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 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 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 discuss what specific evidence would be needed in order to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
Argument provided by the author makes fallacious conclusion based on assumptions rather than pragmatic approach. Author states that restoring the time devoted for weather and local news to its former level would eventually attract viewers to the program and they will gain their former level. Having said, the reasons provided by the author to support his/ her conclusion have no clear proof.
Firstly, author mentioned that, during this period most of the complaints recieved from the viewers about the weather and local news. But, their is no clear evidence to proof that the complaints are regarding the time constrain. What if the complaints are about the content of the local news? Might be the local news which is telecasted now contains voilent content which should not be telecasted in television? What if the weather report telecasted is incorrect or inappropriate? Proving these true, will drastically undermies author's view of restoring the time for waether and local news will help them to get back their former level of viewers.
Second, it is also stated by author that advertising companies have cancelled their contracts with them which the author feels one of the effects of time change for weather and local news. As this evaluation happened over a year many changes can effect this. For example, number of late-night news programs might have increased over the year or new television station might be established. Now advertising companies have numerous options to go for, also, other television programs might be charging them less when compared to this television station. Now, irrespective of the change in late-nigth news program, advertising companies will opt for the other television stations who quote for the lesser price. Hence, this scenario will weaken the author's view and conclusion.
Thirdly, even if the content of the news is appropriate and no new television stations are established, what if the preference of the viewers changed? Over the past year many changes could have happened, lifestyle, taste and preference would have changed significantly. Now after having a long tired day people might prefer to watch entertaiment shows at night rather than news program. Now if this is true, author's conclusion will not have positive effect on the present condition on the program telecasted.
Finally, the argument provided by author and reasong through which he supported it are merely assumptions. Therefore, it is no were a cogent assertion that restoring the time will rise the situation to the former level. Hence, to bolster his position author needs to do research and provided statistically evidences to appose the above mentioned points. Only then author's view would be plausible for the readers.
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Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 438 350
No. of Characters: 2259 1500
No. of Different Words: 203 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.575 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.158 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.626 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 164 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 128 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 89 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 62 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.043 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.075 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.609 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.31 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.52 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.121 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 140, Rule ID: THEIR_IS[1]
Message: Did you mean 'there'?
Suggestion: there
... about the weather and local news. But, their is no clear evidence to proof that the ...
^^^^^
Line 9, column 190, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “As” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...time change for weather and local news. As this evaluation happened over a year ma...
^^
Line 9, column 746, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...e. Hence, this scenario will weaken the authors view and conclusion. Thirdly, even...
^^^^^^^
Line 17, column 84, Rule ID: IT_VBZ[1]
Message: Did you mean 'is'?
Suggestion: is
...d reasong through which he supported it are merely assumptions. Therefore, it is no...
^^^
Line 17, column 125, Rule ID: NOW[3]
Message: Did you mean 'now' (=at this moment) instead of 'no' (negation)?
Suggestion: now
...re merely assumptions. Therefore, it is no were a cogent assertion that restoring ...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, firstly, hence, if, regarding, second, so, then, therefore, third, thirdly, for example
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 19.6327345309 87% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 18.0 12.9520958084 139% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 28.8173652695 97% => OK
Preposition: 45.0 55.5748502994 81% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 16.3942115768 79% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2323.0 2260.96107784 103% => OK
No of words: 438.0 441.139720559 99% => OK
Chars per words: 5.30365296804 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.57476223824 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.69104486049 2.78398813304 97% => OK
Unique words: 216.0 204.123752495 106% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.493150684932 0.468620217663 105% => OK
syllable_count: 688.5 705.55239521 98% => 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: 2.0 8.76447105788 23% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 22.8473053892 83% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 36.8616685555 57.8364921388 64% => OK
Chars per sentence: 101.0 119.503703932 85% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.0434782609 23.324526521 82% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.95652173913 5.70786347227 87% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.67664670659 192% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.28115680711 0.218282227539 129% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0850326244278 0.0743258471296 114% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0686124975875 0.0701772020484 98% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.155074270235 0.128457276422 121% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0846027487849 0.0628817314937 135% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.1 14.3799401198 91% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 52.19 48.3550499002 108% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.46 12.5979740519 107% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.51 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 109.0 98.500998004 111% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 12.3882235529 73% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 11.1389221557 86% => 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.