“It is not possible for one person to succeed without another, somewhere, failing.”
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim made above. In your response, use specific examples and explain how those examples shape your position.
This statement “It is not possible for one person to succeed without another, somewhere, failing” needs to be analysed with two different lenses. It needs to be analysed firstly from the point of view of society and secondly, from the individual’s point of view. Depending on that, the claim’s validity and scope can be tested.
Going back to the beginning-school. In school, people who “topped” their class or got the perfect grade are the ones who are deemed as successful. In order to top a class, there is competition and other students lose out, and therefore, are somewhat failing. The grading system in the UK and the US is based on percentile. This percentile is scaled into a score or a grade. This is true for A levels as well as GPA. This scaling introduces competition, and this inherently means that someone will lose out. Going one step further in the education ladder, in order to be accepted into a college, there is competition for a set number of places. There are two outcomes-either you get in or not. If you do get in, there will be someone losing out to you for that one seat at the college. The same logic can be applied for jobs and promotions as well. This makes it seem like that it is not possible for one person to succeed without another, somewhere, failing.
However, it depends on the definition of success. Is success getting that promotion or that job? Or is success being happy where you are at? If the individual defines success, the picture is very different. For example, in the school setting, if the individual defines success as having learnt something from years of school, rather than what the outcome is, then the individual can succeed, regardless of other people. In this scenario, it is possible for one person to succeed without anther, somewhere, failing.
The world is trying to move to becoming non-competitive. For example, numerous colleges in the UK have abolished the percentile method of assigning degree classifications and have implemented clear cut-off marks for each division. This makes it less competitive as there is not cap on the number of people who can make the top grade and so one can succeed without someone else losing out. However, despite all efforts to move to a more collaborative, non-competitive world, for example with scientific endeavours, at the end of the day, when the data is published, there will be people who helped with the project losing out on getting first authorship or being an author on the paper. It seems to be inherent human nature to be competitive about success, and where there is competition, someone will always “lose out”.
However, this does not hold true in all aspects of life. Take for example being in a relationship. The success of your relationship is independent of someone else’s relationship. This can be applied to almost all other aspects of life, being healthy and staying fit, maintaining good mental health and living a balanced life. All of these are individual pursuits and are non-competitive and is about the journey rather than the final goal and so no one must lose in order for you to succeed.
Overall, the claim is too strong in claiming that is it “not possible” for one person to succeed with someone failing. It should be modified to say, “In some situations, it is not possible for one person to success without another, somewhat, failing” as this is bound by context and situation.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 402, Rule ID: A_PLURAL[1]
Message: Don't use indefinite articles with plural words. Did you mean 'A level' or simply 'levels'?
Suggestion: A level; Levels
...to a score or a grade. This is true for A levels as well as GPA. This scaling introduces...
^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 427, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...is is true for A levels as well as GPA. This scaling introduces competition, and thi...
^^^^
Line 7, column 334, Rule ID: AND_SO_ONE[1]
Message: Did you mean 'and so on' (="etc.")?
Suggestion: and so on
...er of people who can make the top grade and so one can succeed without someone else losing...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 11, column 121, Rule ID: HE_VERB_AGR[1]
Message: The pronoun 'someone' must be used with a third-person verb: 'fails'.
Suggestion: fails
... for one person to succeed with someone failing. It should be modified to say, 'In...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
first, firstly, however, if, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, well, for example, as well as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 44.0 19.5258426966 225% => Less to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.4196629213 97% => OK
Conjunction : 22.0 14.8657303371 148% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 11.3162921348 124% => OK
Pronoun: 38.0 33.0505617978 115% => OK
Preposition: 85.0 58.6224719101 145% => OK
Nominalization: 9.0 12.9106741573 70% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2904.0 2235.4752809 130% => OK
No of words: 587.0 442.535393258 133% => OK
Chars per words: 4.9471890971 5.05705443957 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.9222030514 4.55969084622 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.98174734406 2.79657885939 107% => OK
Unique words: 266.0 215.323595506 124% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.453151618399 0.4932671777 92% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 909.9 704.065955056 129% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59117977528 101% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 16.0 6.24550561798 256% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 7.0 4.99550561798 140% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 3.10617977528 161% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.77640449438 225% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 9.0 4.38483146067 205% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 33.0 20.2370786517 163% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 23.0359550562 74% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 58.9961633591 60.3974514979 98% => OK
Chars per sentence: 88.0 118.986275619 74% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.7878787879 23.4991977007 76% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.93939393939 5.21951772744 56% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 6.0 4.97078651685 121% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 7.80617977528 51% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 19.0 10.2758426966 185% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 5.13820224719 117% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.83258426966 166% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.256848444938 0.243740707755 105% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0731384299433 0.0831039109588 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0907322336792 0.0758088955206 120% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.166436942242 0.150359130593 111% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0808518736955 0.0667264976115 121% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.8 14.1392134831 76% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 54.22 48.8420337079 111% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 12.1743820225 81% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.13 12.1639044944 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.65 8.38706741573 91% => OK
difficult_words: 118.0 100.480337079 117% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 11.8971910112 71% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 11.2143820225 78% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.7820224719 76% => OK
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.