TOEFL iBT, Independent Writing, Most important discoveries are accidental.

Writing Topic

Consider the following statement. Most important discoveries are accidental. Do you agree or disagree with this idea? Support your response by including specific reasons and examples.

 

☆Note: Let’s make sure the difference between the two words: discovery and invention. Discovery is about finding something that had existed all the time while invention is used for creating something new. For example, a new star is not invented but discovered; it had been in the universe for quite a long time before its discovery. A new machine is invented, not discovered; before its invention, it did not exist. Gravity had been working on us humans before it was discovered by Newton. The Rosetta Stone had been sitting there in the city of Rosetta for about 2000 years before Napoleon’s men spotted (discovered) it.

 

☆Let’s Think

We all have heard about many important chance discoveries:

There are many legendary stories related to important discoveries. The often-told story of the discovery of gravity goes, “Newton was chilling under an apple tree one day and happened to see an apple fall and this led him to discover gravity.” Whether it was an apple or a comet, Newton was said to have found gravity accidentally to see the movement of a natural phenomenon. In the same way, Fleming was said to have discovered penicillin by chance. The same goes with the discovery of weight volume ratio by Archimedes, America by Columbus, the Rosetta Stone by Napoleon’s army, etc.

 

The definition of the word accidental:

Are legendary important discoveries by chance purely accidental? Let’s think about the word accidental. Accidental is, in other words, coincidence or unintentional. The opposite of accidental is necessary or inevitable. Are most important discoveries coincidence and not inevitable?

 

☆Hints for Points

1. No one knows what is really important:

As we common people often hear and read stories of accidental discoveries that changed our life or views, and specialists seem to be able to tell ten times more of those kinds of stories, it is probably correct to say that most important discoveries are accidental. It is said that our ancestors discovered that cooked meet tastes better and easier on our stomach when they found some partly-burnt game after a fire. We do not really know a lot about matters and the universe. Then how can we know where something important exists? We are actually leaping the result of serendipitous discoveries most of the time. Scientists, who know a lot about matters and the universe, stress the importance of basic research, which is done just because we do not know what we should expect as the outcome.

 

2. Many, but not most:

Dramatic discoveries make strong impressions, making us believe that most discoveries are accidental. In reality, those accidental discoveries are exceptions and most important discoveries are far from chances. The idea of quantum physics, atomic energy, and Higgs boson are all important scientific discoveries that were made methodically with a lot of money and through the collaboration of a large number of people in the related fields after the first conception by some geniuses who knew all well about the area of science.

 

3. Money talks:

In a narrow sense, importance is priority, and today’s important discoveries are products of strenuous attempts financed by those in power. Governments and big businesses back up projects that would yield findings that are thought to be important. Many famous discoveries have been accomplished by applying scientific methods, spending a lot of money, and mobilizing a large number of people. Discoveries of DNA, semi-conductors workable at higher temperatures, and iPS cells, to name a few, have all been made in laboratories funded by those that were interested in the results. There are cases in which scientists find a treasure in some by-products or in what could have been regarded as garbage such as the finding of carbon nanotube, but such cases are exceptions. At least in modern times, almost all important discoveries do not happen by accident.

 

 

4. Necessity named chance:

There seems to be what you might call a necessary coincidence. There is a thought before a so-called accidental finding occurs. Newton had been interested in matter and motion before he noticed the existence of a force pulling an object in a direction when he saw a phenomenon. Many Europeans had suspected that a ship which keeps going west would never fall but reach a shore before the “accidental” discovery of America. Even the famous discovery of the mural in the Lascaux cave might not have been made unless the children who happened to see it were educated enough to be aware that it was not just graffiti but something special. When the “Eureka!” moment came to Archimedes in the bathtub, he had taken a bath thousands of times. Only when he had been assigned the task of measuring the volume of a complex figure and thinking hard about the problem did he “discover” the method for it to see the water level go up when he dipped his body in the bathtub. The moment of important discovery comes as a necessity when there is a mind of pursuit.

 

 

 

☆Essay Structure

♦Sample Essay Structure in the case that you have two or three reasons to support your argument

【Introduction = Outline】　主張と理由の概要

I disagree with the statement that most important discoveries are accidental because some kind of interest is always necessary to find importance in something.

【Point 1】理由1の詳細

Today’s discoveries are products of strenuous attempts financed by those in power..

【Point 2】理由2の詳細

Interest exists before an important discovery.

【Point 3 / Counterargument-treatment】理由3の詳細または反論の処理

It is true that there is what you call an accidental discovery that depends on more luck than others achieved with strong intentions. However, to say something is accidental, total absence of interest in the discovered should be proved and in no case of discovery can we find it.

【Conclusion = Wrap-up】結論

Strictly speaking, no important discoveries are accidental.

 

 

♦Your Sample Essay Structure

【Introduction = Outline】

 

【Point 1】

 

 

【Point 2】

 

 

【Point 3 / Counterargument-treatment】

 

 

【Conclusion = Wrap-up】

 

 

 

 

☆Paragraph development

A paragraph of the body of an essay often develops its main idea as follows:

Sample paragraph developemnt

【Main Idea】Interest exists before an important discovery.

【Explanation】No discoverer of something important is totally ignorant of the importance of it.

【Detail / Example】 For example, the two famous discoveries of scientific significance have legendary stories of accidental events that led to the findings, but they were both made by scientists who had been inquiring about the related problems.

【More Specific Detail / Example】Newton had been interested in matter and motion before he saw a phenomenon and found gravity. Fleming, who discovered penicillin when he saw an area unaffected by mold in a petri dish, was a bacteriologist and had been handling molds in his laboratory for years.

【Counterargument & Counter-counterargument】 It is true that there are such stories that a grade school boy happened to find a piece of a meteorite, but again the boy interested in weird-looking stones found it, not the other people who had also stepped on it.

【Conclusion】An important phenomenon or matter is meaningless till a mind of inquiry touches it.

 

 

 

Your test paragraph development

Now let’s practice paragraph development. Choose one of the reasons you have come up with, make it the main idea, and develop it using the following form. As this is a tentative part of your real essay, use simple words and sentences for supporting details and focus on the logic and ideas.

 

【Main Idea】

 

 

【Explanation】

 

 

 

【Detail / Example in general】

 

 

 

【More Specific Detail / Example】

 

 

 

 

【Counterargument & Counter-counterargument】

 

 

 

 

【Conclusion】