Download Peer review guideline Causal Analysis Essay Dr. Jun Zhao English

Peer review guideline
Causal Analysis Essay
Dr. Jun Zhao
English 102
Marshall University
Writer name: Nic Riggleman
Reviewer name: Grant Bumgardner
While reading the draft the first time, please jot down your comments/thoughts on the marginal
space. After that, please read these questions and reread the draft to provide specific,
constructive feedback based on the guideline questions.
1. What is the “why” question the paper addresses? How effective is the paper at hooking
the reader’s interest in the question?
Why isn’t Pluto a planet
2. Does the paper impress you as a general informative essay, or one targeting specifically
at providing multiple causes/consequences of a phenomenon? What are some of the
points/reasons/consequences the writer develops in the essay? Please draw an outline of
the draft.
Yes the paper impressed me and informed me on why Pluto is no longer a planer
3. How well does the writer stay on track or how much does the paper wander off course?
Do ideas or information presented in the essay form a coherent text? Can you connect all
ideas to the thesis? Is there any idea that should not be presented here? What are they? If
the paper loses focus, indicate where.
The paper stays on track with very few errors
4. Are there confusing parts? Where would you like more details, examples, definitions or
explanations to help you see the points?
A few confusing parts
5. How informative is the paper to you? Have you learned anything from reading this
paper? What part(s) of the text are especially informative? What information was
interesting and/or new to you? What do you expect to learn more about in this essay?
It was very informitavie
6. Is the draft clear and easy to follow? Is it interesting? How might the writer improve the
style, clarity, or interest level of the draft?
Yes its very clear
7. How accurate does the information seem? Are there any questionable information? How
carefully does the author indicate the sources of statistics and other information that are
not common knowledge?
Very accurate
8. In the conclusion, what could be added or changed to make it more effective? How well
does it tie everything together? To what extent does it make you want to learn more about
this topic?
A few changes need to be made
9. What is the main weakness of this paper? How might the writer
It could be more fun for the reader
Nicholas Riggleman
Jun Zhao
English 102 – 250
Causal-Analysis
03-03-2010
For the longest time Pluto was considered the uninhabitable freezing
ninth planet from the sun; however, recently scientists have decided to strip
Pluto of its label of even being a planet at all. When I first heard of this I asked
myself, why? For what reasons, or what kind of new discovery was made for
people to reconsider what was believed to be a planet and what would have to
happen for a planet like Pluto to no longer be considered a planet. Will there be
more planets in our solar system that get declared no longer one? These
questions led me into a slight interest in finding out the answers to these
questions. So I am going to look at few things throughout this paper. I will talk
about the beginnings of the rock which would be called Pluto, from its
discovery up until its current demise of losing its lineage as one of the nine
planets in the Milky Way. From here I will journey into a small portion of the
scientific field of astronomy and take a glance at what scientists have
considered the qualifications for a rock to become a planet and how this has
changed throughout our history. My last thoughts presented in this paper will
be what dwarf planets are and how they differ from a true planet. I will talk
about all of the dwarf planets in which dwell in our solar system and how they
and Pluto have impacted what we once had believed to be planets.
Pluto, a rock existing between 2.757 - 4.583 billion miles from the great
inferno which we call the sun was not discovered until sometime in 1930. Neil
DeGrasse Tyson mentioned that the young Miss Venetia Burney of England
was the first to suggest that this newly discovered planet to be named Pluto.
Her grandfather happened to be a well placed man among Oxford University
and he suggested this name to the astronomers. Thus it was then named after
the Roman god of the underworld, Hades. Pluto somehow managed to find its
way into the hearts of American’s not only due to its discovery by an American,
but through Walt Disney’s famous cartoon character, Pluto the dog, Mickey’s
sidekick. As Disney’s fortune and popularity grew, so did the name Pluto which
in some way increased the fame and favor of American’s towards the cold
distant planet. Another fame boost for this rock would be the discovery of the
element containing 94 protons. Scientists then searching for an efficient name
to dub it the newly founded planet Pluto came to mind. Thus the name of
plutonium was placed upon the new element which as Tyson said was destined
to happen since the element containing ninety-two protons was named shortly
after the discovery of the eighth planet, Uranus. Eventually debates about
Pluto’s right to planet hood would arise and scientists would then question
whether or not Pluto is a planet. After a while, a museum containing a solar
system area which has Pluto grouped with the icy rocks section. This seemed
to stir up the controversial topic even more and thus the International
Astronomical Union had a meeting and voted on whether or not Pluto should
remain a planet. And as you can see, it ended with a unanimous vote being in
favor of Pluto being stripped of its great name as a planet and being
downgraded into a dwarf planet.
