Prompt: "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.”
Although this author appears to have presented a logical argument of "cause-and-effect" nature, the passage fails to provide enough evidence to substantiate its claim that restoring the time devoted to weather and local news will increase both viewer engagement and advertising contracts. In order to create a stronger argument about the affects of airtime for the weather and local news, the author would have to address specific details about both the changes in airtime of the programs and the complaints, confounding variables or other reasons as to why the commercials were cancled, and whether or not any change would actually promote the reinstatement of any of the advertising contracts.
Throughout the passage, the author devotes few sentences explaining exactly how the late-night news program changed the airtime of its weather and local news specials. Over the course of the year, how much time was taken away from these shows? Whether it was a matter of two minutes or two hours greatly infuences the impact that it had on the viewers routine schedules. Was the showtime dramatically decreased over the course of a day or slowly over the course of the entire year? If the programs changed suddenly, there could be a chance that the viewers did not have time to adapt to the new programs and, therefore, were inclined to change the channel. A more important question might ask where exactly the time cut from weather and local news went? Maybe it was not the lowering of weather and local news but rather the extra time spent on cooking or sports that did not resonate very well with the people. If this were the case, the author's argument would be significantly abased. Once the author specifies precisely how much time was cut and exactly where that time was then spent, he will establish a clear relationship between the programs and viewer engagement.
Assuming that the program times were decrased to a measurable degree and that the time was later spent on programs that the viewers did not despise, this would then prompt the evaluation of the complaints received by the television station from the viewers. How many complaints did the station receive? Is this sample size representative of the entire population or merely a few angry customers? What kind of complaints did the station receive? For example, one customer complaining about lack of weather would not be enough evidence to assume that all of the customers are unhappy about the new change. Qualitative data, such as that presented by complaints, is not nearly as effective in this situation as concrete evidence. Such evidence as statistics on the decrease of customer views during the programs and commercials would greatly strengthen the authors argument. Without more details about the nature of these complaints, few conclusions may be drawn about their significance.
In addition to validating that the complaints of the viewers, one could then ask the question of whether or not there were any other reasons why late-night news programs would have canceled advertising contracts? Did, for example, one of the companies discontinue an item that was being advertised? Was the company itself run out of business? There are a variety of other possible reasons that the advertising companies pulled their commercials from the station such as lack of funding and overall plan for the company. Maybe the business merely found that it had its money spent on advertisements were ineffective in brining in customers. Hence, even if the station were to restore the weather and local news times, who is to say that the change would even prompt the late-night advertisers to reinstate their commercials if a different factor caused them to cancel them from the beginning?
In conclusion, the author presents an argument that, although it may contain some logic, fails to dissect enough evidence in order to establish a conclusion. For now, the passage exists as a mere hypothesis of what the root of the problem may actually be. Until the author provides more exact details about the airtime itself, complaints from the customers, and the contracts from the advertisers, no real conclusions may be drawn to warrant the restoration of program times for weather and local news.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-08-01 | ebgoldstein | 50 | view |
| 2018-06-29 | ch4ntell3 | 100 | view |
| 2018-05-13 | asianflamme | 55 | view |
| 2018-04-30 | Syed Mahmud | 33 | view |
| 2018-03-19 | Diablo | 69 | view |
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Comments
Essay evaluation report
Sentence: In order to create a stronger argument about the affects of airtime for the weather and local news, the author would have to address specific details about both the changes in airtime of the programs and the complaints, confounding variables or other reasons as to why the commercials were cancled, and whether or not any change would actually promote the reinstatement of any of the advertising contracts.
Error: cancled Suggestion: canceled
Sentence: Whether it was a matter of two minutes or two hours greatly infuences the impact that it had on the viewers routine schedules.
Error: infuences Suggestion: influences
Sentence: Assuming that the program times were decrased to a measurable degree and that the time was later spent on programs that the viewers did not despise, this would then prompt the evaluation of the complaints received by the television station from the viewers.
Error: decrased Suggestion: decreased
Sentence: Maybe the business merely found that it had its money spent on advertisements were ineffective in brining in customers.
Error: brining Suggestion: bringing
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argument 1 and argument 2 are duplicated. One is enough.
argument 3 -- OK
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Need to argue against the conclusion always. For this topic it is:
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.
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 3 2
No. of Sentences: 28 15
No. of Words: 699 350
No. of Characters: 3493 1500
No. of Different Words: 279 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.142 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.997 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.673 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 254 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 207 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 129 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 82 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.964 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 13.034 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.607 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.283 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.459 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.064 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 603, Rule ID: WHETHER[7]
Message: Perhaps you can shorten this phrase to just 'whether'. It is correct though if you mean 'regardless of whether'.
Suggestion: whether
...o why the commercials were cancled, and whether or not any change would actually promote the r...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 670, Rule ID: OF_ANY_OF[1]
Message: Consider simply using 'of' instead.
Suggestion: of
...ould actually promote the reinstatement of any of the advertising contracts. Throughou...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 940, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
... the people. If this were the case, the authors argument would be significantly abased....
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 550, Rule ID: ALL_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'all the'.
Suggestion: all the
...d not be enough evidence to assume that all of the customers are unhappy about the new cha...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 855, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...ommercials would greatly strengthen the authors argument. Without more details about th...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 78, Rule ID: ASK_THE_QUESTION[1]
Message: Use simply 'ask' instead.
Suggestion: ask
...mplaints of the viewers, one could then ask the question of whether or not there were any other ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 82, Rule ID: WHETHER[3]
Message: Wordiness: Shorten this phrase to the shortest possible suggestion.
Suggestion: whether; the question whether
...ints of the viewers, one could then ask the question of whether or not there were any other reasons why...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, hence, if, may, so, then, therefore, well, as to, for example, in addition, in conclusion, kind of, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 17.0 12.9520958084 131% => OK
Conjunction : 25.0 11.1786427146 224% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 19.0 13.6137724551 140% => OK
Pronoun: 39.0 28.8173652695 135% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 84.0 55.5748502994 151% => OK
Nominalization: 26.0 16.3942115768 159% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3576.0 2260.96107784 158% => OK
No of words: 699.0 441.139720559 158% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.11587982833 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.14184870769 4.56307096286 113% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.8468177779 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 292.0 204.123752495 143% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.41773962804 0.468620217663 89% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1098.9 705.55239521 156% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 4.96107784431 40% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 28.0 19.7664670659 142% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 22.8473053892 105% => OK
Sentence length SD: 81.9635543073 57.8364921388 142% => OK
Chars per sentence: 127.714285714 119.503703932 107% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.9642857143 23.324526521 107% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.35714285714 5.70786347227 76% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 7.0 5.25449101796 133% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 16.0 6.88822355289 232% => 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: 0.275845103374 0.218282227539 126% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0740385396431 0.0743258471296 100% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0744991389803 0.0701772020484 106% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.155807301904 0.128457276422 121% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0492202698521 0.0628817314937 78% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.2 14.3799401198 106% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 47.12 48.3550499002 97% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.197005988 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.71 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.33 8.32208582834 100% => OK
difficult_words: 155.0 98.500998004 157% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 27.0 12.3882235529 218% => Linsear_write_formula is high.
gunning_fog: 11.6 11.1389221557 104% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
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.