In any field of inquiry, the beginner is more likely than the expert to make important contributions.
The author contends that beginners are more likely to make important contribution in any field of inquiry. He finds support in two arguments: 1) many of the important traits required to make important scientific contributions are more prominent in the beginners than the experts and 2) beginners, in the past, have contributed significantly. However, neither the assumed attributes of beginners nor the numbers of their contribution can suffice to warrant the unfair generalization that the author makes.
Foremost, without the constraint of established habits and attitudes, beginners are more creative. This characteristic would help them in areas of inquiry, such as theoretical physics, technology, etc., where imagination has a precedent over other qualities. For example, what does one actually need to formulate the groundbreaking theory of relativity? The answer: a pencil, a piece of paper and young Einstein’s creative brain. Similarly, for innovations, it is the beginners like Gates, Zuckerberg, Jobs, etc. who revolutionized the technology using out-of-box approaches and ideas. Moreover, without the fear of losing anything, beginners are more courageous to try radical ideas and novel methodologies that stem from their imagination. For instance, the young Rudolf Mossbauer could discover the Nobel winning Mossbauer Effect by exploring high efficiency scintillation detectors for gamma-rays only after going against the advice of his supervisor. Lastly, with an urge to prove themselves, beginners are more motivated to pursue their ideas as exemplified in the success stories of Nobel laureates such as Marie Curie and Lawrence Bragg.
However, firstly, these aforementioned traits alone cannot justify the author’s generalization because they alone cannot suffice to make important contributions. To pursue a novel idea one must have profound knowledge in a given field. Knowledge acquisition is a time consuming process; and by the time one acquires enough knowledge to materialize his ideas, he would be considered an expert. Einstein had to thoroughly study Newtonian laws for several years before he could expound about relativity. Similarly, ideas of Gates, Zuckerberg and Jobs were not one night success; they had to gradually learn to evolve their technology into the present successful form. Yet, creativity is not a monopoly of beginners, but is rather about personality. In fact, research on human cognition has shown that creativity is linked with knowledge.
Further, though courageous and motivated, beginners are equally prone to be overwhelmed by failure. An expert, on the other hand, having gone through, myriad setbacks, is more capable to persevere through the struggles involved in making a significant contribution while avoiding past mistakes that led to failure. Then, experts are more productive due to their work ethic and time management skills which can compensate for a beginners higher motivation.
Secondly, if the author’s generalization is based upon the extrapolation of previous statistics, then contributions by experts, by far, has exceeded than those of beginners. A study by Benjamin Jones revealed that most of scientific contributions of the last century have come from the people above 30 years of age. The fact that the average-age of Nobel laureates in Science is 58 years further corroborates this point. Finally, apart from potential, experts have more resources and opportunities to make significant contributions. Whether it is research funding or extensive collaboration, they have an advantage due to their reputation. Having spent enough time in their field of inquiry, they have a better opportunity to stumble upon a significant research problem and solve it using their profound knowledge, efficient problem solving skills, and resources. In the previous examples of Marie Curie and Lawrence Bragg also, both needed the expertise of Pierre Curie and Henry Bragg, respectively, to excel in their endeavour. In fact, in science, it is the combined efforts of the experienced and the inexperienced that has done wonders.
In conclusion, while beginners are creative, courageous and zealous in their endeavour, these traits alone do not guarantee success. Profound knowledge, persistence, work ethics, time management and efficient problem solving skills, etc. are equally important qualities that the experts gain through experience and practice. Considerations about personal traits, opportunities, resources and past numbers of contributions, all corroborate that experts are more likely to contribute than the beginners. The author’s best bet would be to claim that it is the combination of experts and beginners which is more likely to succeed than anyone else in any field of inquiry.
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Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 7, column 426, Rule ID: A_PLURAL[1]
Message: Don't use indefinite articles with plural words. Did you mean 'a beginner' or simply 'beginners'?
Suggestion: a beginner; beginners
...agement skills which can compensate for a beginners higher motivation. Secondly, if the...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 10, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...e inexperienced that has done wonders. In conclusion, while beginners are creat...
