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."
Manned space flight is costly, but so are space probes. There is no mention of the resources spent in research and development of the space probes. Considering the time and money spent on probes, they may prove to be more extravagant than sending human beings.
Sending man to space is dangerous, but there is no data given to support this claim. What is the risk percentage, what factors are included to calculate such risk. Almost every profession has some inherent risk involvement. When you are driving to work, there is possibility of an accident. When you are playing soccer, there is risk of an injury. So, we need to quantify and compare the risks involved here to be able to draw a useful conclusion from it.
The letter also states that we have gleamed a great deal of information from space probes. Again, this is a statement not backed up by any facts or figures. Are we getting the same information that an astronaut could have provided us with. What are the differences, or what is the loophole, if any, in the information gathered by the two.
There is also the fact the humans are autonomous beings while space probes require to be controlled or given instructions. This statement does not consider the possibility of a space probe malfunctioning, as it happening with one of the mars rovers. Any such malfunction, lack of communication, leads to the loss of valuable information, time, and resources.
While the opinion given in the letter is one that should be given a thought, it does have a sound base of facts from which to draw conclusion. It is not comprehensive enough to prompt an action.
argument 1 -- not OK.
suggested:
Firstly, the author assumes that all & every type of information that can be obtained through a manned space flight can be obtained through an unmanned space flight.
argument 2 -- not OK.
suggested:
while stating "the recent success of a series of unmanned space probes and satellites", the author assumes that this is the case for all unmanned space ventures in recent history.
argument 3 -- not OK.
suggested:
the author assumes that the level of technology required for widespread unmanned space flight currently exists.
flaws:
Don't try to ask data or evidence, but try to find loopholes.
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: ? out of 6
Category: poor Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 281 350
No. of Characters: 1294 1500
No. of Different Words: 153 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.094 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.605 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.683 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 79 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 55 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 41 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 30 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 15.611 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 4.901 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.444 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.293 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.546 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.119 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5