<Reading>Jane Austen (1775-1817) is one of the most famous of all English novelists, and today her novels are more popular than ever, with several recently adapted as Hollywood movies. But we do not have many records of what she looked like. For a l

Essay topics:

<Reading>
Jane Austen (1775-1817) is one of the most famous of all English novelists, and today her novels are more popular than ever, with several recently adapted as Hollywood movies. But we do not have many records of what she looked like. For a long time, the only accepted image of Austen was an amateur sketch of an adult Austen made by her sister Cassandra. However recently a professionally painted, full-length portrait of a teenage girl owned by a member of the Austen family has come up for sale. Although the professional painting is not titled Jane Austen, there are good reasons to believe she is the subject.

First, in 1882, several decades after Austen's death, Austen's family gave permission to use the portrait as an illustration in an edition of her letters. Austen's family clearly recognized it as a portrait of the author. So, for over a century now, the Austen family itself has endorsed the claim that the girl in the portrait is Jane Austen.

Second, the face in the portrait clearly resembles the one in Cassandra's sketch, which we know depicts Austen. Though somewhat amateurish, the sketch communicates definite details about Austen's face. Even though the Cassandra sketch is of an adult Jane Austen, the features are still similar to those of the teenage girl in the painting. The eyebrows, nose, mouth, and overall shape of the face are very much like those in the full-length portrait.

Third, although the painting is unsigned and undated, there is evidence that it was painted when Austen was a teenager. The style links it to Ozias Humphrey, a society portrait painter who was the kind of professional the wealthy Austen family would hire. Humphrey was active in the late 1780s and early 1790s, exactly the period when Jane Austen was the age of the girl in the painting.

<Listening>
Professor:
The evidence linking this portrait to Jane Austen is not at all convincing. Sure, the painting has long been somewhat loosely connected to Austen's extended family and their descendents, but this hardly proves it's a portrait of Jane Austen as a teenager. The reading's arguments that the portrait is of Austen are questionable at best.

First, when the portrait was authorized for use in the 1882 publication of her letters, Jane Austen had been dead for almost 70 years. So the family members who asserted that the painting was Jane had never actually seen her themselves. They couldn't have known for certain if the portrait was of Austen or not.

Second, the portrait could very well be that of a relative of Austen's, a fact that would explain the resemblance between its subject and that of Cassandra's sketch. The extended Austen family was very large and many of Jane Austen's female cousins were teenagers in the relevant period or had children who were teenagers. And some of these teenage girls could have resembled Jane Austen. In fact, many experts believe that the true subject of the portrait was one of those relatives, Marianne Kempian, who was a distant niece of Austen's. Third, the painting has been attributed to Humphrey only because of the style. But other evidence points to a later date. A stamp on the back of the picture indicates that the blank canvas, you know the actual piece of cloth on which the picture was painted, was sold by a man named William Legg. Record showed that William Legg did not sell canvases in London when Jane Austen was a teenager. He only started selling canvases when she was 27 years old. So it looks like the canvas was used for the painting at a time when Austen was clearly older than the girl in the portrait.

In the passage it was argued about the authenticity of the potrait of Jane Austen which came up for sale by a Austen family member of. The professor in his lecture casted doubt on the reasoning given in the passage.

Firstly, the passage described that as the potrait was put forward by a Auten family member, so it was an authentic potrait of Jane Austen. But the professor reasoned that, as Jane Austen was Dead for almost 70 years by the time the potrait came into light, the family members who brought the potrait to public had not seen her for sure. Thus, the assertion by them that it is the potrait of Jane is doubtful according to the professor.

Secondly, the professor pointed out in his lecture that the Austen family was an extended family. So, it is possible to have a family member of the same age as her at the time of the painting. Thus the potrait could be of a family member rather than of Jane Austen's. This can account for the resemblances of the ameteur potrait by her sister Cassandra with the the formal potrait. This opposes the idea put forward by the passage. The professor further explained an opinion by experts that it is believed that the protrait is actually of a niece of the famous novelist who was of the same age as the novelist at the time of that the potrait done.

Finally, the professor explained the point that the attribution of the painting to the famous painter is based on the based only the style of the painter. But an evidence contradicts the claim which was a stamp on the back of the canvas. The canvas on which the potrait was done was not being sold until Jane Austen was 27 years old. Which in turn contradicts the claim of the passage of it being the potrait of a teenage Jane Austen. Because the timeline of the canvas and the teenage Jane Austen does not coincide.

Votes
Average: 6 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 109, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
...f Jane Austen which came up for sale by a Austen family member of. The professor ...
^
Line 3, column 71, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
... that as the potrait was put forward by a Auten family member, so it was an authe...
^
Line 5, column 194, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Thus,
...age as her at the time of the painting. Thus the potrait could be of a family member...
^^^^
Line 5, column 358, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: the
...ur potrait by her sister Cassandra with the the formal potrait. This opposes the idea p...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 358, Rule ID: DT_DT[1]
Message: Maybe you need to remove one determiner so that only 'the' or 'the' is left.
Suggestion: the; the
...ur potrait by her sister Cassandra with the the formal potrait. This opposes the idea p...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 335, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “Which” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...old until Jane Austen was 27 years old. Which in turn contradicts the claim of the pa...
^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, finally, first, firstly, second, secondly, so, then, thus

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

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 19.0 10.4613686534 182% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 5.04856512141 40% => OK
Conjunction : 3.0 7.30242825607 41% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 14.0 12.0772626932 116% => OK
Pronoun: 22.0 22.412803532 98% => OK
Preposition: 49.0 30.3222958057 162% => OK
Nominalization: 3.0 5.01324503311 60% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1494.0 1373.03311258 109% => OK
No of words: 335.0 270.72406181 124% => OK
Chars per words: 4.45970149254 5.08290768461 88% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.27820116611 4.04702891845 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.33967018675 2.5805825403 91% => OK
Unique words: 140.0 145.348785872 96% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.417910447761 0.540411800872 77% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 471.6 419.366225166 112% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.4 1.55342163355 90% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 3.25607064018 92% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 13.0662251656 122% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 43.560258192 49.2860985944 88% => OK
Chars per sentence: 93.375 110.228320801 85% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.9375 21.698381199 96% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.5 7.06452816374 64% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 4.19205298013 143% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 0.0 4.33554083885 0% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 4.45695364238 135% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 10.0 4.27373068433 234% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.097758066707 0.272083759551 36% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0401947386384 0.0996497079465 40% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.027620816248 0.0662205650399 42% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0715421314835 0.162205337803 44% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.00558445018259 0.0443174109184 13% => 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: 10.0 13.3589403974 75% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 68.1 53.8541721854 126% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.7 11.0289183223 79% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 8.59 12.2367328918 70% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.22 8.42419426049 86% => OK
difficult_words: 55.0 63.6247240618 86% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 10.7273730684 121% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.498013245 95% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?

---------------------
Write the essay in 20 minutes.

Rates: 60.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 18.0 Out of 30
---------------------
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.