<p>I'm an international student, so unfortunately I don't have anyone to grade my SAT essays. Could anyone be so generous to help me grade this essay and give me some advices on how to improve it as well ?</p>
<p>Prompt : Are widely held views often wrong, or are such views more likely to be correct ?</p>
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<p>Public views have always been considered one of the best sources of opinions. However, such popular beliefs tend to be affected by various factors, resulting in hidden misconception. History and literature was repleted with proofs of common knowledge being indeed very far from the truth.</p>
<p>A prominent example of this can be found in Jane Austen's novel, Pride and Prejudice. At the beginning, Darcy, the male protagonist, was deemed by the neighborhood of Hertfordshire to be a selfish and prideful man who was considerate of nothing save himself and his family. As a result from a story circulating Meryton, he was also resented for robbing his childhood friend Wickham of the latter's rightful inheritance and sponsors which the late Mr. Darcy had promisded. Wickham, on the other hand, was regarded as a gentleman with amicable disposition. However, as the plot processed, we learned of a sharply contrasting truth. Wickham himself had given up his supposed dedication to the church, thus going against the notions upon which Darcy's father had based his support. It was Wickham's own unacceptable behaviour that had forced Darcy to remove the sponsor, though he was still tolerable toward his former friend, even paying the debts Wickham left behind. The caustic tale about Darcy was only the forgery of Wickham's resentment and hatred after the former refused to give him money to supply his extravagant causes. What the people of Herfortshire credited to be the undeniable truth was actually a despicable lie, and it was their prejudices and gullible judgments that had led them to misinterpret the true virtues of the two characters.</p>
<p>Beside stemming from subjective opinions, misleading information might be based on what was thought to be concrete truths. Geocentrism, for instance, was once regarded as the redimentary of all knowledge we possessed about the universe and geography. For many centuries, renowned philosophers and astronomists had supported this theory, notably Aristotle and Ptolemy, believing that the Earth is the centre of the universe. It was not until the 17th that this description was challenged by Copernicus, who presented the heliocentrism, placing the Sun at the centre of the Solar System that included the Earth. Further observation and elaboration had expanded this theory and by the 20th century, people came to accept it and even figure out that the whole Solar System was only a part of a galaxy. Despite being disregarded as nonsense by countless opposing arguments when it was first made public, heliocentrism overthrew the long-imprinted influence of geocentrism to become foundation of many modern astronomical theories.</p>
<p>Overall, ubiquitously known opinions were not the undeniable truths. Before accepting any of such information to be right, we should take them into careful consideration and observation. Only by doing that could we avoid making the mistakes our predecessors have stumbled over many times : to let popular opinions clouded our own judgements.</p>
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<p>Thank you very much for reading and helping !</p>