Scandals are useful because they focus our attention on problems in ways that no speaker or reformer ever could.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position.
With the development of modern mass media, scandals are almost ubiquitous. Hardly can a day go by without some news reporting scandals involving high-profiles politicians, athletes or movie stars. While it is true that scandals often attract public attention and may expose certain problems, I do not believe that they are useful in solving social problems as they often focus public attention on the wrong issues and can hardly maintain public attention for a sufficiently long time. After elaborating these two points, I will also address the argument that scandals can usefully create pressure for the government to introduce reforms.
To begin with, the attention from the public after a scandal does not necessarily focus on the right issue. Take the Clinton scandal and impeachment for example. With the release of Starr report, the Clinton scandal has attracted the national and even international media attention. But the majority of American people seem to find it more interesting to talk about whether or not President Clinton had sex with Monica Lewinsky. They would even get into the debate over whether oral sex would count as sex. But the real issue that should capture public attention is whether or not the President had lied and still deserved the trust of American people. With the media always interested in reporting sensational news, the Clinton scandal failed to focus public attention on the right issue and therefore was not very useful for the development of American politics.
In addition, when a scandal is involved in powerful corporation, a professional public relations team will very quickly take actions to address the crisis and divert the public attention from the right issues. The oil giant BP, for example, was responsible for the oil rig explosion in 2013 and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. During the scandal of this ecological disaster, BP hired a sophisticated PR team to launch a massive campaign to paint themselves as victims of tort law suits and shift media attention from the aftermath of the oil spill. The large corporations like BP has the large amount of financial resources at their disposal to manipulate the media and the public opinions when necessary. As the public is often forgetful while overwhelmed by the news and scandals, it is fairly easy for them to get away from such scandals. In other words, one cannot really rely on scandals to solve problems involving big corporations.
Some people may argue that scandals are still useful in creating pressure to push the government to reform. For example, after the scandal of Sun Zhigang, a Chinese university graduate who was tortured and killed in Guangzhou Centre for the Homeless, Chinese government has abolished the institution of arresting the homeless in the large cities. While this case leads to some desirable outcome, it is doubtful that we should count on scandals like this to reform a nation’s legal and social infrastructure. To fix the numerous problems in a modern society, the best solution is to educate the people about their rights so people can speak up against injustice when their rights are violated. We cannot just overlook the injustice in our daily life and wait for scandals to fix the problems in our society.
In conclusion, while I acknowledge that certain scandals may eventually lead to some progress in our society, most scandals are not very useful in reforming the society as the public often focus their attention on the wrong issues and the powerful corporations can easily divert public attention through their public relations campaigns. To achieve real progress in social development, we need better education to increase people’s awareness of their rights and their sense of justice.
- Claim: Even though young people often receive the advice to “follow your dreams,” more emphasis should be placed on picking worthy goals.Reason: Many people’s dreams are inherently selfish.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which 33
- The following appeared in a letter from the faculty committee to the president of Seatown University:A study conducted at nearby Oceania University showed that faculty retention is higher when professors are offered free tuition at the university for thei 54
- Scandals are useful because they focus our attention on problems in ways that no speaker or reformer ever could.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be 66
- A nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college 75
- A nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college 58
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 367, Rule ID: WHETHER[7]
Message: Perhaps you can shorten this phrase to just 'whether'. It is correct though if you mean 'regardless of whether'.
Suggestion: whether
... find it more interesting to talk about whether or not President Clinton had sex with Monica L...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 567, Rule ID: WHETHER[7]
Message: Perhaps you can shorten this phrase to just 'whether'. It is correct though if you mean 'regardless of whether'.
Suggestion: whether
...that should capture public attention is whether or not the President had lied and still deserv...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 600, Rule ID: HAVE_PART_AGREEMENT[1]
Message: Use past participle here: 'lain'.
Suggestion: lain
...ion is whether or not the President had lied and still deserved the trust of America...
^^^^
Line 4, column 489, Rule ID: LAWSUIT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'lawsuits'?
Suggestion: lawsuits
... to paint themselves as victims of tort law suits and shift media attention from the afte...
^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, if, look, may, really, so, still, therefore, while, as to, for example, in addition, in conclusion, in other words, it is true, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 15.0 19.5258426966 77% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 17.0 12.4196629213 137% => OK
Conjunction : 21.0 14.8657303371 141% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 11.3162921348 97% => OK
Pronoun: 36.0 33.0505617978 109% => OK
Preposition: 84.0 58.6224719101 143% => OK
Nominalization: 24.0 12.9106741573 186% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3162.0 2235.4752809 141% => OK
No of words: 613.0 442.535393258 139% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.15823817292 5.05705443957 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.97582523872 4.55969084622 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.74614335035 2.79657885939 98% => OK
Unique words: 288.0 215.323595506 134% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.469820554649 0.4932671777 95% => OK
syllable_count: 975.6 704.065955056 139% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59117977528 101% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 6.24550561798 112% => OK
Article: 8.0 4.99550561798 160% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 3.10617977528 225% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.77640449438 113% => OK
Preposition: 12.0 4.38483146067 274% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 20.2370786517 119% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 23.0359550562 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 66.2727817224 60.3974514979 110% => OK
Chars per sentence: 131.75 118.986275619 111% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.5416666667 23.4991977007 109% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.33333333333 5.21951772744 121% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.97078651685 101% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 7.80617977528 51% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 10.2758426966 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 18.0 5.13820224719 350% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.83258426966 21% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.1478266716 0.243740707755 61% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0487301189958 0.0831039109588 59% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0399091413772 0.0758088955206 53% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0934300967791 0.150359130593 62% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0304343659031 0.0667264976115 46% => 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: 15.6 14.1392134831 110% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 46.1 48.8420337079 94% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 12.1743820225 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.94 12.1639044944 106% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.41 8.38706741573 100% => OK
difficult_words: 137.0 100.480337079 136% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 11.8971910112 122% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.2143820225 107% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.7820224719 110% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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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.