Essay topics: The following opinion was provided in a letter to the editor of a national aeronautics magazine:
“Manned space flight is costly and dangerous. Moreover, the recent success of a series of unmanned space probes and satellites has demonstrated that a great deal of useful information can be gathered without the costs and risks associated with sending men and women into space. Therefore, we should invest our resources in unmanned space flight."
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
Space probes is often seen as an ambitious and cherished projects that governments undertake to uncover useful information about the universe. Historically, unmanned space probes had dominated these missions as there was a dearth of technology to send mankind into space. As technology and humanity progresses, sending a man into space became a reality when Soviet and American space voyages began to blossom. Unmanned space flights are now limited to carry out some support activities to the International Space Station and orbitals. The argument tries expresses its disagreement with the above developments opining that save costs and risks, unmanned space probes are no different than manned space probes.
The assumption that cost and risk factor are the only differences between manned and unmanned space probes is clearly ambiguous. the argument depends only on this factor to augment its stance towards the effectiveness of unmanned space missions. What is there are other factors that can impede or imbibe the claim stated in the letter ? There are a number of other reasons that come to play in the argument. One such thing is the training that the astronauts are given. Even though these experts are trained rigorously in adapting to the conditions in space, there is no warranty on whether all astronauts sent to space shall not falter at any point. This can induce more costs required to sustain them at space. Unmanned space probes in such scenario prove to be a viable and better alternative.
However, none can deny the fact that manned space missions have an edge over unmanned missions as the astronauts at space ensure that the flight and in turn the probe is under their control and they are instinctively better to react to any atypical scenario that might surface in space. Compared to the, mechanical and artificially programmed systems on unmanned flights are able to handle only scenarios very well defined in their programs.
The opinion in the letter also does not provide sufficient evidences to strengthen its claim that unmanned space missions cost less than their manned counterparts. How are costs for both the distinct operations measured and compared ? Despite the cost of providing to the astronauts needs like oxygen cylinders, food, unmanned space probes also carry their fair share of expenses. Designing and Programming robots and systems capable of spearheading an entire project and managing a flight in space orbit is by itself an expensive task. It involves the cost of hardware required to program and maintain the system. But more importantly, it costs a lot more to hire skilled professionals and technicians who can design such systems. With such costs incurred, unmanned space flights need not always be more economical.
Finally, to conclude which of the two modes of operations has an upper hand, one needs to determine the variables and factors like individual costs and risks involved in undertaking both the missions and not just assuming them. From one point of view, an approach may appear viable and more efficient. But only after a deeper introspection of the approach with same factors in mind do we get to know how that approach weighs against another.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
sample:
https://www.testbig.com/gmatgre-essays/following-opinion-was-provided-l…
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 24 15
No. of Words: 522 350
No. of Characters: 2645 1500
No. of Different Words: 274 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.78 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.067 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.621 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 192 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 147 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 104 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 54 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.75 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.58 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.333 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.303 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.491 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.107 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 684, Rule ID: RATHER_THEN[2]
Message: Did you mean 'different 'from''? 'Different than' is often considered colloquial style.
Suggestion: from
... unmanned space probes are no different than manned space probes. The assumption ...
^^^^
Line 3, column 130, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: The
...nned space probes is clearly ambiguous. the argument depends only on this factor to...
^^^
Line 5, column 300, Rule ID: THE_PUNCT[1]
Message: Did you forget something after 'the'?
...hat might surface in space. Compared to the, mechanical and artificially programmed ...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, however, if, may, so, then, well
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 24.0 11.1786427146 215% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 29.0 28.8173652695 101% => OK
Preposition: 69.0 55.5748502994 124% => OK
Nominalization: 9.0 16.3942115768 55% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2699.0 2260.96107784 119% => OK
No of words: 522.0 441.139720559 118% => OK
Chars per words: 5.17049808429 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.77988695657 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.69131539837 2.78398813304 97% => OK
Unique words: 274.0 204.123752495 134% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.524904214559 0.468620217663 112% => OK
syllable_count: 849.6 705.55239521 120% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 25.0 19.7664670659 126% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 52.8541540468 57.8364921388 91% => OK
Chars per sentence: 107.96 119.503703932 90% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.88 23.324526521 90% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.08 5.70786347227 36% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 13.0 8.20758483034 158% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 6.88822355289 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.67664670659 171% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.305540443175 0.218282227539 140% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0934883841451 0.0743258471296 126% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0707721493606 0.0701772020484 101% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.176615286949 0.128457276422 137% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0908508089342 0.0628817314937 144% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.4 14.3799401198 93% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.71 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.68 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 134.0 98.500998004 136% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 12.3882235529 97% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 75.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.5 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.