So what is a planet? It’s obviously not every circular rock floating about
in the solar system. The first known planets were mentioned by the Greeks and
Romans: mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Sun is included
because it was also thought to have revolved around Earth. As astronomy
became more popular and viewing machines more advanced, more planets
would later be discovered with an eventual arrival of Pluto. The reason for the
vast gap between the discovery of Neptune up to the discovery of Pluto is
largely due to how far away it is from us and its size is considerably smaller
than even Earth. Like the other planets upon discovery it was declared a
planet, which the definition of this has never really arrived at one single
concrete definition even to this day. A planet was once defined simply as any
rock floating inside of the solar system, but this seemed to have been before
many objects started being discovered beyond that of Neptune. Some of these
rocks seemed to be large enough to even be stars yet also some were small
enough to simply be a moon. However when Pluto was discovered it met the
current requirements and passed through the testing stage to emerge the ninth
planet. The other planets seem to fall into the classification of planet by
meeting the qualifications which as stated in a NASA article would be a
nonluminous celestial body larger than an asteroid or comet which is
illuminated by light from a star which it revolves around, such as the sun. The
sun is classified under the yellow dwarf stars, which are actually considered to
be relatively small. Is there any chance that our sun could somehow be
downgraded into another type or maybe even stripped of even being a star at
all? The sun is in comparison to other stars very small. It may emit heat and
burn as bright as some stars but due to its rather small size as a star is there
any chance that it, like Pluto, could be removed of what it is once known as?
Probably not, the knowledge on stars and how we classify them seem to be
much more steady than our idea of what a planet is. NASA mentions that stars
are simply a ball of gas in which is held together by the sheer force of its own
gravity which is actually trying to cause the star to collapse and this would
eventually happen when a star goes supernova. But what other kinds of rock
classifications are there?
Our solar system is not only accompanied by the planets, there are also
countless numbers of small rocks and even large asteroids hurdling aimlessly
through space, there are many asteroids and comets. There also seem to be a
few larger rocks which aren’t quite planets which seem to be caught revolving
around the enormous sun, dwarf planets. NASA states in one of its articles
that a dwarf planet is a celestial form that stays in an orbit around the sun and
sustains a sufficient mass for its gravity allow it to have its nearly round shape
which is not a satellite. The current dwarf planets in which are inside of our
solar system are Ceres, which is located inside of the asteroid belt which like
Pluto, was also considered a planet until being reclassified as an asteroid half a
century later and then later dubbed a dwarf planet. Eris, located in the
Scattered disc region was actually thought to be considered the tenth planet
upon discovery. However with Pluto no longer being a planet it would be the
ninth, but this idea was very short-lived and was declared a dwarf planet only
a year later. The last two planets are Makemake and Haumea, which are both
located in the Kuiper belt and were not thought to be planets, simply declared
dwarfs a few years after their discovery. Another dwarf planet would be the
main one in this discussion, Pluto. Pluto is located inside of the Kuiper belt
which until 2006 in was considered to be a planet.
In conclusion, Pluto was not just randomly demoted to a dwarf planet. In
truth, it always was at heart. New, more advanced technology has led scientists
to discover Pluto’s lacking of planetary attributes. The only problem was in
declaring what has for so long been a planet which was discovered by an
American, which surely impacted how the American related scientists felt
about the reclassifying of their favorite icy rock. However in the end, after the
vote the planet was turned into a dwarf planet. So for all of the who question
this decision, another way to look at this demotion was presented by Tyson,
Pluto used to be a small and insignificant ninth planet, but now it has emerged
as a well-known high class important dwarf planet inside of our solar system.