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."
The given memorandum reflects the attempt of a television news channel to increase its viewership. In the memorandum, the business manager of the television stations, makes a claim that in order to attract more viewers to their late night program and to avoid losing advertising revenues, they must increase the time devoted to weather and local news. The memorandum offers minimal evidence to back this claim and until substantive evidence can be gathered on the issue, the claim remains mere conjecture.
We shall first address the issue of viewership. The claim that more time must be devoted to weather and local news to attract more viewers, is based on the fact that most of the complaints received from viewers during the period quoted in the memorandum, were concerned with the station's coverage of weather and local news. This could mean several things. We must note that memorandum states that "most of the complaints" were concerned with the station's coverage of weather and local news. This does not reflect an increase in the number of complaints regarding weather and local news but rather a increase in the proportion of complaints regarding the issue. This could be due a drop in quality of the weather and local news reporting or due to improved performance of the news channel in other areas. Until more comprehensive data on viewership and viewer complaints is collected, the claim that devoting more time to local and weather news and less to national news would win the news channel more viewers remains unvalidated.
We shall now address the issue of advertising. The claim made in the memorandum is based on the fact that local businesses that used to advertise during the late-night shows have cancelled their contracts. These cancellations can be attributed to several causes. It is possible that these companies are cutting down on advertising expenditure or that they are not performing well and several other reasons. To draw inference regarding the correlation between reduced local and weather news time on the late night show and cancellation of contracts by local businesses, the channel would need to find out from these businesses the cause for terminating their contracts.
Further, it is possible that the news channel is now receiving higher advertising revenues from national businesses owing to the increased time devoted to national news. Thus, the cancellation of contracts by local businesses needn't necessarily translate into lower advertising revenues.
As mentioned above, for the argument to be valid, a lot more evidence must be gathered. Until then, the argument remains unvalidated.
Comments
Hello. I have written an
Hello. I have written an essay and I have several question about the argument; however, I know that if i wrote the comment to the essay, it would be checken lately.
It is the argument:
In surveys Mason City residents rank water sport (swimming, boating, and fishing) among their favorite recreational activities. The Mason River flowing through the city is rarely used for these pursuits, however, and the city park department devotes little of its budget to maintaining riverside recreational activities. For years there have been complaints about the quality of the river's water and the river's smell. In response, the state has recently announced plans to cleaning up Mason River. Use of the river for water sport is, therefore, sure to increase. The city government should for that reason devote more money in this year's budget to riverside recreational activities.
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on the assumptions and what the implications are if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
I read that the argument may be taken appart like this: http://www.testbig.com/gmatgre-argument-task-essays/surveys-mason-city-… (the reader gives the author the structure of the argument)
However, my question is do my way is also possible or not. (I assume that more than one way to analyze exists.)
1) In surveys Mason City residents rank water sport (swimming, boating, and fishing) among their favorite recreational activities. The Mason River flowing through the city is rarely used for these pursuits// perhaps, the residents like to look at the sport but do not participate in it. like football fans etc.
2) For years there have been complaints about the quality of the river's water and the river's smell. //probably, these compaint were written by a small percent of people who live near the river or these people do not like the water sport activities.
3) In response, the state has recently announced plans to cleaning up Mason River. // It may not work, in case the root of the problem will not address it may be natural or artificial sources of the river's contamination.
4) Use of the river for water sport is, therefore, sure to increase. // the river may not be used because of other reasons which do not connect with the smell such us cold water or other flow/water charcteristics.
5) The city government should for that reason devote more money in this year's budget to riverside recreational activities.
This is intersiting moment. I was told that "and the city park department devotes little of its budget to maintaining riverside recreational activities." However, does the little mean that these money are insufficient? (I know from grammar but in the ETS's examples I saw that an author who avers that these money are enough get a score 5)
Thank you.
p.s. I ask your opinion because you are a professional with specific knowldege in this field and I am not. I assume that ETS's examples were given in such a way that it is almost impossible to draw a comprehensive understanding about ETS's requirements about argument prompts.
p.p.s I actually belive in your consideration.
You are only my hope. Thank you.
1) here we think 'activities'
1) here we think 'activities' means we should take part in. Suppose it includes fans, if there are no body doing sports, how can they watch?
2)OK
3)OK
4)OK
5) little means 'little'. It could be enough or it could be not enough. If it is enough, then there are no arguments left, why we need to argue to put more money. If it is not enough, we may need to do something (but it doesn't man we need to put money even it is not enough, depending on whole budget, the weight of all sports activities, etc...).
Sentence: Until then, the argument remains unvalidated.
Error: unvalidated Suggestion: invalidated
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argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- not OK. Need to argue against the conclusion: '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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suggestions:
Always remember argue against the conclusion.
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Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 1 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 425 350
No. of Characters: 2172 1500
No. of Different Words: 172 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.54 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.111 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.732 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 145 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 132 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 91 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 64 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.368 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.529 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.316 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.334 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.55 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.108 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5