The following is a memorandum from the business manager of a television station.
"Over the past year , our latenight 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 latenight
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 a television station makes an argument for restoring the time devoted to weather and local news to earlier level to attract more viewers and avoid loss of advertising revenues. He supports it with the evidence of complaints of viewers and cancellation of contracts by the local businesses during late-night news. However, there is need to evaluate specific evidence before the argument can be considered sound.
Firstly, there is lack of evidence in the argument regarding whether the complaints made by the viewers regarding the coverage of the weather and local news is regarding the insufficient time of coverage or quality of the coverage. It may be that the complaints are regarding the quality. It may mean that the there is need for better aggregation of data regarding them and quality reporting. This indicates that the concern regarding reduced time of coverage may be ill-founded at best , making the argument flawed.
Secondly, there is no evidence regarding actual quantification of the complaints and number of viewers. May be the number of complaints may be too low for example only 2 out of 100 viewers. Furthermore, there is no data which points to either increase or decrease in the viewership during the given period of time. If actual viewership increased from 50 to 100 and complaints have increased from 1 to 2 due to the increased coverage of the national news, then the conclusion of loss of viewership and need to gain additional viewers does not hold.
Thirdly, there is lack of evidence regarding the reason which led local businesses to withdraw the advertising contracts. It is stated in the passage that they have "just" cancelled their contracts while the programme was running for a year. It may be possible that there is a sudden downturn in the local economy which resulted in businesses taking up austerity measures. There is no evidence in argument which preclude other possible reasons for cancellation. This makes the argument claim that the increase in coverage for national news is responsible for it suspect.
In conclusion, there is lack of sufficient evidence in the argument to make it reliable recommendation. In order to vindicate the argument there is need to collect additional evidence regarding the purpose of the complaints, better quantification of data regarding viewers and survey to find reasons for cancellation of contracts.
- Laws should be flexible enough to take account of various circumstances, times, and places.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developi 70
- The following appeared in a health newsletter."A ten-year nationwide study of the effectiveness of wearing a helmet while bicycling indicates that ten years ago, approximately 35 percent of all bicyclists reported wearing helmets, whereas today that numbe 50
- The following is a recommendation from the personnel director to the president of Acme Publishing Company."Many other companies have recently stated that having their employees take the Easy Read Speed-Reading Course has greatly improved productivity. One 50
- One month ago all the showerheads on the first five floors of Sunnyside Towers were modified to restrict the water flow to approximately one third of its original flow Although actual readings of water usage before and after the adjustment are not yet ava 60
- The following appeared in a letter to the editor of the Balmer Island Gazette."The population on Balmer Island increases to 100,000 during the summer months. T oreduce the number of accidents involving mopeds and pedestrians, the town council ofBalmer Isl 80
----------------
argument 1 and argument 2 are talking about the same thing: complaints
argument 3 -- OK
----------------
flaws:
Need to argue against the conclusion. For this topic it is:
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.
----------------------
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: 18 15
No. of Words: 391 350
No. of Characters: 1981 1500
No. of Different Words: 160 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.447 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.066 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.897 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 150 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 131 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 99 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 58 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.722 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.549 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.778 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.37 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.579 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.125 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5