The following appeared on theWeb site Science News Today.
“In a recent survey of more than 5,000 adolescents, the teens who reported eating the most meals with their families were the least likely to use illegal drugs, tobacco, or alcohol. Family meals were also associated with higher grades, better self-esteem, and lower rates of depression. Almost 30 percent of the teens said they ate at least seven meals per week with their families. Clearly, having a high number of family meals keeps teens from engaging in bad behaviors.”
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument.
The argument concludes that having most of the meals with family prevent students from bad behaviors. To justify this, the arguments cites a recent survey of more than 5,000 adolescents. The results of the survey indicate that students who eat most meals with their families had lower possibility to take illegal drugs, tobacco, or alcohol. Those students also tended to have higher grades, better self-esteem and lower rates of depression. The author also pointed out that 30 percent of the teens had at least seven meals per week with their families. The results clearly have alternative way to interpret, therefore the conclusion is unconvincing.
To begin with, author made the connection between having most meals with family and having less use of illegal drugs, tobacco or alcohol, in order to support his or her conclusion. The author assumes that eating with their family caused the student to stay away from those bad behaviors mentioned above. However, the author may confused with the reason and results. It is possible that students who do not use have those bad behaviors tend to go home after school and have dinner with their family. It is the good behaviors made them to eat at home, not the other way around.
The same logic goes to the good behaviors. The survey only identified the association between good behaviors and having meals with family. It did not show any causality between them. Two things which happened simultaneously do not necessarily have any relationship at all. For instance, we easily identify other traits students with good behaviors may share, but it does not automatically mean that these traits are the reasons that the students have good behaviors.
The authenticity of the results is also doubtful. The students with good behaviors may regard eating at home a good behavior, therefore reported higher number of meals at home that it really is. Therefore, the results showed wrong relationship between eating at home and good behaviors. The survey also have results on things that cannot be valued as number such as self-esteem. Students who wants to be seen as good students may report that they have high self-esteem and do not have depression.
Even if we admit that there are some sort of relationship between eating at home and the behaviors of students, we cannot conclude that having a high number of family meals keeps teens from bad behaviors. The survey only studied usage of illegal drugs, tobacco and alcohol. There are also many other bad behaviors such as being bully at school or cheating. Eating at home may or may not have relationships with them, which needs further investigation to make a conclusion.
Overall, the argument is weak since it does not rule our all other possibilities. It made a very crude and bold interpretation and conclusion on the results of the survey. To make a better recommendation, the author needs to give further evidence on how exactly having meals with family associated with the behaviors of students.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 124, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'arguments'' or 'argument's'?
Suggestion: arguments'; argument's
...rom bad behaviors. To justify this, the arguments cites a recent survey of more than 5,00...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 38, Rule ID: THERE_RE_MANY[3]
Message: Possible agreement error. Did you mean 'sorts'?
Suggestion: sorts
... Even if we admit that there are some sort of relationship between eating at home ...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, however, if, may, really, so, then, therefore, at least, for instance, sort of, such as, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 12.0 19.6327345309 61% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 17.0 11.1786427146 152% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 13.6137724551 125% => OK
Pronoun: 38.0 28.8173652695 132% => OK
Preposition: 68.0 55.5748502994 122% => OK
Nominalization: 9.0 16.3942115768 55% => More nominalization wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2514.0 2260.96107784 111% => OK
No of words: 499.0 441.139720559 113% => OK
Chars per words: 5.0380761523 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.72634191566 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.67137951797 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 214.0 204.123752495 105% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.428857715431 0.468620217663 92% => OK
syllable_count: 774.0 705.55239521 110% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Interrogative: 0.0 0.471057884232 0% => OK
Article: 16.0 8.76447105788 183% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 28.0 19.7664670659 142% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 22.8473053892 74% => OK
Sentence length SD: 41.7272943268 57.8364921388 72% => OK
Chars per sentence: 89.7857142857 119.503703932 75% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.8214285714 23.324526521 76% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.03571428571 5.70786347227 71% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 16.0 6.88822355289 232% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.237783823101 0.218282227539 109% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0762043262269 0.0743258471296 103% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0878920543534 0.0701772020484 125% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.147704990027 0.128457276422 115% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0925073052966 0.0628817314937 147% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.2 14.3799401198 78% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 54.22 48.3550499002 112% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 12.197005988 81% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.66 12.5979740519 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.42 8.32208582834 89% => OK
difficult_words: 93.0 98.500998004 94% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 11.1389221557 79% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 Out of 6 -- The score is based on the average performance of 20,000 argument essays. This e-grader is not smart enough to check on arguments.
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.