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tuantuanz

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  1. I've been using ScoreItNow and consistently getting 5's on my argument task essay. I'm not sure what's missing and how to improve. Below I've included the prompt and essay from my most recent attempt. Any advice/critique/feedback would be extremely appreciated! Thank you in advance! 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 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. Essay: The business manager of a television station has discovered that after the station cut its late-night news program's weather and local news segment, local businesses have canceled advertising contracts, while most complaints now concern the weather and local news coverage. Thus, it may appear as though these undesirable consequences were caused by the decreased coverage of local news and weather, which should then be restored. While this conclusion could be true, the evidence supplied by the business manager is insufficient to justify it completely. To further evaluate the argument, it is necessary to obtain addition evidence concerning the nature of these complaints, overall changes in the late-night news programs viewers and their ratings of the show, as well as the specific reasons that led local businesses to cancel advertising contracts. While the business manager states that most of the complaints from viewers were concerned with coverage of weather and local news, the exact nature of these complaints is unknown. If the viewers were complaining that there's now insufficient time devoted to weather and local news, then such evidence strengthens the argument that the time devoted to weather and local news should be restored. However, it's also possible that these complaints are about the low quality of the weather and local news segment, perhaps regarding inaccuracies, boring topic choices, etc. Such evidence would actually weaken the manager's argument and suggest that the weather and local news segment should be either further reduced in time or revamped. Another critical piece of evidence that the business manager neglected to include in his memo is how the viewership of the late-night news program has changed overall. While most complaints were concerned with weather and local news, we do not know whether these complaints were only received from a small subset of the viewers. For instance, it's possible that many more viewers sent in positive reviews regarding the changes to the composition of the late-night news program. To evaluate the argument effectively, it's useful to obtain information on how the viewers' overall ratings of the program has changed, as well as how the size of the viewer population has changed. For all we know, it could be that the population of viewers actually increased, or that the viewers actually gave higher ratings to the show, despite a small subset (perhaps of old viewers) sending in complaints about the weather and local news section. This would be strong evidence against the business manager's conclusion. Finally, the manager also notes that the cut to the local news and weather segment coincided with cancellations of local businesses' advertising contracts. However, more evidence is needed to establish whether this incidence is causational, as businesses could have cancelled advertising at this time due to numerous other factors. The station could survey the businesses to hear their specific reasons for cancellation. If it is due to the station's decreased viewership and traffic, then this evidence strengthens the manager's recommendation (though we'd also have to establish that the decrease in viewership was due to the cuts to the local news and weather segment). However, if the local businesses cancelled due to other reasons such as rocky economic conditions or declining profits, which led to decreases in its advertising budget, then restoring the station's weather and local news is unlikely to help get back those advertising dollars. Other reasons for cancellation that weaken the manager's conclusion include increasing popularity of other advertising venues, increases in the station's advertising fees, etc. Although the memo supplied by the business manager suggests that the station's cuts to its late-night show's weather and local news segment has led to viewer complaints and advertising revenue loss, the connection is unclear without further evidence. To further evaluate the argument, it is necessary to obtain addition evidence concerning whether the complaints were actually about reduced local news and weather coverage, how overall viewership and ratings have changed, as well as whether unrelated external factors could have caused local businesses to cancel advertising contracts.
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