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 may be true that the television station should devote more time back to weather and local news, the business manager's argument resides on a series of unsubstantiated assumptions and logical flaws, and thus, is unpersuasive as it stands. To draw a more convincing conclusion to increased weather and local news, more supporting evidence is needed.
First of all, citing of complaints received from viewers, the author reports concerns of coverage of weather and local news. It is not clear, however, what their concerns are. The complaints might be more about the accuracy of the weather forecast, the quality of the local news, the topics being covered, rather than the time. Without the original copies of the comment content, it is hard to be convinced that time is the biggest pain point.
Also, it is unclear that how many people among all the viewers are sharing the same concerns. The author needs to provide data of how many complaints have been received since the change was made, what's the percentage of people complained comparing the total number of viewers, and if the number of complaints increased after the change, to really prove that the shortened local news and weather annoys the majority of the show's viewers.
Additionally, the author implies that local businesses are canceling their advertising contracts because the now shorter weather and local news. While local businesses would love to have more coverage of local news or weather information, a concrete connection between the show content change and reduce in advertising income is not effectively made. It is likely that they are canceling the ad investment due to many other reasons. The author needs to dig deeper regarding why businesses are canceling contracts by, for example, interviewing them and gather feedback directly from them. If the content change indeed was one of their concerns, it is also very important to understand how big are their concerns. Asking questions like if they are willing to continue the investment with more time devoted to cover local news and weather can be helpful to gauge the impact.
Even if there're advertisers canceling due to the assumed reason, restore time for weather and local news may not avoid revenue loss. What if there're also more increase in advertising investment due to the longer international news coverage? Therefore, the author needs to provide data on the other side of the story — the overall changes in the advertising revenue recently, the number new businesses investment since the change and if the new investments were made due to the longer coverage of the international news — to further support his/her suggestion.
In conclusion, while it may be reasonable that longer coverage of local news and weather will stimulate advertising investment from local businesses, much more evidence needs to be provided to make the argument more convincing.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 119, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'managers'' or 'manager's'?
Suggestion: managers'; manager's
...to weather and local news, the business managers argument resides on a series of unsubst...
^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 197, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: what's
...een received since the change was made, whats the percentage of people complained com...
^^^^^
Line 9, column 9, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: there are
...elpful to gauge the impact. Even if therere advertisers canceling due to the assume...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 142, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: there are
...ews may not avoid revenue loss. What if therere also more increase in advertising inves...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 391, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'businesses'' or 'business's'?
Suggestion: businesses'; business's
...tising revenue recently, the number new businesses investment since the change and if the ...
^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, however, if, may, really, regarding, so, therefore, thus, while, for example, in conclusion, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 27.0 19.5258426966 138% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.4196629213 64% => OK
Conjunction : 15.0 14.8657303371 101% => OK
Relative clauses : 7.0 11.3162921348 62% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 25.0 33.0505617978 76% => OK
Preposition: 58.0 58.6224719101 99% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 12.9106741573 108% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2448.0 2235.4752809 110% => OK
No of words: 473.0 442.535393258 107% => OK
Chars per words: 5.1754756871 5.05705443957 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.66353547975 4.55969084622 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.71656451969 2.79657885939 97% => OK
Unique words: 220.0 215.323595506 102% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.46511627907 0.4932671777 94% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 766.8 704.065955056 109% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59117977528 101% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 6.24550561798 80% => OK
Article: 11.0 4.99550561798 220% => Less articles wanted as sentence beginning.
Subordination: 5.0 3.10617977528 161% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.77640449438 113% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.38483146067 91% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 20.2370786517 89% => OK
Sentence length: 26.0 23.0359550562 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 77.1702662947 60.3974514979 128% => OK
Chars per sentence: 136.0 118.986275619 114% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.2777777778 23.4991977007 112% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.55555555556 5.21951772744 126% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 4.97078651685 121% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 7.80617977528 64% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 10.2758426966 107% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 5.13820224719 78% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.83258426966 62% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.273112531089 0.243740707755 112% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.100775109264 0.0831039109588 121% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0744442287506 0.0758088955206 98% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.16309219948 0.150359130593 108% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0671355879251 0.0667264976115 101% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.1 14.1392134831 114% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 45.09 48.8420337079 92% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 12.1743820225 110% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.06 12.1639044944 107% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.46 8.38706741573 101% => OK
difficult_words: 106.0 100.480337079 105% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 11.8971910112 92% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.2143820225 111% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.7820224719 110% => 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.