69. Some people believe it is often necessary, even desirable, for political leaders to withhold information from the public. Others believe that the public has a right to be fully informed. Write a response in which you discuss which view more closely al

Essay topics:

69. Some people believe it is often necessary, even desirable, for political leaders to withhold information from the public. Others believe that the public has a right to be fully informed. Write a response in which you discuss which view more closely aligns with your own position and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should address both of the views presented

In terms of whether political leaders should withhold information from the public, some people believe that it is desirable, while others assert that the public has the right to be fully informed. Admittedly, concealing some information is good for maintaining good image for government, yet may harm the benefits of citizens.

Withholding information which may be harmful for the reputation of government is necessary for political leaders. Actually, most governments in the world have been concealing information from the public all the time, and although some of them were exposed, most have remained unknown. For instance, WikiLeaks, an international non-profit organization that publishes news leaks, claimed in 2016 to have released online 10 million documents in its first 10 years. However, in 2019 Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, was arrested by London's Metropolitan Police. Although the officials said he was arrested because of an allegation of an assault crime, he was actually charged with computer hacking and violating American security by the Justice Department of the US. With Snowden being detained in Russia, the American government tried hard to guarantee its reputation and maintain the social stability by continuously arresting “leakers” who invaded the government’s interests.

However, government’s interests should never transcend the public’s interests. As Rousseau claimed in Social Contract, the sovereign is formed when free and equal people come together and agree to submit their individual, particular wills to the collective or general will. Therefore, the sovereign according to Rousseau, is committed to the good of the individuals who constitute it, and citizens do not need to succumb to the government, on the contrary, the citizens are equal to the sovereign and can revolt against it and remake a contract if it violates the public interests. Through wanting Snowden who told the public about American government monitoring activity and arresting Assange who leaked confidential files of American government, the US government would set a dangerous precedent for journalists or their sources and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations, and most importantly would upset US residents.

In addition, covering up information from the public may not only violate the freedom of speech, but also may cause huge disaster. Take China as an example. Between November 2002 and July 2003, an outbreak of SARS in southern China caused an eventual 8,098 cases, resulting in 774 deaths reported in 37 countries according to the World Health Organization. However, no cases of SARS have been reported worldwide since 2004. It is widely believed that if the Chinese authorities had been more aggressive fighting the disease, more forthcoming with information and had invited the World Health Organization to infected areas, SARS would more likely have been isolated and contained in its early stages before it was allowed it to spread, and hundreds of lives could have been saved.

In a nutshell, although governments want to cover up information to save their images as well as approval ratings, this kind of concealing is not beneficial for the overall public.

Votes
Average: 8.3 (1 vote)
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, however, if, may, so, therefore, well, while, for instance, in addition, kind of, as well as, on the contrary

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.5258426966 108% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.4196629213 113% => OK
Conjunction : 19.0 14.8657303371 128% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 11.3162921348 88% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 33.0505617978 73% => OK
Preposition: 64.0 58.6224719101 109% => OK
Nominalization: 24.0 12.9106741573 186% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2778.0 2235.4752809 124% => OK
No of words: 501.0 442.535393258 113% => OK
Chars per words: 5.54491017964 5.05705443957 110% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.73107062784 4.55969084622 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.09956068904 2.79657885939 111% => OK
Unique words: 279.0 215.323595506 130% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.556886227545 0.4932671777 113% => OK
syllable_count: 846.9 704.065955056 120% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59117977528 107% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 6.24550561798 48% => OK
Article: 8.0 4.99550561798 160% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 3.10617977528 129% => OK
Conjunction: 6.0 1.77640449438 338% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 8.0 4.38483146067 182% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 20.2370786517 89% => OK
Sentence length: 27.0 23.0359550562 117% => OK
Sentence length SD: 91.2123590554 60.3974514979 151% => OK
Chars per sentence: 154.333333333 118.986275619 130% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.8333333333 23.4991977007 118% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.61111111111 5.21951772744 146% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.97078651685 101% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 7.80617977528 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 10.2758426966 58% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 5.13820224719 156% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.83258426966 83% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.217603772784 0.243740707755 89% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0712479230358 0.0831039109588 86% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.113421357937 0.0758088955206 150% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.141890819106 0.150359130593 94% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.123756813934 0.0667264976115 185% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 18.6 14.1392134831 132% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 35.61 48.8420337079 73% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.92365168539 141% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.0 12.1743820225 123% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 15.15 12.1639044944 125% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.83 8.38706741573 117% => OK
difficult_words: 154.0 100.480337079 153% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.5 11.8971910112 105% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.8 11.2143820225 114% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.7820224719 110% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 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.