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.
The lecture casts doubt on the passage that states that the Chevalier distorted or many events in his memoir to make his life more exciting than it really was. Instead, the lecture argues that Chevalier's memoir is accurate in overall.
First of all, contrary to the belief in the passage that Chevalier was not that wealthy, since he borrowed considerable sums of money from a Swiss merchant. The lecture claims that Chevalier was actually rich. And the reason that he borrowed money from other was that most of his assets had to be sold first to convert them into cash, which took days to complete the process. Thus, he had to borrow money from others, if he needed cash.
Secondly, the passage argues that the accuracy of the conversations with Voltaire recorded in Chevalier's memoir was problematic. Because it was written many years after the conversations occurred. However, the lecture contends that Chevalier recorded the conversation every time he met Voltaire by claiming there was witness confirmed that Chevalier wrote down the conversation with Voltaire regularly.
Finally, the passage questions Chevalier's escape from a prison in Venice by arguing that Chevalier bribed jailers to free him, rather than making a hole in the ceiling to escape. Nevertheless, the lecture refutes the argument by citing a report from the prison in Venice, which reports that the prison repaired the ceiling right after Chevalier escaped.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, finally, first, however, if, nevertheless, really, second, secondly, so, thus, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 9.0 10.4613686534 86% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 0.0 5.04856512141 0% => OK
Conjunction : 2.0 7.30242825607 27% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 15.0 12.0772626932 124% => OK
Pronoun: 25.0 22.412803532 112% => OK
Preposition: 35.0 30.3222958057 115% => OK
Nominalization: 3.0 5.01324503311 60% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1210.0 1373.03311258 88% => OK
No of words: 233.0 270.72406181 86% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.19313304721 5.08290768461 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.90696013833 4.04702891845 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.60313077968 2.5805825403 101% => OK
Unique words: 126.0 145.348785872 87% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.540772532189 0.540411800872 100% => OK
syllable_count: 370.8 419.366225166 88% => 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: 7.0 8.23620309051 85% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
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: 21.0 21.2450331126 99% => OK
Sentence length SD: 52.8177906416 49.2860985944 107% => OK
Chars per sentence: 110.0 110.228320801 100% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.1818181818 21.698381199 98% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.18181818182 7.06452816374 130% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 4.33554083885 46% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 4.45695364238 135% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.27373068433 70% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.260686718726 0.272083759551 96% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.107323339278 0.0996497079465 108% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0686367306156 0.0662205650399 104% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.164165020624 0.162205337803 101% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0875198856001 0.0443174109184 197% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.6 13.3589403974 102% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 53.8541721854 93% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 11.0289183223 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.82 12.2367328918 105% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.41 8.42419426049 100% => OK
difficult_words: 55.0 63.6247240618 86% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 10.7273730684 84% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 10.498013245 99% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 78.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 23.5 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.