^^^
Line 11, column 1, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...nexperienced that has done wonders. In conclusion, while beginners are creativ...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, finally, first, firstly, however, if, lastly, moreover, second, secondly, similarly, so, then, while, apart from, for example, for instance, in conclusion, in fact, such as, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.5258426966 133% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.4196629213 89% => OK
Conjunction : 24.0 14.8657303371 161% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 11.3162921348 133% => OK
Pronoun: 42.0 33.0505617978 127% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 103.0 58.6224719101 176% => OK
Nominalization: 24.0 12.9106741573 186% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 4062.0 2235.4752809 182% => OK
No of words: 717.0 442.535393258 162% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.66527196653 5.05705443957 112% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.17463580148 4.55969084622 113% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.16706338348 2.79657885939 113% => OK
Unique words: 369.0 215.323595506 171% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.514644351464 0.4932671777 104% => OK
syllable_count: 1266.3 704.065955056 180% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.8 1.59117977528 113% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 6.24550561798 160% => OK
Article: 8.0 4.99550561798 160% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 3.10617977528 97% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.77640449438 169% => OK
Preposition: 14.0 4.38483146067 319% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 35.0 20.2370786517 173% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 23.0359550562 87% => OK
Sentence length SD: 45.6542820488 60.3974514979 76% => OK
Chars per sentence: 116.057142857 118.986275619 98% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.4857142857 23.4991977007 87% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.05714285714 5.21951772744 116% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 4.97078651685 121% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 7.80617977528 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 24.0 10.2758426966 234% => Less positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 5.13820224719 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.83258426966 166% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.354695829969 0.243740707755 146% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0822554523059 0.0831039109588 99% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.122178855283 0.0758088955206 161% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.219497319575 0.150359130593 146% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.165200910834 0.0667264976115 248% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.5 14.1392134831 110% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 34.26 48.8420337079 70% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.5 12.1743820225 111% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 15.61 12.1639044944 128% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.17 8.38706741573 109% => OK
difficult_words: 206.0 100.480337079 205% => Less difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 11.8971910112 101% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.2143820225 89% => OK
text_standard: 16.0 11.7820224719 136% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 7, column 426, Rule ID: A_PLURAL[1]
Message: Don't use indefinite articles with plural words. Did you mean 'a beginner' or simply 'beginners'?
Suggestion: a beginner; beginners
...agement skills which can compensate for a beginners higher motivation. Secondly, if the...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 10, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...e inexperienced that has done wonders. In conclusion, while beginners are creat...
^^^
Line 11, column 1, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...nexperienced that has done wonders. In conclusion, while beginners are creativ...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, finally, first, firstly, however, if, lastly, moreover, second, secondly, similarly, so, then, while, apart from, for example, for instance, in conclusion, in fact, such as, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.5258426966 133% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.4196629213 89% => OK
Conjunction : 24.0 14.8657303371 161% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 11.3162921348 133% => OK
Pronoun: 42.0 33.0505617978 127% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 103.0 58.6224719101 176% => OK
Nominalization: 24.0 12.9106741573 186% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 4062.0 2235.4752809 182% => OK
No of words: 717.0 442.535393258 162% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.66527196653 5.05705443957 112% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.17463580148 4.55969084622 113% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.16706338348 2.79657885939 113% => OK
Unique words: 369.0 215.323595506 171% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.514644351464 0.4932671777 104% => OK
syllable_count: 1266.3 704.065955056 180% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.8 1.59117977528 113% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 6.24550561798 160% => OK
Article: 8.0 4.99550561798 160% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 3.10617977528 97% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.77640449438 169% => OK
Preposition: 14.0 4.38483146067 319% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 35.0 20.2370786517 173% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 23.0359550562 87% => OK
Sentence length SD: 45.6542820488 60.3974514979 76% => OK
Chars per sentence: 116.057142857 118.986275619 98% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.4857142857 23.4991977007 87% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.05714285714 5.21951772744 116% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 4.97078651685 121% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 7.80617977528 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 24.0 10.2758426966 234% => Less positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 5.13820224719 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.83258426966 166% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.354695829969 0.243740707755 146% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0822554523059 0.0831039109588 99% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.122178855283 0.0758088955206 161% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.219497319575 0.150359130593 146% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.165200910834 0.0667264976115 248% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.5 14.1392134831 110% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 34.26 48.8420337079 70% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.5 12.1743820225 111% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 15.61 12.1639044944 128% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.17 8.38706741573 109% => OK
difficult_words: 206.0 100.480337079 205% => Less difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 11.8971910112 101% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.2143820225 89% => OK
text_standard: 16.0 11.7820224719 136% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.