You have three minutes to read the following passage and take notes.In many organizations, perhaps the best way to approach certain new projects is to assemble a group of people into a team. Having a team of people attack a project offers several advantages. First of all, a group of people has a wider range of knowledge, expertise, and skills than any single individual is likely to possess. Also, because of the numbers of people involved and the greater resources they possess, a group can work more quickly in response to the task assigned to it and can come up with highly creative solutions to problems and issues. Sometimes these creative solutions come about because a group is more likely to make risky decisions that an individual might not undertake. This is because the group spreads responsibility for a decision to all the members and thus no single individual can be held accountable if the decision turns out to be wrong.
Taking part in a group process can be very rewarding for members of the team. Team members who have a voice in making a decision will no doubt feel better about carrying out the work that is entailed by that decision than they might doing work that is imposed on them by others. Also, the individual team member has a much better chance to “shine,” to get his or her contributions and ideas not only recognized but recognized as highly significant, because a team’s overall results can be more far-reaching and have greater impact than what might have otherwise been possible for the person to accomplish or contribute working alone.
Now listen to part of a lecture on the topic you just read about.
(Professor) Now I want to tell you about what one company found when it decided that it would turn over some of its new projects to teams of people, and make the team responsible for planning the projects and getting the work done. After about six months, the company took a look at how well the teams performed. On virtually every team, some members got almost a “free ride” … they didn’t contribute much at all, but if their team did a good job, they nevertheless benefited from the recognition the team got. And what about group members who worked especially well and who provided a lot of insight on problems and issues? Well…the recognition for a job well done went to the group as a whole, no names were named. So it won’t surprise you to learn that when the real contributors were asked how they felt about the group process, their attitude was just the opposite of what the reading predicts. Another finding was that some projects just didn’t move very quickly. Why? Because it took so long to reach consensus…it took many, many meetings to build the agreement among group members about how they would move the project along. On the other hand, there were other instances where one or two people managed to become very influential over what their group did. Sometimes when those influencers said “That will never work” about an idea the group was developing, the idea was quickly dropped instead of being further discussed. And then there was another occasion when a couple influencers convinced the group that a plan of theirs was “highly creative.” And even though some members tried to warn the rest of the group that the project was moving in directions that might not work, they were basically ignored by other group members. Can you guess the ending to *this* story? When the project failed, the blame was placed on all the members of the group.
Directions
You have 20 minutes to plan and write your response. Your response will be judged on the basis of the quality of your writing and on how well your response presents the points in the lecture and their relationship to the reading passage. Typically, an effective response will be 150 to 225 words.
The reading claims that in many organizations assemble a group of people into a team is the best way to approach certain new projects. Moreover, it talks about many advantages of this way. However, the lecture explains that this is not necessarily true through an example from one company.
First, the reading says that a group of people has a wider range of knowledge and skills. also, because of the numbers of people involved, a group can work more quickly. In response, the lecture reveals that in many teams of the company there were a lot of people who does not really works in the project and at the end have the reward as a whole group which was disappointing for those who really did a good job in the project. In another hand, surprisingly, the work did not go as quickly as it was supposed because the members need many meetings to have an agreement about a decision.
Second, the reading says that team working can be very rewarding for members of the team. also, the individual team member idea has a much better chance to be recognized. In contrast, the lecture talks about how things goes in the opposite direction in this company, each team has almost one or two influencers members who affect the team decision. For example, when they give a wrong decision regardless of members who oppose them, their decision will be taken.
- In general people are living longer now Which of the following do you think accounts for this phenomenon Technological improvements Changes to education systems Improvements to our diets Use specific details and examples in your answer You may choose more 61
- The zebra mussel a freshwater shellfish native to Eastern Europe has long been spreading out from its original habitats and has now reached parts of North America There are reasons to believe that this invasion cannot be stopped and that it poses a seriou 66
- A person should never make an important decision alone 70
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement Young people today have no influence on the important decisions that determine the future of society as a whole Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer 60
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement In the past it was easy to identify what type of carrier or job would lead yours to a secure or successful carrier 60
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 90, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Also
... a wider range of knowledge and skills. also, because of the numbers of people invol...
^^^^
Line 3, column 91, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Also
...very rewarding for members of the team. also, the individual team member idea has a ...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, however, moreover, really, second, so, for example, in contrast
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 8.0 10.4613686534 76% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 3.0 7.30242825607 41% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 11.0 12.0772626932 91% => OK
Pronoun: 14.0 22.412803532 62% => OK
Preposition: 30.0 30.3222958057 99% => OK
Nominalization: 2.0 5.01324503311 40% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1107.0 1373.03311258 81% => OK
No of words: 238.0 270.72406181 88% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.6512605042 5.08290768461 92% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.92775363542 4.04702891845 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.51482785801 2.5805825403 97% => OK
Unique words: 133.0 145.348785872 92% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.558823529412 0.540411800872 103% => OK
syllable_count: 340.2 419.366225166 81% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.4 1.55342163355 90% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => 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: 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: 55.6489884666 49.2860985944 113% => OK
Chars per sentence: 100.636363636 110.228320801 91% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.6363636364 21.698381199 100% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.90909090909 7.06452816374 98% => OK
Paragraphs: 3.0 4.09492273731 73% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 4.33554083885 138% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 4.45695364238 45% => More negative sentences wanted.
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: 0.300213806371 0.272083759551 110% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.117274054749 0.0996497079465 118% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.125470548987 0.0662205650399 189% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.207586184958 0.162205337803 128% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0867977207931 0.0443174109184 196% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.3 13.3589403974 85% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 67.08 53.8541721854 125% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.1 11.0289183223 83% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 9.69 12.2367328918 79% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.6 8.42419426049 90% => OK
difficult_words: 44.0 63.6247240618 69% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 10.498013245 99% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Minimum four paragraphs wanted. The correct pattern:
para 1: introduction
para 2: doubt 1
para 3: doubt 2
para 4: doubt 3
Less contents wanted from the reading passages(25%), more content wanted from the lecture (75%).
Don't need a conclusion paragraph.
Read sample essays from ETS:
http://www.testbig.com/users/toeflwritingmaster
Rates: 66.6666666667 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 20.0 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.