'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.
The argument that restoring the time devoted to weather and local news will prevent the loss of advertising revenues is unwarrented through a number of glaring flaws. The basis of this argument is based on an assumption containing vague language that may not actually indicate there is a problem with the decrease in weather and local news. In addition the assumptions do not provide real data or numbers to substantiate their claim that decreased weather and local news time created a decrease in viewers. Finally, the author confuses correlation with causation in that the decrease in local news and weather coincided with the cancelation of local advertising contracts. Due to these flaws the argument is unfounded.
The argument implies that attracting more viewers will prevent a loss in advertising revenue. In order to attract more viewers the implication is that the late-night news program should restore the time devoted to weather and local news. This assumption is based on the evidence that after the swap to increased national news that "most of the complaints recieved from viewers were concerned with our station's coverage of weather and local news." This evidence, however is too vague. It simply states most of the complaints were concerned with the coverage of those two topics. In fact, the concern could be that the coverage was still too much! Or perhaps the coverage of the weather and local news was done by an anchor they don't like. The evidence does not explicitely specific that the complaints are due to a lack of weather and local news coverage.
Additionally, the primary evidence does not provide data that would indicate the current complaints are significantly worse than before the coverage change. In the event that all the complaints were about the lack of weather and local news coverage, this still does not provide adequate evidence for the authors claim. The evidence states that "most of the complaints recieved from viewers...". This statement does not demonstrate that that these complaints were more than the complaints from before the coverage change. For example, after the coverage change there may have been 20 complaints about the lack of coverage. However, prior to the change there may have been 100 complaints about there being too much coverage of weather and local news. The lack of data does not provide a proper representation of the late-night news viewers opinions. Even if there were more complaints after the change, we would still want to know more data on how many complaints were done per person. For example, there may have been 100 complaints prior to the change done by 100 different people. After the change there may have been 200 complaints done by the same 5 people. Although there were more actual complaints it would not be appropriate to say that the viewers were happier prior to the change as only 5 people complained post-change whereas 100 people complained pre-change.
Lastly, the author mistakes correlation for causation when assuming that attracting more customers would prevent advertising revenue loss. After the change the program noticed that local businesses canceled their advertising contracts with them. Since the program did not specifically say that the cancelations were due to the change in coverage, we cannot assume this correlation suggests causation. It is entirely plausible that the advertising budgets may have just been cut across the board and regardless of viewership of the program, the businesses would be unable to continue advertising with the news program. In addition, the businesses could simply be changing their advertising strategy away from television channels and towards other social media or digital avenues.
Ultimately, these major flaws render the author's argument that restoring the time devoted to weather and local news to its former level to avoid losing further advertising revenues unwarrented.
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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: 30 15
No. of Words: 631 350
No. of Characters: 3239 1500
No. of Different Words: 229 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.012 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.133 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.632 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 228 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 190 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 129 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 77 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.033 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.31 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.5 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.342 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.516 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.175 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 345, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[2]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: addition,
... decrease in weather and local news. In addition the assumptions do not provide real dat...
^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 738, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...d local news was done by an anchor they dont like. The evidence does not explicitely...
^^^^
Line 9, column 442, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: that
...s;. This statement does not demonstrate that that these complaints were more than the com...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 1093, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “After” 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.
...he change done by 100 different people. After the change there may have been 200 comp...
^^^^^
Line 13, column 140, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “After” 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.
...would prevent advertising revenue loss. After the change the program noticed that loc...
^^^^^
Line 17, column 42, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...ltimately, these major flaws render the authors argument that restoring the time devote...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, finally, however, if, lastly, may, so, still, whereas, for example, in addition, in fact
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 31.0 19.6327345309 158% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 17.0 12.9520958084 131% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 22.0 13.6137724551 162% => OK
Pronoun: 43.0 28.8173652695 149% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 78.0 55.5748502994 140% => OK
Nominalization: 25.0 16.3942115768 152% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3332.0 2260.96107784 147% => OK
No of words: 630.0 441.139720559 143% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.28888888889 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.00997013923 4.56307096286 110% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.73901111896 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 242.0 204.123752495 119% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.384126984127 0.468620217663 82% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1017.9 705.55239521 144% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 9.0 4.96107784431 181% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 10.0 4.22255489022 237% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 28.0 19.7664670659 142% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 45.8851160786 57.8364921388 79% => OK
Chars per sentence: 119.0 119.503703932 100% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.5 23.324526521 96% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.5 5.70786347227 61% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 8.20758483034 37% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 22.0 6.88822355289 319% => Less negative sentences wanted.
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: 0.268988561654 0.218282227539 123% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0874731407514 0.0743258471296 118% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0923169763404 0.0701772020484 132% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.182788410783 0.128457276422 142% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0900076063715 0.0628817314937 143% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.7 14.3799401198 102% => 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: 13.7 12.5979740519 109% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.91 8.32208582834 95% => OK
difficult_words: 127.0 98.500998004 129% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 30 minutes.
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.