The “comics medium” includes newspaper comic strips such as Dennis the Menace and comic books such as Spider-Man. Scholars around the world agree that comics are a uniquely American art form.
The first commercially successful comic strip was Hogan’s Alley, a comic strip from the 1890s. Hogan’s Alley featured the Yellow Kid, the world’s first popular cartoon character. This strip and its character marked the beginning of comics and was American in every respect. Set in a low-income neighborhood in New York City, Hogan’s Alley dealt with the lives of ordinary Americans. It was written and drawn by American cartoonist R.F. Outcault. Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, two famous and influential American publishers, printed the comic strip in their newspapers.
The first popular comic book in the world was also American. Action Comics, a series that is still in print today, was initially released in 1938. It featured Superman, the world’s first superhero. Like Hogan’s Alley, Superman was American-created.
Americans invented comic strips, and Americans have exported their unique art form to the rest of the world. Japanese comics, called manga, were inspired by the comics that Americans brought to Japan after World War II. Popular European comics series such as Smurfs and Asterix are influenced by Disney comic books. Today, American-created Disney comic characters are more popular in Europe than ever.
The comics medium started in America. While it has spread around the world, even comics that aren’t created by Americans have an undeniable American influence. This is why so many art and literature scholars recognize the comic strip as a truly American art form.
Lecture: https://magoosh.com/toefl/toefl-integrated-writing-complete-guide/
Summarize the main points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they challenge the specific points made in the reading passage.
In the lecture, the professor disagrees with the writer's claim that comics medium are uniquely American art form. He gives the following examples to contradict the reasons provided by the writer to assert his claim.
Firstly, the writer claims that "Hogan's Alley" published in 1890 was the first successful comic strip ever with the first popular cartoon character. The professor refutes this statement by saying that many comics were already present and popular almost dating back to the 1790s and most of these comics were created in Europe, mainly Britain and Switzerland. Moreover, the professor refutes the claim that Hogan's Alley was published by influenced American publishers by stating that one of the publishers, Joseph Pulitzer was actually Hungarian.
Secondly, the professor states that 'The adventures of TinTin', a popular comic book with one of the most influential characters was published in 1922 in Belgium. This contradicts the writer's claim that Action comics released in 1938 was the first comic book in the world as Tintin predates it. Furthermore, professor states that the artist who created Superman was actually Canadian and thus not American-created.
Finally, the professor also states that Japanese comics were mostly influenced by traditional Asian culture rather than by the American comic strips or books. He also states that Smurfs and Asterix are written in a uniquely European style and questions the infulence of American art form in it. At the end, he also contradicts the writer's claim that American-created Disney comic characters are more popular in Europe than ever by stating that the characters popular in Europe were actually created by European artists.
With the above examples and statements, the professor expresses his disagreements towards the writer's claims in his passge that comics medium is a uniquely American art form.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, finally, first, firstly, furthermore, moreover, second, secondly, so, thus
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 10.4613686534 134% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 0.0 5.04856512141 0% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 7.30242825607 110% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 12.0772626932 116% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 22.412803532 107% => OK
Preposition: 34.0 30.3222958057 112% => OK
Nominalization: 2.0 5.01324503311 40% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1602.0 1373.03311258 117% => OK
No of words: 294.0 270.72406181 109% => OK
Chars per words: 5.44897959184 5.08290768461 107% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.14082457966 4.04702891845 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.77882621706 2.5805825403 108% => OK
Unique words: 138.0 145.348785872 95% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.469387755102 0.540411800872 87% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 487.8 419.366225166 116% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.55342163355 109% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 12.0 13.0662251656 92% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 21.2450331126 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 36.5019025379 49.2860985944 74% => OK
Chars per sentence: 133.5 110.228320801 121% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.5 21.698381199 113% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.5 7.06452816374 106% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.27373068433 70% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.337015526053 0.272083759551 124% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.1511350419 0.0996497079465 152% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0936543317507 0.0662205650399 141% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.210959309896 0.162205337803 130% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0357471625627 0.0443174109184 81% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.5 13.3589403974 124% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 38.66 53.8541721854 72% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.8 11.0289183223 125% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.63 12.2367328918 120% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.8 8.42419426049 104% => OK
difficult_words: 74.0 63.6247240618 116% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 10.7273730684 98% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 10.498013245 110% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 Out of 30
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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.