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 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 canceled their advertising contracts with us. Therefore, in order to attract more viewers to our news programs and to avoid losing any further advertising revenues, we should expand our coverage of weather and local news on all our news programs."
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 these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
In the argument, the business manager of a television station claims that their late-night news program has allotted more time to national news and less time to weather and local news; as a result, they have received more complaints from viewers and moreover, local businesses that advertise in the program have canceled their contracts; hence, the television station has decided to expand the weather and local news to all news programs. In this argument, the author has considered some unwarranted assumptions that have made it as a weak argument; in addition, there are some unstated assumptions that must be taken into account for a better judgment:
Firstly, he/she states that the television station has received a lot of complaints; because the time allotted for national news has increased and, in reverse, it has been lessen for weather news; however, he/she must notice that what kind of complaints they receive; there is a possibility that all these complaints are because of the quality of news not for timing issue; moreover, it might be due to the uninteresting and boring news which station announces; or even might be based on inaccurate weather news which is in contrast with real weather.
Secondly, the manager alleges that all the advertising contracts with companies have been canceled due to modifying in time of weather and news program; nut, he/she never pays attention that these cancelings might be because of the hard economical situation of companies which cannot afford its cost any more; or it might be based on finding more efficient ways of advertising by companies.
Thirdly, he/she assumes that if station television expand its coverage of weather and local news on all news program, these problems will be solve; while he/she never thinks about another side that all audience of news programs might not be interested in watching such weather and national news; therefore, the number of audiences not only be increased, but would be diminished.
As a summary, in this argument, the author has considered some unjustified assumptions which their value will be in a weak position by introducing some unstated assumptions. Therefore, this statement is not acceptable as a strong statement.
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- "All students should be required to take the driver's education course at Centerville High School. In the past two years several accidents in and around Centerville have involved teenage drivers. Since a number of parents in Centerville have complained th 50
Sentence: Thirdly, he/she assumes that if station television expand its coverage ...
Description: The fragment television expand its is rare
Suggestion: Possible agreement error: Replace expand with verb, past tense
flaws:
Avg. Sentence Length: 45.5 21.0 (are you sure the semicolons are used properly?)
No. of Different Words: 156 200
Argument 1 -- OK
Argument 2 -- OK
Argument 3 -- OK
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 4 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 8 15
No. of Words: 364 350
No. of Characters: 1814 1500
No. of Different Words: 156 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.368 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.984 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.669 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 129 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 112 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 76 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 47 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 45.5 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 27.166 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.875 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.46 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.78 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.184 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5