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.
A letter to the editor of a national aeronautics magazine suggests that it is an ideal thought to invest resources in unmanned space probes and satellites. The reasons cited for the same are as follows. Firstly, manned space flights are too costly and dangerous. Secondly, recent success of a series of unmanned space probes and satellites has helped gather a great deal of useful information. Lastly, the author compares manned flight with unmanned space probes and satellites. The reasons cited seem to be legible during the first read, but a close scrutiny unearths a few possible fallacies that may prove the argument to be unwarranted.
Firstly, the writer opines that a manned space flight is costly and dangerous. It is true that sending a man in space is by no means a safe bet. But on what basis does the writer of the argument suggest that it is costly and dangerous? There is no proof in the prompt that verifies his claim. On the contrary, since manned missions are so rare, it is possible that the overall cost of an manned space flight is less than that of an unmanned space probe or satellite. It can also be the case that a manned space misson puts less emphasis on the onground team to control the flight since the astronauts can themselves do it. This would mean that astronauts can steer the flight away from an imminent danger, lot quicker than an onground team that is controlling an unmanned probe, thereby saving the costs of one complete flight.
Secondly, the author of the prompt suggests that unmanned space probes have been through a series of successes. That is the reason why the writer of the prompt suggests the use of unmanned space probes and satellites. The question that can be asked here is the source of this particualar information. It is possible that the souce of information which suggests that unmanned space probes are a success is fallacious. It is possible that the manufacturers of unmanned space probes have bribed the sources to promote the success of unmanned space probes with dubious data. This could well mean that unmanned probes are not that successful after all and therefore, will call into question the writers claim that an unmanned space probe is a succesful piece of machinary.
Lastly, the author compares a manned space flight with an unmanned space probe and satellite. These are two completely different pieces of machines. It is possible that a manned space flight has a few advantages over the unmanned space probe and satellites and vice versa. But for a clear differentiating point between the two, it is necessary that two equivalent machines are directly compared. Manned flights could serve a different purpose to umanned flights. So it could be possible that the best person to choose the use of the two machines could be the astonauts themselves.
In sum, there are a few assumptions and evidences which when taken into consideration, call into question the suggestion of the author. These evidences and assumptions render the position of the author weak. Hence, the author should consider the above stated assumptions to strengthen his or her position.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 28 15
No. of Words: 529 350
No. of Characters: 2551 1500
No. of Different Words: 219 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.796 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.822 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.556 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 192 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 126 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 99 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 46 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18.893 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.494 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.536 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.314 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.504 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.108 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 219, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...the same are as follows. Firstly, manned space flights are too costly and dangero...
^^
Line 1, column 547, Rule ID: CLOSE_SCRUTINY[1]
Message: Use simply 'scrutiny'.
Suggestion: scrutiny
...be legible during the first read, but a close scrutiny unearths a few possible fallacies that ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 386, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'a' instead of 'an' if the following word doesn't start with a vowel sound, e.g. 'a sentence', 'a university'
Suggestion: a
...it is possible that the overall cost of an manned space flight is less than that o...
^^
Line 3, column 470, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...an unmanned space probe or satellite. It can also be the case that a manned space...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, hence, if, lastly, may, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, well, after all, it is true, on the contrary
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 32.0 19.6327345309 163% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 18.0 11.1786427146 161% => OK
Relative clauses : 26.0 13.6137724551 191% => OK
Pronoun: 44.0 28.8173652695 153% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 53.0 55.5748502994 95% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 16.3942115768 73% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2611.0 2260.96107784 115% => OK
No of words: 529.0 441.139720559 120% => OK
Chars per words: 4.93572778828 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.79583152331 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.64941913314 2.78398813304 95% => OK
Unique words: 221.0 204.123752495 108% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.417769376181 0.468620217663 89% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 810.0 705.55239521 115% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 12.0 4.96107784431 242% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 28.0 19.7664670659 142% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 22.8473053892 79% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 42.9661114682 57.8364921388 74% => OK
Chars per sentence: 93.25 119.503703932 78% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.8928571429 23.324526521 81% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.78571428571 5.70786347227 84% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 10.0 4.67664670659 214% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.404252130383 0.218282227539 185% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.124140037022 0.0743258471296 167% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.112829603808 0.0701772020484 161% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.224650208122 0.128457276422 175% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.132419788766 0.0628817314937 211% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.3 14.3799401198 79% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 61.67 48.3550499002 128% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.1 12.197005988 75% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.37 12.5979740519 90% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.45 8.32208582834 90% => OK
difficult_words: 98.0 98.500998004 99% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.1389221557 83% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.9071856287 67% => The average readability is low. Need to imporve the language.
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.