig.com/gmatgre-argument-task-essays/over-past-year-our…
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 555 350
No. of Characters: 2672 1500
No. of Different Words: 247 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.854 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.814 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.532 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 174 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 148 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 104 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 61 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 26.429 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 14.477 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.667 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.305 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.503 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.183 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 6, Rule ID: THIS_NNS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'this observation' or 'these observations'?
Suggestion: this observation; these observations
...led their agreement with the TV. From these observation, he suggests that they should restore t...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 6, column 71, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
... 'viewers complained', but we dont actually know how many of them did. The...
^^^^
Line 6, column 472, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...information given in the memorandum, we dont know. The manager is also concerned ...
^^^^
Line 6, column 483, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... given in the memorandum, we dont know. The manager is also concerned about how ...
^^^
Line 7, column 88, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...ease the audience for their programs. I dont agree with the solution he is suggestin...
^^^^
Line 7, column 185, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
... is not based upon any proven facts: we dont know, and apparently he does not either...
^^^^
Line 7, column 528, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...itting, and take inspiration from them. Secondly, he addresses the problem of lo...
^^^^^
Line 9, column 101, Rule ID: MANY_NN_U[8]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun evidence seems to be uncountable; consider using: 'some evidence'.
Suggestion: some evidence
...g advertising during their show. Again, several evidence are needed to support the conclusion he...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 10, column 101, Rule ID: ADVISE_VBG[5]
Message: The verb 'help' is used with infinitive: 'to solve' or 'solve'.
Suggestion: to solve; solve
...acts. Still, a market survey could help solving the question: maybe the costs of the ad...
^^^^^^^
Line 10, column 350, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ices on local newspapers or billboards. On the other hand, those local business ...
^^^
Line 11, column 221, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma, but not before the comma
Suggestion: ,
...could be the new toys shop in XXX street ,normally the client interested in toys a...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, apparently, but, first, if, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, still, therefore, while, for example, in conclusion, in fact, first of all, on the contrary, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.6327345309 127% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.9520958084 100% => OK
Conjunction : 15.0 11.1786427146 134% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 49.0 28.8173652695 170% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 73.0 55.5748502994 131% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 16.3942115768 79% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2766.0 2260.96107784 122% => OK
No of words: 551.0 441.139720559 125% => OK
Chars per words: 5.01996370236 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.84493438435 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.65454897886 2.78398813304 95% => OK
Unique words: 261.0 204.123752495 128% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.473684210526 0.468620217663 101% => OK
syllable_count: 845.1 705.55239521 120% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 13.0 4.96107784431 262% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 6.0 1.67365269461 358% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 9.0 4.22255489022 213% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 26.0 22.8473053892 114% => OK
Sentence length SD: 83.2509797155 57.8364921388 144% => OK
Chars per sentence: 131.714285714 119.503703932 110% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.2380952381 23.324526521 112% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.09523809524 5.70786347227 159% => OK
Paragraphs: 9.0 5.15768463074 174% => Less paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 11.0 5.25449101796 209% => Less language errors wanted.
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => 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: 0.22528661156 0.218282227539 103% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0675339232546 0.0743258471296 91% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0621300027399 0.0701772020484 89% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.101121096946 0.128457276422 79% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0720324776843 0.0628817314937 115% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.3 14.3799401198 106% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 53.55 48.3550499002 111% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.13 12.5979740519 96% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.45 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 123.0 98.500998004 125% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.1389221557 111% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Maximum six paragraphs wanted.
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.