please grade this essay!

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1

<p>Are widely held views often wrong, or are such views more likely to be correct?</p>

<p>Widely held views are often incorrect since they are mainly based on opinions, beliefs, ethics and morals and less on scientific evidence and logical reasoning. With the aid of Literature and history, it can be proved that views held by the multitude are often incorrect.</p>

<p>Until the 1900’s the earth was believe to be flat. Along with this, almost everyone believe that if you travelled too far into the sea, you would fall of the planet. Some people predicted the earth might be round in the 19th century with logical reasoning such as a ship goes out of view after a certain distance, no one could discover the corners of Earth and there is day and night at different times in different regions. When space travel was first successful, the snapshots of Earth from space left people flabbergasted. Everyone was startled the discovery. Concrete proof was the only thing which helped in convincing people about the Earth’s shape. However even today, a group of people know as ‘The Flat Earth Society’ still believe the earth is flat. They refuse to accept facts and continue to rely on their beliefs and opinions. Its a glaring example of how commonly held views are blatantly wrong.</p>

<p>In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the puritan society firmly believed that the priest, Arthur Dimmesdale, was the holiest and the most pure man to every set foot in New England. He became famous very quickly and a lot of people belived he was sent by god. However the truth couldn’t be more different. Although he was a priest, he had a illegitimate child with a married woman. He was probably the most sinful priest in New England’s history. This shows how society lets beliefs and appearances shroud the reality, which leads to wrong views to be held by the multitude.</p>

<p>In the novel , Fahrenheit 451, the strongly society believe that books were a bane. The role of firefighters was to set fires to houses which had books and destroy knowledge to promote sameness. It was a commonly held belief amongst everyone that books are the worst things in existence. This view was extremely wrong and only Guy Montag understood the the value of books and education.</p>

<p>Literature and history provides examples of incorrect views held by society. Poor justification and weak reasoning are the main reasons for incorrect views.</p>

2

<p>I would give it 11 out of 12. Try to expand the conclusion.</p>

3

<p>It is rather ironic that your essay is about commonly held misconceptions. I don’t know how Eratosthenes, who lived in ancient Greece, would have been able to estimate the circumference of the Earth had it been flat. For some reason people believe, or are now taught, that no one had the slightest clue that the Earth was round until the time of Christopher Columbus, or in your case more modern times. Funnily enough, this information has been known for at least 2000 years.</p>

<p>I also found it strange how your first sentence, your thesis, so to speak, directs attention to corrections made through scientific evidence and logical reasoning and then in the next sentence you immediately jump away from this and point to how you will use literature and historical examples for reference. I do not see these two as one in the same. Perhaps you could somehow combine these two sentences to create a cohesive thesis statement. </p>

<p>Other than that, I can find only nit-picky things to critique. Commonly used proper nouns such as “god” and “puritan” should probably be capitalized. Try to find a synonym for multitude if possible, as to avoid using it too often, and don’t fall into the trap of overgeneralizing when describing “every one” or when stating that commonly held views are always wrong.</p>