Universities should require every student take a variety of courses outside the student's field of study.
It is a new trend to do interdisciplinary researches, the essence of which is to apply the basic subjects like math, physics, chemistry, computer science to other fields. Considering that more interdisciplinary talents will be needed in the future, the speaker argure that universities should ask all the students to take additional courses outside their own majors. While the statement has its reasons, I mostly disagree with it because the suggestion is so blind and absolute and there is a better alternative suggestion which can satisfy its original goal with less negative consequences.
Some people who support the statement may argue that students who know more about othe fields can have a broader view and will be more insightful and creative so that they are more likely to have better career prospects. As a interdisciplinary student of biology and physics, I have deeply experienced the benefits it brings. For instance, it is usually difficult for the biology students to insightfully understand the mechanism of vision: how our human eyes can see the object, which, however, is much easier if we are equipped with physical science about light, wave, quantum mechanics. Another particularly salient example is the Elon Musk who has the double degree of the physics and economy. He once, in the commencement adress of Stanford University, told the students to think from the first principle if they would like to have more original ideas, which is more common in physics. These examples illustrate that learning something outside one's own major are necessary and helpful in some circumstances.
The statement, however, ignores the interest coming from our inside which determines how much time and energy we would like to spend on these courses and how much we really learn from them. Supposing that a student who are required to take various additional courses outside his own major, he may be busy with these courses and be tired of them even hate them. We have to notice that interest have to be taken into consideration even if these additional courses are extremely well designed and useful. So, it may be better to encourage students to choose additional courses they are interested instead of making these courses compulsory.
Besides, the suggestion is not applicable to all the majors because some majors are hard to find helpful additional courses. For instance, how could we come out any other courses which are very helpful and necessary for the students whose major is Chinese? If we blindly require these Chinese Nahor students to learn some courses like advanced physics and math which may are indispensable for students of science and engineering, what interdisciplinary talents can we expect to cultivate? The example shows that the suggestion is so absolute and not practical.
From all discussed above, while the statement may have its good intentions, I mostly object to it because it ignores the factor of interest and it is not suitable for all cases. And I would like to put up an alternative suggestion that universities can list all the related and helpful additional courses and encourage students to choose some according to their own interest and the plan for the future.
- People's behavior is largely determined by forces not of their own making. 66
- Governments shuold offer a free university education to any students who have been admitted to a university but who cannot offer the tuition 66
- Formal education tends to restrain our minds and spirits rather than set them free. 83
- In any field of endeavor, it is impossible to make a significant contribution without first being influenced by past achievement within that field. 79
- Nations should pass laws to preserve any remaining wilderness areas in their national state, even if these areas could be developed for economic gain. 70
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 225, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
...ely to have better career prospects. As a interdisciplinary student of biology an...
^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
besides, first, however, if, may, really, so, well, while, for instance
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 27.0 19.5258426966 138% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 17.0 12.4196629213 137% => OK
Conjunction : 20.0 14.8657303371 135% => OK
Relative clauses : 20.0 11.3162921348 177% => OK
Pronoun: 50.0 33.0505617978 151% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 60.0 58.6224719101 102% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 12.9106741573 132% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2706.0 2235.4752809 121% => OK
No of words: 526.0 442.535393258 119% => OK
Chars per words: 5.14448669202 5.05705443957 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.78901763229 4.55969084622 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.86676886369 2.79657885939 103% => OK
Unique words: 241.0 215.323595506 112% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.458174904943 0.4932671777 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 868.5 704.065955056 123% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59117977528 107% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 6.24550561798 160% => OK
Article: 5.0 4.99550561798 100% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 3.10617977528 129% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.77640449438 56% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.38483146067 68% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 20.2370786517 94% => OK
Sentence length: 27.0 23.0359550562 117% => OK
Sentence length SD: 50.5394719714 60.3974514979 84% => OK
Chars per sentence: 142.421052632 118.986275619 120% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.6842105263 23.4991977007 118% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.73684210526 5.21951772744 72% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.97078651685 101% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 7.80617977528 13% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 16.0 10.2758426966 156% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 5.13820224719 39% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.83258426966 21% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.206130234603 0.243740707755 85% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0703475069881 0.0831039109588 85% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0737431511298 0.0758088955206 97% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.121534505236 0.150359130593 81% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0270544904739 0.0667264976115 41% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.6 14.1392134831 117% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 35.61 48.8420337079 73% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.0 12.1743820225 123% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.83 12.1639044944 105% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.43 8.38706741573 101% => OK
difficult_words: 115.0 100.480337079 114% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 11.8971910112 122% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.8 11.2143820225 114% => OK
text_standard: 15.0 11.7820224719 127% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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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.