The Electoral College was one of many compromises that grew out of the U.S. Constitutional Congress in 1787. The framers of the Constitution considered several options for electing a president, such as direct election by the people, and election by the House of Representatives. The state legislatures and House of Representatives were considered potentially corruptible. Direct popular vote was rejected by the smaller states, thinking they would be dominated by the larger states in national elections. Hence, the Electoral College was adopted as a compromise.
According to the U.S. Constitution, each state is allotted a number of electoral votes equal to its total of senators and congressional representatives. All told, 538 electoral votes are at stake during each presidential election. A candidate must win at least 270 of them to become president. State legislatures choose their electors. Most states implement a winner-take-all system where the winner of the popular vote in that state claims all of that state's electoral votes. In the event of an Electoral College tie, the U.S. House of Representatives chooses the president, with each state's congressional delegation getting only one vote.
The institution has remained substantially the same since 1787. Every decade or so, a challenge to the current system arises, usually in favor of direct popular vote. However, a change would require a Constitutional amendment, which in turn requires ratification by the states. Reluctance from the smaller states to relinquish their electoral advantage makes this change highly unlikely to happen anytime soon. Further, many people in government feel the Electoral College has served the country well for more than 200 years and want to keep it.
Summarize the points made in the lecture you just heard, explaining how they contrast with the points made in the reading.
Both the lecturer and the writer talk about the American electoral system, which takes place through the Electoral College. Even if the topic analyzed is the same, their attitudes toward it are deeply different. In particular, the speaker points out three main drawbacks.
First, he affirms that is not fair that the significance of the vote of an individual depends only on the size of the area he is living in. Indeed, the smaller a state is, the smaller representative it has in the Electoral College. However, in the writing it is argued that since this system has worked well for more than two centuries there is no need to introduce any changes.
Second, the speaker believes that some modifications should be introduced in order to preserve the democratic connotation of the United States. In particular, he feels that the number of representative members for each state should be determined more proportionally and that a minimum number of electors for country should be imposed.
In addition, he thinks that the introduction of a new system which gives more importance to the citizens would be a good signal not only for the USA, but also for the whole world. As a matter of fact, this big change would lead also other countries to consider more actively popular opinions.
In conclusion, the two opinions provided are fundamentally at odds. While the speaker analyzes the disadvantage brought by the actual system and the benefits that would be provided by a new one, the writer is strongly convinced that the old system should be kept since it has not brought to dramatic problems so far.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, second, so, well, while, in addition, in conclusion, in particular, as a matter of fact
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 15.0 10.4613686534 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 5.04856512141 158% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 7.30242825607 55% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 11.0 12.0772626932 91% => OK
Pronoun: 20.0 22.412803532 89% => OK
Preposition: 31.0 30.3222958057 102% => OK
Nominalization: 5.0 5.01324503311 100% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1341.0 1373.03311258 98% => OK
No of words: 271.0 270.72406181 100% => OK
Chars per words: 4.94833948339 5.08290768461 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.05734859645 4.04702891845 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.78151447159 2.5805825403 108% => OK
Unique words: 153.0 145.348785872 105% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.564575645756 0.540411800872 104% => OK
syllable_count: 424.8 419.366225166 101% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 3.25607064018 154% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.23620309051 73% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 2.5761589404 194% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 12.0 13.0662251656 92% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 21.2450331126 104% => OK
Sentence length SD: 52.5483903972 49.2860985944 107% => OK
Chars per sentence: 111.75 110.228320801 101% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.5833333333 21.698381199 104% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.83333333333 7.06452816374 139% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 4.33554083885 138% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 1.0 4.45695364238 22% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.0610537683796 0.272083759551 22% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0216778541381 0.0996497079465 22% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.018110564462 0.0662205650399 27% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0338900281905 0.162205337803 21% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0123568465889 0.0443174109184 28% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.2 13.3589403974 99% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 49.15 53.8541721854 91% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 11.0289183223 108% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.73 12.2367328918 96% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.75 8.42419426049 104% => OK
difficult_words: 69.0 63.6247240618 108% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 10.7273730684 84% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 10.498013245 103% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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It is not exactly right on the topic in the view of e-grader. Maybe there is a wrong essay topic.
Rates: 3.33333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 1.0 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.