“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 local and weather news. In addition, local businesses that used to advertise during our late-night news programs have just cancelled 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 given argument is about a proposed decision about television programs. The writer has given some statements and based on those he has given a suggestion. Though it might seem that the statements are sufficiently logical to jump on a decision at first glance, by perusing the write-up the flaws are detected and thus depicted below.
Firstly, the author states that the late-night news program has devoted much more time in broadcasting national news and lesser time to weather and local news. The first flaw of this statement is from where he has collected this information it is not mentioned here. It is expected that when we are giving any information we should also incorporate the name of the source of the piece of information because otherwise the information looses its credibility. The information can be gathered from any survey, earlier studies or some reports or findings of statistical data. . Same thing is missing from the second sentence of the write-up. The author has mentioned about increased complaints of viewers which were concerned with about the weather and local news. From where did he gather this information is not mentioned and thus it is not credible.Hence, if the author mentioned that he has gathered this information from a renowned source then it would not seem spurious
Secondly, the author assumes that the complaints from the viewers were for the lessened coverage of the local and weather news. However, what if the complaints were about not broadcasting true reports rather than the lesser amount of time for broadcasting the local or weather news? The author has mentioned that the complains were concerned with the coverage of weather and local news but he has not clearly mentioned about the exact concern. Thus it illogical to think that the complains were for lessening the time for local or weather news.It is also stated that the advertising contracts were canceled by the advertising company but the information is missing regarding the reason of this cancellation. Many things might have happened which has resulted into breaching the contracts. For this reason, it is impudent to take any decision based on the specious information. The author could have strengthened his arguments if he incorporated the exact reasons for the complains from the viewers. Moreover, the author should have stated the true reason for the cancellation of the contracts rather than just stating it.
Thirdly, based on these spurious, illogical and irrational information which is also not backed by any solid source, the business manager has suggested an important decision. To take any decision a manager or leader should focus on every type of possibilities by investigating in a proper way. Business decisons can not be made only from some perceived phenomena. For this reason, it will not be wise to take any decision based on only these information. Hence, the author could have strengthened his point of view by mentioning any survey result or any report.
To conclude, though it seemed plausible to rely on these statements at first, eventually the flaws were identified by reading the passage carefully. The author should follow the suggestions given in each paragraph and take further logical approach to reach on a significant decison like this.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
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: 25 15
No. of Words: 538 350
No. of Characters: 2706 1500
No. of Different Words: 219 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.816 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.03 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.72 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 193 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 147 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 112 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 73 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.52 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.808 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.6 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.31 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.505 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.126 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 574, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Don't put a space before the full stop
Suggestion: .
...eports or findings of statistical data. . Same thing is missing from the second s...
^
Line 3, column 850, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: Hence
...t mentioned and thus it is not credible.Hence, if the author mentioned that he has ga...
^^^^^
Line 5, column 445, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Thus,
...arly mentioned about the exact concern. Thus it illogical to think that the complain...
^^^^
Line 5, column 545, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: It
...ning the time for local or weather news.It is also stated that the advertising con...
^^
Line 7, column 278, Rule ID: IN_A_X_MANNER[1]
Message: Consider replacing "in a proper way" with adverb for "proper"; eg, "in a hasty manner" with "hastily".
... type of possibilities by investigating in a proper way. Business decisons can not be made only...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 437, Rule ID: THIS_NNS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'this information' or 'these informations'?
Suggestion: this information; these informations
...wise to take any decision based on only these information. Hence, the author could have strengthe...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, hence, however, if, moreover, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, third, thirdly, thus
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 18.0 11.1786427146 161% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 42.0 28.8173652695 146% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 64.0 55.5748502994 115% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2764.0 2260.96107784 122% => OK
No of words: 536.0 441.139720559 122% => OK
Chars per words: 5.15671641791 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.81161862636 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.81178980309 2.78398813304 101% => OK
Unique words: 228.0 204.123752495 112% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.425373134328 0.468620217663 91% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 858.6 705.55239521 122% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.76447105788 148% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 62.3557780447 57.8364921388 108% => OK
Chars per sentence: 115.166666667 119.503703932 96% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.3333333333 23.324526521 96% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.83333333333 5.70786347227 85% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.67664670659 171% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.229070882702 0.218282227539 105% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0679853043271 0.0743258471296 91% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.107369498486 0.0701772020484 153% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.10352080702 0.128457276422 81% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.111216087478 0.0628817314937 177% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.0 14.3799401198 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 49.15 48.3550499002 102% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.94 12.5979740519 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.12 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 115.0 98.500998004 117% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 12.3882235529 85% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.