The video camera provides such an accurate and convincing record of contemporary life that it has become a more important form of documentation than written records."

Essay topics:

The video camera provides such an accurate and convincing record of contemporary life that it has become a more important form of documentation than written records."

According to the speaker, the video recording is a more important means of document hag contemporary life than a written record because video recordings are more accurate and convincing. Generally, I believe that the speaker overstates the comparative significance of video as a documentary tool. In fact, there certain events that lend themselves better to video recording and some others to written documentation.

For the purpose of documenting temporal, spatial events and experiences, I agree that a video record is usually more accurate and more convincing than a written record. It is impossible for anyone, no matter how keen an observer and skilled a journalist, to recount with complete and objective detail such events as the winning touchdown at the Super Bowl, a Ballanchine ballet, the Tournament of Roses Parade, or the scene at the intersection of Florence and Normandy streets during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Yet these are important events in contemporary life the sort of events we might put in a time capsule for the purpose of capturing our life and times at the turn of this millennium.

The growing documentary role of video is not limited to seminal events like those described above. Video surveillance cameras are objective witnesses with perfect memories. Thus they can play a vital evidentiary role in legal proceedings— such as those involving robbery, drug trafficking, police misconduct, motor vehicle violations, and even malpractice in a hospital operating room. Indeed, the video camera is superior to the written word whenever moving images are central to an event. A written description of a hurricane, tornado, or volcanic eruption cannot convey its immediate power and awesome nature like a video record. A diary entry cannot "replay" that wedding reception, dance recital, or surprise birthday party as accurately or objectively as a video record. And a real estate brochure cannot inform about the lighting, spaciousness, or general ambiance of a featured property nearly as effectively as a video.

Nonetheless, as was mentioned in the introductory paragraph there is far more to document the life than what we see and hear; that is, for certain other purposes written records are advantageous to and more appropriate than video records. For example, certain legal matters are best left to written documentation: video is of no practical use for documenting the terms of a complex contractual agreement, incorporation, or the establishment of a trust. And video is of little use when it comes to documenting a person's subjective state of mind, impressions, or reflections of an event or experience. Indeed, to the extent that personal interpretation adds dimension and richness to the record, written documentation is actually more important than video. Finally, a video record is of no use in documenting statistical or other quantitative information. Returning to the riot example mentioned earlier, imagine relying on a video to document the financial loss to store owners, the number of police and firefighters involved, and so forth. Complete and accurate video documentation of such information would require video cameras at every street corner and in every aisle of every store.

In sum, the speaker's claim overstates the importance of video records, at least to some extent. When it comes to capturing, storing, and recalling temporal, spatial events, video records are inherently more objective, accurate, and complete. However, what we view through a camera lens provides only one dimension of our life and times; written documentation will always be needed to quantify, demystify, and provide meaning to the world around us.

Votes
Average: 8.3 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 174, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Thus,
...ective witnesses with perfect memories. Thus they can play a vital evidentiary role ...
^^^^

Discourse Markers used:
['actually', 'finally', 'however', 'if', 'nonetheless', 'so', 'thus', 'at least', 'for example', 'in fact', 'sort of', 'such as']

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

Performance in Part of Speech:
Nouns: 0.276946107784 0.25644967241 108% => OK
Verbs: 0.119760479042 0.15541462614 77% => OK
Adjectives: 0.100299401198 0.0836205057962 120% => OK
Adverbs: 0.0434131736527 0.0520304965353 83% => OK
Pronouns: 0.0209580838323 0.0272364105082 77% => OK
Prepositions: 0.10628742515 0.125424944231 85% => OK
Participles: 0.0449101796407 0.0416121511921 108% => OK
Conjunctions: 3.16351826298 2.79052419416 113% => OK
Infinitives: 0.0299401197605 0.026700313972 112% => OK
Particles: 0.0 0.001811407834 0% => OK
Determiners: 0.104790419162 0.113004496875 93% => OK
Modal_auxiliary: 0.0104790419162 0.0255425247493 41% => OK
WH_determiners: 0.0104790419162 0.0127820249294 82% => OK

Vocabulary words and sentences:
No of characters: 3711.0 2731.13054187 136% => OK
No of words: 580.0 446.07635468 130% => OK
Chars per words: 6.39827586207 6.12365571057 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.90746259869 4.57801047555 107% => OK
words length more than 5 chars: 0.420689655172 0.378187486979 111% => OK
words length more than 6 chars: 0.343103448276 0.287650121315 119% => OK
words length more than 7 chars: 0.239655172414 0.208842608468 115% => OK
words length more than 8 chars: 0.174137931034 0.135150697306 129% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.16351826298 2.79052419416 113% => OK
Unique words: 304.0 207.018472906 147% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.524137931034 0.469332199767 112% => OK
Word variations: 65.8053290688 52.1807786196 126% => OK
How many sentences: 23.0 20.039408867 115% => OK
Sentence length: 25.2173913043 23.2022227129 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 57.513177581 57.7814097925 100% => OK
Chars per sentence: 161.347826087 141.986410481 114% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.2173913043 23.2022227129 109% => OK
Discourse Markers: 0.521739130435 0.724660767414 72% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.14285714286 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 3.58251231527 28% => OK
Readability: 59.5277361319 51.9672348444 115% => OK
Elegance: 2.32520325203 1.8405768891 126% => OK

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.474745597071 0.441005458295 108% => OK
Sentence sentence coherence: 0.0936829926852 0.135418324435 69% => OK
Sentence sentence coherence SD: 0.0608372214213 0.0829849096947 73% => OK
Sentence paragraph coherence: 0.516998214008 0.58762219726 88% => OK
Sentence paragraph coherence SD: 0.129622476606 0.147661913831 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.178354114189 0.193483328276 92% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0912442180116 0.0970749176394 94% => OK
Paragraph paragraph coherence: 0.415550260653 0.42659136922 97% => OK
Paragraph paragraph coherence SD: 0.0540619103552 0.0774707102158 70% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.333021475809 0.312017818177 107% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0729789364118 0.0698173142475 105% => OK

Task Achievement:
Sentences with positive sentiment : 18.0 8.33743842365 216% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 6.87684729064 29% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.82512315271 62% => OK
Positive topic words: 4.0 6.46551724138 62% => OK
Negative topic words: 2.0 5.36822660099 37% => OK
Neutral topic words: 2.0 2.82389162562 71% => OK
Total topic words: 8.0 14.657635468 55% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

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Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 Out of 6 -- The score is based on the average performance of 20,000 argument essays. This e-grader is not smart enough to check on arguments.
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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.