Writing Feedback / GRE: Highway Safety in Prunty and Butler County - Argument Topic [NEW]

Argument topic
In an attempt to improve highway safety, Prunty County last year lowered its speed limit form 55Mph to 45Mph on all county highways. But this effort has failed: the number of accidents has not decreased and based on reports by highway patrol, many drivers are exceeding the speed limit. Prunty County should instead undertake the same kind of road improvement project that Butler County completed five years ago: increasing lane widths, resurfacing rough highways, and improvising visibility at dangerous intersections. Today, major Butler County roads still have 55Mph speed limit yet there were 25 percent fewer reported accidents in Butler County this past year than there were five years ago.

Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.

The author of the essay states that in order to improve the safety of highways Prunty County should imply the safety measurements that butler county did five years ago. But there are several pitfalls in the argument which needed to be considered.

Prunty County lowered the speed limits from 55Mph to 45 Mph yet there is increase in the accidents. There is no clear statistical data that for how much amount of period the surveys were carried out. There is a possibility that when Prunty County decreased the speed limit the survey was carried out for one year and the result was stated that number of accidents are increased, Whereas in Butler county the accidents were monitored for five years and the result was stated that number of accidents are increased.

Also the author states that 25% fewer accidents were reported than there were five years ago. Now there is no information which gives the idea about how much vehicles were monitored and how much accidents were reported five years ago there is a possibility that accidents though happen in the Butler County they were not reported and hence the number was low.

Moreover there is no data which supports that accidents happened were because of over speeding, there is a possibility that those who followed the speed limit yet met with accident because of other reasons say night driving or lesser visibility at the tight corners. Hence in order to reduce the road accidents there should be more weightage on the safety boards.

Butler County implied some safety measurements for highway roads such as resurfacing rough highways and increasing the lane width but one cannot say that these are the exact reasons why the road accidents were reduced. Because of increasing the lane width the accidents are prone to happen because of vehicle overtake. The highway accidents may have reduced because people became more cautious and drove safely, hence Prunty County should undertake road safety movement which will increase the awareness among the people to drive safely. Also there should be more road safety signs along the highway to indicate the speed limit sharp turns, which will help the driver to drive safely on highways.

There are many remedies in the argument and author should provide more substantial data and surveys which will give the clear idea about the road accidents in Prunty County and Butler County and the surveys should be analogues for easy comparison.

Writing Feedback / 'there will be more equipment and we will be dependent on them' - conveniences vs development [2]

The luxuries and conveniences of contemporary life prevent people from developing into truly strong and independent individuals.

Today's lifestyle has changed dramatically compared lifestyle of previous century. Definition of independent life has changed now. Being an independent person you must be self-sufficient economically. You should have an automobile, a home and the modern facilities. Today we have much equipment to do our task easier. Computer made computation and work easier. Internet access brought the world closer. Social websites improved our contact with people.

We might say that because of new technology we have become more machine dependent and have lost our ability to perform task with the same skill than before. Let's take an example of car manufacturing, in the beginning car parts were manufactured by machine and were assembled by man afterwards. Now everything is automated from manufacturing to assembly and painting everything is automated. If the automated system fails at some point then whole manufacturing will be stopped. Hence the man cannot say at that point he is independent and strong, he has become more dependable on machine and automated systems than before.

Even though there are some drawbacks of the modern facilities there are many other benefits of the luxuries too. Lot of time is saved because of washing machines, microwave, computers and cell phones. The modern luxuries are now more than just a luxury there are necessity of the modern lifestyle. Take the example of working woman she needs washing machine and microwave to make her household work fast and can give more time to her office work, hence it is helping woman to become more independent in her social life. Another example can be given of the internet, many people make living by the internet, Varun Agarwal and engineer by education never got job in the field, he started the e-commerce website for college hoodies and accessories. After some time the company was worth million dollars. Here the internet helped the college boy to make living.

As time will pass there will be more equipment and we will be dependent on them. But that equipment one way or another are going to help you in your life to become more independent. Hence in a conclusion modern life luxuries and conveniences will help people to develop into more independent and strong human being.