Critics say that current voting systems used in the United States are inefficient and often lead to the inaccurate counting of votes Miscounts can be especially damaging if an election is closely contested Those critics would like the traditional systems | TOEFL IELTS GMAT GRE SAT ACT PTE ESL

Essay topics:

Critics say that current voting systems used in the United States are inefficient and often lead to the inaccurate counting of votes. Miscounts can be especially damaging if an election is closely contested. Those critics would like the traditional systems to be replaced with far more efficient and trustworthy computerized voting systems.
In traditional voting, one major source of inaccuracy is that people accidentally vote for the wrong candidate. Voters usually have to find the name of their candidate on a large sheet of paper containing many names—the ballot—and make a small mark next to that name. People with poor eyesight can easily mark the wrong name. The computerized voting machines have an easy-to-use touch-screen technology: to cast a vote, a voter needs only to touch the candidate’s name on the screen to record a vote for that candidate; voters can even have the computer magnify the name for easier viewing.
Another major problem with old voting systems is that they rely heavily on people to count the votes. Officials must often count up the votes one by one, going through every ballot and recording the vote. Since they have to deal with thousands of ballots, it is almost inevitable that they will make mistakes. If an error is detected, a long and expensive recount has to take place. In contrast, computerized systems remove the possibility of human error, since all the vote counting is done quickly and automatically by the computers.
Finally some people say it is too risky to implement complicated voting technology nationwide. But without giving it a thought, governments and individuals alike trust other complex computer technology every day to be perfectly accurate in banking transactions as well as in the communication of highly sensitive information.

Lecture:

While traditional voting systems have some problems, it’s doubtful that computerized voting will make the situation any better. Computerized voting may seem easy for people who are used to computers. But what about people who aren’t? People who can’t afford computers, people who don’t use them on a regular basis—these people will have trouble using computerized voting machines. These voters can easily cast the wrong vote or be discouraged from voting altogether because of fear of technology. Furthermore, it’s true that humans make mistakes when they count up ballots by hand. But are we sure that computers will do a better job? After all, computers are programmed by humans, so “human error” can show up in mistakes in their programs. And the errors caused by these defective programs may be far more serious. The worst a human official can do is miss a few ballots. But an error in a computer program can result in thousands of votes being miscounted or even permanently removed from the record. And in many voting systems, there is no physical record of the votes, so a computer recount in the case of a suspected error is impossible! As for our trust of computer technology for banking and communications, remember one thing: these systems are used daily and they are used heavily. They didn’t work flawlessly when they were first introduced. They had to be improved on and improved on until they got as reliable as they are today. But voting happens only once every two years nationally in the United States and not much more than twice a year in many local areas. This is hardly sufficient for us to develop confidence that computerized voting can be fully trusted.

My integrated writing:
The reading and the lecture are both about whether or not the traditional voting system should be substituted by a computerized one. The author of the reading feels that technology would make this process more efficient. The lecturer challenges the claims made by the author. He is of the opinion that it would only worsen it.
To begin with, the author argues that people often mark wrong names by accident. The article mentions that computers would enable voters not only to vote by simply touching the candidate’s name on the screen but also to adjust the size of the text to their needs. This specific argument is challenged by the lecturer. He claims that many people who are not familiar with the use of computers would make even more mistakes or they would be discouraged from voting altogether out of fear of having to use a computer.
Secondly, the writer suggests that since the counting is performed by humans the number of potential mistakes rises. In the article it is said that errors could be avoided if the counting was done by an automated software. The lecturer, however, rebuts this by mentioning that as computers are programmed by humans, mistakes can only become graver. He elaborates on this by bringing up the point that in case of a suspected error, no recount can take place as in most cases there is no physical record kept.
Finally, the author posits that both officials and individuals rely on computers to perform banking and communication tasks, therefore it is wrong to consider technology used in voting unsafe. In contrast, the lecturer’s position is that unlike voting, banking and communication processes take place everyday. Moreover, he notes that these softwares underwent gradual improvements throughout the years to become as reliable as they are now, however in the case of voting there is not enough time for technology to gain the trust of the voters.

The reading and the lecture are both about the voting system in United States. The author of the reading argues that computerized voting system is better than traditional voting system. The lecture casts doubt on the claims made in the article. He/She believes that these appearances are not particularly useful.

First of all, not everyone can use computers correctly. Some people do not have access to computers, some people are not used of computers and some people are even scared of this new technology. If the voters do not know how to use a computer, how do you expect them to finish the voting process through computers? This directly refutes the reading passage which states that computerized voting is easier by just touching the screen.

Secondly, computers may make mistakes as people do. As computers are programmed by the human beings, thus errors are inevitable in the computer system. Problems caused by computer voting systems may be more serious than those caused by people. A larger numbers of votes might be miss counted or even removed from the system. Furthermore, it would take more energy to recount the votes. Again this contradicts what is stated in the reading which states that only people will make mistakes in counting.

Thirdly, computerized voting system is not reliable because it has note reached a stable status. People trust computers to conduct banking transactions because the computerized banking system is being used daily and frequently and has been stable. However, the voting does not happen as often as banking thus the computerized voting system has not been proved to be totally reliable.

All in all, not everyone can use a computer properly, computer cause mistakes and computerized voting system is not reliable are the main reasons why computerized voting system can not replace the traditional voting system.

Votes

Essay Categories

Integrated TOEFL Writing

Comments

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 187, 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.
... better than traditional voting system. The lecture casts doubt on the claims made ...
^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
first, furthermore, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, third, thirdly, thus, first of all

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

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 19.0 10.4613686534 182% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 5.04856512141 158% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 6.0 12.0772626932 50% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 15.0 22.412803532 67% => OK
Preposition: 25.0 30.3222958057 82% => OK
Nominalization: 0.0 5.01324503311 0% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1569.0 1373.03311258 114% => OK
No of words: 303.0 270.72406181 112% => OK
Chars per words: 5.17821782178 5.08290768461 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.17215713816 4.04702891845 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.61326542528 2.5805825403 101% => OK
Unique words: 153.0 145.348785872 105% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.50495049505 0.540411800872 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 495.9 419.366225166 118% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.23620309051 61% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 0.0 2.5761589404 0% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 13.0662251656 138% => OK
Sentence length: 16.0 21.2450331126 75% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 41.4968390883 49.2860985944 84% => OK
Chars per sentence: 87.1666666667 110.228320801 79% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.8333333333 21.698381199 78% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.22222222222 7.06452816374 74% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 4.33554083885 138% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 4.45695364238 202% => Less negative sentences wanted.
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: 0.286494039279 0.272083759551 105% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0999138362867 0.0996497079465 100% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.083380303909 0.0662205650399 126% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.184985245514 0.162205337803 114% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0556450868406 0.0443174109184 126% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.4 13.3589403974 85% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 55.24 53.8541721854 103% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.5 11.0289183223 86% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.47 12.2367328918 102% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.13 8.42419426049 97% => OK
difficult_words: 71.0 63.6247240618 112% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 7.0 10.7273730684 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.4 10.498013245 80% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 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.

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Transition Words or Phrases used:
first, furthermore, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, third, thirdly, thus, first of all

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