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 manager suggests that his company should restore the time devoted to weather and local news to its previous level. Still, some musing over evidence is first very much before taking any steps.
The author of the argument claims that late-night news program has more national news and less weather and local news. and during this period, the complaints are received from viewers. It seems that the complaints are attributed to composition of news. However, the number of complaints received should be presented. It is possible that there are only 10 customers' complaints received in the television station. Even 9 out of 10 complaints about the insufficient content of local news, it is barely to reflect the real condition of most views, because there are 100,000 views watching TV and the samples are obviously not enough representative. The author needs to provide the credential of evidence to make the argument more cogent.
Additionally, it seems that the magnitude of increasing national news and decreasing local and weather news is drastic, but we don't know. Still, the detailed distribution of national news, weather news and local news is necessary to be offered. A probable explanation is that the actual increasing of national news is only 1% compared to previous level. It is hardly to claim that the little changed distribution of time could discourage advertisers to cancel their advertisements.
Moreover, the writer suggests that advertisers cancel their contracts due to the time re-distribution of news. Nevertheless, the real reasons of cancelling the contract is not presented. It is possible that the advertisers cancel the contracts because they find other television station that provide cheaper cost of advertisement on the same period of time. Therefore, they would like to move their advertisement to other television programs. The manager of television station has to address the detailed reason for advertisers to cancel the contract.
Furthermore, it seems that the popularity would come back to previous level by restoring the time devoted to different news. However, the failure reason should be presented. It is possible that 90% of views are bored with the talk show in this television station, so they pay attention to others that presents more interesting content of talk show. The manager needs to consider this possibility and it is suggested to invite 3rd party investigation to do a survey to know the actual reason of losing an audience.
In conclusion, unless the evidence mentioned above is presented, the readers could not believe in the argument.
Comments
e-rater score report
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: 22 15
No. of Words: 416 350
No. of Characters: 2133 1500
No. of Different Words: 187 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.516 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.127 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.86 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 160 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 127 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 90 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 57 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18.909 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.856 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.5 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.303 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.515 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.09 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 120, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: And
...l news and less weather and local news. and during this period, the complaints are ...
^^^
Line 3, column 128, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
...cal and weather news is drastic, but we dont know. Still, the detailed distribution ...
^^^^
Line 4, column 342, Rule ID: PERIOD_OF_TIME[1]
Message: Use simply 'period'.
Suggestion: period
...eaper cost of advertisement on the same period of time. Therefore, they would like to move the...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, furthermore, however, if, moreover, nevertheless, so, still, therefore, as to, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 22.0 19.6327345309 112% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.9520958084 54% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 13.6137724551 95% => OK
Pronoun: 34.0 28.8173652695 118% => OK
Preposition: 55.0 55.5748502994 99% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2187.0 2260.96107784 97% => OK
No of words: 415.0 441.139720559 94% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.26987951807 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.51348521516 4.56307096286 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.93048111287 2.78398813304 105% => OK
Unique words: 195.0 204.123752495 96% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.469879518072 0.468620217663 100% => OK
syllable_count: 666.9 705.55239521 95% => 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: 13.0 8.76447105788 148% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 22.8473053892 79% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 41.9769492962 57.8364921388 73% => OK
Chars per sentence: 95.0869565217 119.503703932 80% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.0434782609 23.324526521 77% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.52173913043 5.70786347227 79% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 14.0 6.88822355289 203% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.396396229805 0.218282227539 182% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.107698633722 0.0743258471296 145% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.104824443924 0.0701772020484 149% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.179367902962 0.128457276422 140% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.105958684072 0.0628817314937 169% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.4 14.3799401198 86% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 53.21 48.3550499002 110% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 12.197005988 84% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.99 12.5979740519 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.84 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 87.0 98.500998004 88% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 6.5 12.3882235529 52% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.1389221557 83% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.