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.
The author here neglects to provide substantial evidence to reason the switch back to weather and local news. First, they state that "...most of the complaints received from viewers were concerned with our station's coverage of weather and local news." Nowhere does the author mention a number or ratio of how many complaints are being received. Simply claiming that the majority of the complaints received are about the local news and weather does not mean that hundreds of complaints are coming in. There could have been something as small as three complaints and if two of them were about local news and weather it could be stated as the majority. If this majority of complaints number is a small fraction of listeners it would severely weaken this argument. On the other hand, if the complaint number was a large range it would strengthen this argument greatly.
The next detail missing from this argument is the ratings. The author mentions at the end of the argument that they should switch back to the former level of weather and local news to attract more viewers. Despite making this claim they never actually mention a decline in viewers. It is important to consider the number of viewers before and after the switch was made and the overall ratings at each point. If the ratings and viewer count were higher before the switch than the authors argument is well reasoned but if they were lower the argument is weakened.
The last vital piece of evidence missing from this argument is the reason for cancellation from local businesses. Although it can be assumed that local businesses cancelling their advertisements would likely be from the decline in local news, an assumption is not a sufficient piece of evidence. The author should go in depth to talk to the business owners to find the reason behind the cancellation and determine how it affects the radio station. If they cancelled for the assumed reason, the author's argument is warranted, but if they cancelled for another reason the author's argument is weakened.
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Comments
Essay evaluation report
samples:
https://www.testbig.com/gmatgre-argument-task-essays/over-past-year-our…
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 2.0 out of 6
Category: Poor Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 16 15
No. of Words: 343 350
No. of Characters: 1661 1500
No. of Different Words: 152 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.304 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.843 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.443 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 123 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 90 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 60 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 26 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.438 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 5.701 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.438 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.359 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.508 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.146 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 3 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 661, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” 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.
...her it could be stated as the majority. If this majority of complaints number is a...
^^
Line 3, column 480, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
... were higher before the switch than the authors argument is well reasoned but if they w...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 495, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...y cancelled for the assumed reason, the authors argument is warranted, but if they canc...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 571, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...f they cancelled for another reason the authors argument is weakened.
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, first, if, so, then, well, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 23.0 19.6327345309 117% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 5.0 13.6137724551 37% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 26.0 28.8173652695 90% => OK
Preposition: 42.0 55.5748502994 76% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1704.0 2260.96107784 75% => OK
No of words: 343.0 441.139720559 78% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.96793002915 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.30351707066 4.56307096286 94% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.54390845369 2.78398813304 91% => OK
Unique words: 160.0 204.123752495 78% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.466472303207 0.468620217663 100% => OK
syllable_count: 513.0 705.55239521 73% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 4.96107784431 40% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 19.7664670659 76% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 43.165109367 57.8364921388 75% => OK
Chars per sentence: 113.6 119.503703932 95% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.8666666667 23.324526521 98% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.93333333333 5.70786347227 69% => OK
Paragraphs: 3.0 5.15768463074 58% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 8.20758483034 24% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
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: 0.162241510563 0.218282227539 74% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0653630324027 0.0743258471296 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0479974226437 0.0701772020484 68% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.110994952098 0.128457276422 86% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0434277595409 0.0628817314937 69% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.4 14.3799401198 93% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 57.61 48.3550499002 119% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.7 12.197005988 88% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.84 12.5979740519 94% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.86 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 68.0 98.500998004 69% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 12.3882235529 105% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Minimum four paragraphs wanted.
Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.