"The following opinion was provided in a letter to the editor of a national aeronautics magazine: “Manned space flight is costly and dangerous. Moreover, the recent success of a series of unmanned space probes and satellites has demonstrated that a great deal of useful information can be gathered without the costs and risks associated with sending men and women into space. Therefore, we should invest our resources in unmanned space flight."" -
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
The argument makes a few basic faulty assumptions that call its logic into question.
Firstly, the author assumes that all & every type of information that can be obtained through a manned space flight can be obtained through an unmanned space flight. This may or may not be true, and the author should have ascertained whether the extra advantages offered by a manned space flight - in the form of sentient & independently thinking astronauts aboard - can be exactly replicated by unmanned space missions which are controlled by operators based on Earth or rudimentary artificial intelligences and hence suffer from an inherent limitation to completely sense their surroundings. Perhaps the extra costs involved in a manned space flight are justified by the extra, & possibly more detailed, data obtained.
Secondly, while stating "the recent success of a series of unmanned space probes and satellites", the author assumes that this is the case for all unmanned space ventures in recent history. Before declaring the greater success rate of unmanned space flight compared to manned space missions based on only the records of a recent series of unmanned space missions, the author should have ascertained the success rate of unmanned space flight as a whole. This would have increased the accuracy of his argument.
Thirdly, the author assumes that in proportion to the growth of technology that makes unmanned space flight possible, there will not be a corresponding rise in technology & hence, safety levels, of manned space flight. Such a corresponding rise would not only increase the efficiency of manned space flight, but also make it much safer for the human astronauts involved. If such a case does turn out to be true, then the basis of the author's argument would turn out to be faulty.
Finally, the author assumes that the level of technology required for widespread unmanned space flight currently exists. As of now, we can say that the number of unmanned space missions is less than manned space missions. For unmanned space flight to completely replace manned space flight & establish a monopoly, it would have to be extremely efficient & foolproof. Instead of ascertaining whether the level of technology required to implement this actually exists, the author just assumes that it does.
Thus in conclusion, as demonstrated in the points above, the author makes a few faulty assumptions & fails to account for some unexpected situations that adversely affect the impact of his argument.
- "All too often, companies hire outside consultants to suggest ways for the company to operate more efficiently. If companies were to spend more time listening to their own employees, such consultants would be unnecessary." - Write an essay in which you ta 95
- "The following is taken from a memo from the advertising director of the Super Screen Movie Production Company:"According to a recent report from our marketing department, during the past year, fewer people attended Super Screen-produced movies than in an 95
- "The best way for a society to prepare its young people for leadership in government, industry, or other fields is by instilling in them a sense of cooperation, not competition." - Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or dis 86
- "Men and women, because of their inherent physical differences, are not equally suited for many tasks." - 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 t 90
- "An ailing patient should have easy access to his/her doctor's record of treating similarly afflicted patients. Through gaining such access, the ailing patient may better determine whether the doctor is competent to treat that medical condition." - Write 85
Comments
Thanks for your quick review.
Thanks for your quick review. Regarding your suggestion about the error "sentient" in a sentence, I actually meant to use that word itself. "Sentient" means an entity that is self-aware & can perceive & think for itself.
Anyway, thanks a lot for marking my essays!
We removed the error message.
We removed the error message. Thank you!
flaws:
May not use '&' in essay writing.
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 5.0 out of 6
Category: Very Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 15 15
No. of Words: 399 350
No. of Characters: 2047 1500
No. of Different Words: 178 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.469 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.13 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.681 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 162 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 111 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 86 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 44 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 26.6 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.914 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.6 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.413 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.685 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.14 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5