Essay topics:
In order for any work of art---whether film, literature, sculpture, or a song---to have merit, it must be understandable to most people. - GRE Issue 112
The speaker's assertion that art must be widely understood to have merit is wrongheaded. The speaker misunderstands the final objective of art, which has little to do with cognitive "understanding."
First consider the musical art form. The fact that the listener must "understand" the composer's artistic expression without the benefit of words or visual images forces us to ask: "What is there to understand in the first place?" Of course, the listener can always struggle to appreciate how the musical piece employs various harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic principles.
Yet it would be absurd...
Votes
Essay Categories
Sentence: In the context of these art forms, the speaker seems to suggest that ifwe cannot all understand what the work is supposed to represent, then we should dismiss the work as worthless.
Error: ifwe Suggestion: if we
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 5.0 out of 6
Category: Very good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 1 2
No. of Sentences: 24 15
No. of Words: 557 350
No. of Characters: 2662 1500
No. of Different Words: 272 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.858 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.779 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.696 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 181 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 131 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 93 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 62 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.208 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.139 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.583 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.293 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.532 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.115 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5