Toward the end of his life, the Chevalier de Seingalt (1725−1798) wrote a long memoir recounting his
life and adventures. The Chevalier was a somewhat controversial figure, but since he met many famous
people, including kings and writers, his memoir has become a valuable historical source about European
society in the eighteenth century. However, some critics have raised doubts about the accuracy of the
memoir. They claim that the Chevalier distorted or invented many events in the memoir to make his life
seem more exciting and glamorous than it really was.
For example, in his memoir the Chevalier claims that while living in Switzerland, he was very wealthy, and
it is known that he spent a great deal of money there on parties and gambling. However, evidence has
recently surfaced that the Chevalier borrowed considerable sums of money from a Swiss merchant. Critics
thus argue that if the Chevalier had really been very rich, he would not have needed to borrow money.
Critics are also skeptical about the accuracy of the conversations that the Chevalier records in the memoir
between himself and the famous writer Voltaire. No one doubts that the Chevalier and Voltaire met and
conversed. However, critics complain that the memoir cannot possibly capture these conversations
accurately, because it was written many years after the conversations occurred. Critics point out that it is
impossible to remember exact phrases from extended conversations held many years earlier.
Critics have also questioned the memoir’s account of the Chevalier’s escape from a notorious prison in
Venice, Italy. He claims to have escaped the Venetian prison by using a piece of metal to make a hole in
the ceiling and climbing through the roof. Critics claim that while such a daring escape makes for enjoyable
reading, it is more likely that the Chevalier’s jailers were bribed to free him. They point out that the Chevalier
had a number of politically well-connected friends in Venice who could have offered a bribe.
In the lecture, the professor talks about the validity of the memoir written by Chevalier de Seingalt, in constrast to what the critics feel in the given passage.
First of all, the professor talks about the money borrowed by the Chevalier while in Switzerland. While the critics feel that the information is dubious, the professor counters it with the possible reason in which she assumes, the Chevalier could have borrowed the money from a swiss merchant to pay off the gambling money, because the property he had would need time to liquidate and convert into cash.
Moreover, the professor mentions that the information in the memoir regarding conversation between the Chevalier and the famous writer Voltaire must be true because, altough the incident took place several years ago, the Chevalier had a habit of writing notes of what he did during day time. People who knew him had also confirmed about Chevalier's habit of taking notes. So, details of conversation between him and Voltaire, as written in his memoir, must be true, according to the professor.
Finally, the professor supports the claim regarding the Chevalier escape from a notorious prison. The professor rules out the possibiity of bribing jailers because of presence of other powerful persons within the prison. While the other people were still there despite their strong connection with higher ranked people, the Chevalier, according to the professor, could not have bribed the jailer to escape. Instead, he was able to escape the exact same way as he mentioned in his memoir, because the prison administration had carried out maintenance works of prison roof after the excaping of the Chevalier.
Thus, in the lecture, the professor strong disagrees with the standing of critics in the passage, and states her opinion about how the details mentioned by the Chevalier in his memoir must be true, based on several pieces of evidence.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, first, moreover, regarding, so, still, thus, while, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 6.0 10.4613686534 57% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 5.04856512141 139% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 7.30242825607 55% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 4.0 12.0772626932 33% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 15.0 22.412803532 67% => OK
Preposition: 56.0 30.3222958057 185% => OK
Nominalization: 9.0 5.01324503311 180% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1607.0 1373.03311258 117% => OK
No of words: 312.0 270.72406181 115% => OK
Chars per words: 5.15064102564 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.20279927342 4.04702891845 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.61033441209 2.5805825403 101% => OK
Unique words: 165.0 145.348785872 114% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.528846153846 0.540411800872 98% => OK
syllable_count: 487.8 419.366225166 116% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 3.25607064018 31% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 1.25165562914 399% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 2.5761589404 194% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 11.0 13.0662251656 84% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 28.0 21.2450331126 132% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 75.0357490558 49.2860985944 152% => OK
Chars per sentence: 146.090909091 110.228320801 133% => OK
Words per sentence: 28.3636363636 21.698381199 131% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.18181818182 7.06452816374 102% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 4.45695364238 135% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.27373068433 47% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.186908749778 0.272083759551 69% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0766700554662 0.0996497079465 77% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0463639772716 0.0662205650399 70% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.111756562197 0.162205337803 69% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0381457457009 0.0443174109184 86% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.0 13.3589403974 127% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 43.06 53.8541721854 80% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 11.0289183223 129% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.89 12.2367328918 105% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.02 8.42419426049 107% => OK
difficult_words: 79.0 63.6247240618 124% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.0 10.7273730684 121% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.2 10.498013245 126% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.2008830022 116% => 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.