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
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 as 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 atomic energy, Higgs boson, and gravitational waves 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. There is no finding
something important without projects. 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
Sample 1
【Introduction = Outline】I agree with the statement that most important discoveries are accidental
because chance is what the word discovery is all about.
【Point 1】History is
full of examples of chance discoveries.
【Point 2】Today, we
hit something important by sweeping and scanning.
【Point 3 / Counterargument-treatment】Setting a range for the sweeping is intentional, but it is not so
different from a fisherman throwing a net. They can catch a huge fish or a new
kind of species or even a historic object.
【Conclusion = Wrap-up】We do not know a lot about the world as we might think we do.
Sample 2
【Introduction = Outline】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】Today’s
discoveries are products of strenuous attempts financed by those in power..
【Point 2】Interest
exists before an important discovery.
【Point 3 / Counterargument-treatment】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】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:
【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】
