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 is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
While it might be true that the increasing time devoted to national news and the decreasing time to weather and local news are contributory factors in people's complaints, the argument is not sound. To evaluate and to conclude the real reasons behind the loss of audience and the decreasing revenues, the author has to dig deeper into the problem and provide sufficient and unbiased evidence.
The paramount problem in the author's argument is that, though it is the fact that there are more complaints than the television station ever has, he mentions no detail about these complaints, which means he fails to take into consideration questions like the following. First, to what percentage does the complaint increase? It is possible that there is only a small number of increase in the complaints. Further, whom did these complaints come from? This is critical because people who are extremely dissatisfied with anything against his desire would complain a lot, so probably these complaints came from the same person. If evidence shows this, then whether these complaints could reflect the urgent need for the television station to change their program is worth doubting, and whether these complaints deserve noticing is also worth considering. Second, the author never considers that whether the complaints are about the poor quality of their program instead of the length of it. It could be that the weather report or the national news is never accurate, so it is the same watching it or not. The argument will remain unwarranted until evidence show that people complain just out of the length of the Late Night News.
The author also mentions that the increasing devote to weather and national news is the reason why local business canceled the business contract with them. However, things could be that these business companies are facing an unprecedentedly severe financial crisis due to the gloomy economy. If the author turns his eyes to other enterprises, he might find that they have also canceled their contract with their former partners, and the reason is simple: In a digital age, the television station is no more the best way to attract consumers. Instead, advertising on Internet websites like Google or Facebook is most efficient. Considering the economic condition they are facing and the thriving of new media, it is reasonable that these business companies change their advertising strategy. The author should do a comprehensive research concerning the attitude of these companies, and if the results indicate what is mentioned above, then even if the television company restores the program to its former level, it does no help to gain benefits.
In general, the author's recommendation is not entirely fantasy; however, he fails to analyze the complaints the station received, and thus fails to truly understand what lies behind these complaints. Besides, he knows little about local economic conditions, which render his argument an unwarranted assumption. Unless he could offer more unbiased and credible evidence, the television station should not put his advice into implementation.
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Comments
Essay evaluation report
Need to argue against the conclusion always. 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.
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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: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 498 350
No. of Characters: 2561 1500
No. of Different Words: 244 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.724 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.143 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.68 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 194 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 152 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 113 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 55 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.9 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.728 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.6 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.301 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.477 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.126 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 30, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...ce. The paramount problem in the authors argument is that, though it is the fact...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 360, Rule ID: SMALL_NUMBER_OF[1]
Message: Specify a number, remove phrase, use 'a few', or use 'some'
Suggestion: a few; some
...ease? It is possible that there is only a small number of increase in the complaints. Further, wh...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 817, Rule ID: AFFORD_VBG[1]
Message: This verb is used with infinitive: 'to notice'.
Suggestion: to notice
...g, and whether these complaints deserve noticing is also worth considering. Second, the ...
^^^^^^^^
Line 13, column 17, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...o gain benefits. In general, the authors recommendation is not entirely fantasy;...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, besides, but, first, however, if, second, so, then, thus, while, as to, in general
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.6327345309 132% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 50.0 28.8173652695 174% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 52.0 55.5748502994 94% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2631.0 2260.96107784 116% => OK
No of words: 498.0 441.139720559 113% => OK
Chars per words: 5.28313253012 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.72397222731 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.7599808102 2.78398813304 99% => OK
Unique words: 249.0 204.123752495 122% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.5 0.468620217663 107% => OK
syllable_count: 801.0 705.55239521 114% => 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: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 22.8473053892 105% => OK
Sentence length SD: 63.8716486401 57.8364921388 110% => OK
Chars per sentence: 131.55 119.503703932 110% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.9 23.324526521 107% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.4 5.70786347227 77% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 12.0 6.88822355289 174% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.201223763883 0.218282227539 92% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0624162543183 0.0743258471296 84% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0844451143077 0.0701772020484 120% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.130286441311 0.128457276422 101% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0739439292722 0.0628817314937 118% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.9 14.3799401198 111% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 47.12 48.3550499002 97% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.197005988 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.64 12.5979740519 108% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.54 8.32208582834 103% => OK
difficult_words: 117.0 98.500998004 119% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 17.5 12.3882235529 141% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 11.1389221557 104% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => 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.