Universities should require every student to take a variety of courses outside the student's field of study.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be

Essay topics:

Universities should require every student to take a variety of courses outside the student's field of study.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons or examples that could be used to challenge your position.

It is possible that at the tender ages of 17 and 18 years of age, some youth enter university without a well informed choice of major, and do not have enough knowledge of their future field to understand how it connects to other areas of knowledge. However, universities should consider the goals of collegiate education before forcing all students to take classes in areas of study in which they have no interest or suitability for. Classroom learning is one element of university education, but another is preparing students to be productive members of the world.

The requirement is likely proposed to help students explore and determine which fields of study for which they are best-suited. This is obviously critical for students who enter university with an undeclared major, in which investigation and exposure to various areas of thought and fields of practice is necessary for them to narrow their interests. The other argument for such a requirement is to provide broadening and context for the studies of a student who has already made himself narrowly focused.

However, there are several cogent counter-arguments to this idea. The first is about the efficiency of university education as it fits into an individual’s life. An individual may be paying off student loans for decades afterwards, with no specific benefit to point to for “general electives.” Compared to areas of Europe and Africa, which students can finish professional school in three years, the American system in particular sets educated individuals at a time and money disadvantage in their careers. Secondly, within certain technical degrees, such as engineering or architecture, students are already required to take so many core courses that to add additional requirements takes away from time to pursue and explore extra-curricular activities.

Most significantly, university administrations should bear in mind the limits to pedagogy. Many students, despite their most earnest efforts for open-mindedness, will not be titillated by courses in areas outside their discipline. Only the school of life may guide them to make changes in discipline. A number of students may enter, due to the influences of family, with careers for medicine or law in mind. Given the years of focused required of each field, perhaps only a midlife crisis will awaken these individuals to the idea that money or prestige cannot provide them satisfaction in their personal lives. Some students have even been advised on admission about the struggles of their given major and potential work, and they dig in their heels for those reasons alone.

It is compelling to consider the university campus as a place of exploration of the mind and spirit. Yet professors and administrators should strongly consider the limits of time and energy on each student, and the limits of influence on a human psyche. Most university educations are only four years of time, a blip compared to the years before and after.

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Average: 8.3 (1 vote)
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Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 510, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... already made himself narrowly focused. However, there are several cogent counte...
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Line 9, column 312, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...nt to for 'general electives.' Compared to areas of Europe and Africa, ...
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Line 13, column 783, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...in their heels for those reasons alone. It is compelling to consider the univers...
^^^^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, well, in particular, such as

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

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 19.5258426966 87% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.4196629213 81% => OK
Conjunction : 22.0 14.8657303371 148% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 11.3162921348 88% => OK
Pronoun: 26.0 33.0505617978 79% => OK
Preposition: 80.0 58.6224719101 136% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 12.9106741573 85% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2526.0 2235.4752809 113% => OK
No of words: 477.0 442.535393258 108% => OK
Chars per words: 5.29559748428 5.05705443957 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.67336384929 4.55969084622 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.08109492367 2.79657885939 110% => OK
Unique words: 256.0 215.323595506 119% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.536687631027 0.4932671777 109% => OK
syllable_count: 810.0 704.065955056 115% => 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: 7.0 4.99550561798 140% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 3.10617977528 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 5.0 1.77640449438 281% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 5.0 4.38483146067 114% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 20.2370786517 94% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 23.0359550562 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 71.6021247305 60.3974514979 119% => OK
Chars per sentence: 132.947368421 118.986275619 112% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.1052631579 23.4991977007 107% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.21052631579 5.21951772744 81% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.97078651685 101% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 7.80617977528 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 10.2758426966 78% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 5.13820224719 117% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.83258426966 103% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.215365841752 0.243740707755 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0685183345602 0.0831039109588 82% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0509838880535 0.0758088955206 67% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.126534676186 0.150359130593 84% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0398554752201 0.0667264976115 60% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.1 14.1392134831 114% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 37.64 48.8420337079 77% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.92365168539 141% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.1743820225 117% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.76 12.1639044944 113% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.18 8.38706741573 109% => OK
difficult_words: 130.0 100.480337079 129% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 11.8971910112 122% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.2143820225 107% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.7820224719 102% => 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.