Writing Feedback /
'we should restore the time devoted to weather and local news to its former level' - GRE essay [4]
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 local and weather news. In addition, local businesses that used to advertise during our late-night news programs have just cancelled 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 author's argument that the station should devote more time for weather and local news to attract more viewer and advertiser is flawed. In the argument, the manager not only draws a conclusion based on ambiguous and vague terms, but also doesn't consider others reason behind cancellation of advertising. Furthermore, the author makes the mistake by focusing on devoting more time to weather and local news as the only solution for the problem.
First, in order to evaluate the conclusion, we need more explanation for vague terms such as "most of the complaints". It could be many complaints or just three out of five. We don't know. Also, the complaints may come from people who like to complain a lot about anything. To strengthen his/ her argument, the author would benefit from implementing a nor end survey asking a wide range of viewers why they don't watch the channel or if they have any compliant about the station.
Further more, though there have been cancellation of advertising, we don't know if the reason of this is reducing time for weather and local news or perhaps the companies had a financial problem or even their advertising campaigns ended. In order to evaluate this article we need more specific and precise details about the reasons of this cancellation to bolster the conclusion or not.
Additionally, the author assumes that devoting more time for weather and local news would be the solely solution to solve the problem. The author doesn't consider others solution such as showing new kind of programs, new movies instead of old one, or even views sport programs that attract more viewer from different ages and also advertiser.
The argument could be strengthen if the author considers the other solution for the problem. The argument could be further strengthen if the author define vague terms as well as provide more information about the evidence. As it stands, however, the argument us flawed for the reasons indicated.