TPO-30 - Integrated Writing Task A little over 2,200 years ago, the Roman navy attacked the Greek port city of Syracuse. According to some ancient historians, the Greeks defended themselves with an ingenious weapon called a "burning mirror": a polished co

In the reading,the author cites three examples to claim that it was impossible for the Greeks to use the burning mirror as a way to defend the Romans. However, in the lecture, the professor casts doubt on all of these points.

To begin with, the reading claims that the ancient Greeks were not technologically advanced enough. However, the professor refutes that experiments have shown that small pieces of polished copper can also effectively focus sunlight if they are placed into a parabola, which means the Greeks could have the capacity to build such kind of weapons.

Besides, the author bolsters his opinion by illustrating the data that it will take very long time before the wood becomes on fire. Again, the lecturer challenges the idea by asserting that the Roman used pitches on their boats, which were easily to be set on fire even when boats were moving. Given that the pitches can be on fire in just seconds, it's reasonable for the Greek to regard the mirror as an ingenious weapon.

Finally, the passage considers the mirror no more effective than flaming arrows, which is again doubted by the professor afterwards. Since the burning mirror could prevent the Roman from even noticing the fire, as is illustrated by the professor, it was very likely to be surprising and thus effective .

Votes
Average: 8.6 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 15, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma
Suggestion: , the
In the reading,the author cites three examples to claim th...
^^^^
Line 7, column 302, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Don't put a space before the full stop
Suggestion: .
...kely to be surprising and thus effective .
^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, besides, finally, however, if, second, so, thus, kind of, to begin with

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

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 11.0 10.4613686534 105% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 5.04856512141 99% => OK
Conjunction : 1.0 7.30242825607 14% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 11.0 12.0772626932 91% => OK
Pronoun: 15.0 22.412803532 67% => OK
Preposition: 28.0 30.3222958057 92% => OK
Nominalization: 0.0 5.01324503311 0% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1089.0 1373.03311258 79% => OK
No of words: 221.0 270.72406181 82% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.92760180995 5.08290768461 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.85565412703 4.04702891845 95% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.52027328937 2.5805825403 98% => OK
Unique words: 139.0 145.348785872 96% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.628959276018 0.540411800872 116% => OK
syllable_count: 337.5 419.366225166 80% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.23620309051 85% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 9.0 13.0662251656 69% => 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: 24.0 21.2450331126 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 45.5728964286 49.2860985944 92% => OK
Chars per sentence: 121.0 110.228320801 110% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.5555555556 21.698381199 113% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.55555555556 7.06452816374 121% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 4.45695364238 112% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.27373068433 23% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.350797007401 0.272083759551 129% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.12777675301 0.0996497079465 128% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0698657740533 0.0662205650399 106% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.186723836105 0.162205337803 115% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0272174118761 0.0443174109184 61% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.1 13.3589403974 106% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 55.58 53.8541721854 103% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 11.0289183223 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.61 12.2367328918 95% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.76 8.42419426049 104% => OK
difficult_words: 55.0 63.6247240618 86% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 10.498013245 110% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 86.6666666667 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 26.0 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.