The following appeared in an article written by Dr Karp an anthropologist Twenty years ago Dr Field a noted anthropologist visited the island of Tertia and concluded from his observations that children in Tertia were reared by an entire village rather tha | TOEFL IELTS GMAT GRE SAT ACT PTE ESL

Essay topics:

The following appeared in an article written by Dr. Karp, an anthropologist.

"Twenty years ago, Dr. Field, a noted anthropologist, visited the island of Tertia and concluded from his observations that children in Tertia were reared by an entire village rather than by their own biological parents. However, my recent interviews with children living in the group of islands that includes Tertia show that these children spend much more time talking about their biological parents than about other adults in the village. This research of mine proves that Dr. Field's conclusion about Tertian village culture is invalid and thus that the observation-centered approach to studying cultures is invalid as well. The interview-centered method that my team of graduate students is currently using in Tertia will establish a much more accurate understanding of child-rearing traditions there and in other island cultures."

Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.

While the article by Dr. Karp suggests that the interview- centered method will establish more accurate understanding rather than an observation centered approach to studying cultures, it lacks several considerations and bases its study on many assumptions. In order to back his argument, the author would require to address certain information without which that argument quite doesn’t prove to be valid.

The article mentions that the study and observations were conducted and concluded by Dr. Field twenty years ago, and the author is comparing his works of recent times with the time of a bygone era. We do not know whether the study that was conducted twenty years ago had the same privileges and the advance equipment that are available in this period. The author assumes to have the same structure and methodology to conduct research with the period that significantly had less technological aspects and advancements along with the societal notions and policies etc. that accounts for a difference between that era and the present. If there were any evidence illustrating the parallels between both the methodologies, authors’ statement would make a valid point, however, since there is no aspect but assumption, author’s assumption casts doubt on the validity of the point which acts as a base for his conclusion.

Additionally, the author also mentions that in his recent interviews, the children on the island talked more about their biological parents contrasting the study pursued by Dr. Field, that based on his observation, the children of that time were reared by villagers and not by their parents. Again, the author makes his claim to sound valid by assuming no difference between the social and cultural aspects of the past with the present. Perhaps, the time when Dr. Field studied the culture of the islanders, the situation was preposterous for kids as their parent would abandon them for some reasons, and not bother because of lack of responsibility or committing acts without prior knowledge of consequence. That said, maybe they were not more socially polished as a society compared to now. If the island had the same tradition, culture or social aspects that did not change from twenty years or so, it would strengthen the authors notion that his study is better than his predecessor. Conversely, if the all the aspects had changed significantly over time, this argument becomes invalid to warrant for the claim by the author.

The article is concluded by asserting the author’s position strongly by invalidating the approach taken by his predecessor with the a few acknowledged assumptions. The observation method of approaching a study and the interview-based approach is fundamentally different and result in different statistical and analytical data. However, the author compares his work with an obviously distinct methodology and also cites his study to be valid. The validity of a research is also affected by certain circumstantial difference, either it is the periodic, social or technological difference. The argument is predicated strongly on assumptions and require more evident supporting statements to claim the validity. Therefore, without accurate information on the matter, the article lacks to make an impact.

While the author’s claim for the validity of the research and its success is fairly supported by assumptions that might be true at certain circumstances, but lacks seriously in developing a notion differentiating and asserting his methodology with somebody else’s. However, with the additional information with fact based evidences, the author’s argument can be properly evaluated.

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Essay Categories

GMAT/GRE Argument Task

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Essay evaluations by e-grader

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 315, Rule ID: ALLOW_TO[1]
Message: Did you mean 'addressing'? Or maybe you should add a pronoun? In active voice, 'require' + 'to' takes an object, usually a pronoun.
Suggestion: addressing
... his argument, the author would require to address certain information without which that ...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 927, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...ty years or so, it would strengthen the authors notion that his study is better than hi...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 129, Rule ID: DT_DT[1]
Message: Maybe you need to remove one determiner so that only 'the' or 'a' is left.
Suggestion: the; a
... approach taken by his predecessor with the a few acknowledged assumptions. The obser...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 459, Rule ID: A_UNCOUNTABLE[1]
Message: Uncountable nouns are usually not used with an indefinite article. Use simply 'research'.
Suggestion: research
... his study to be valid. The validity of a research is also affected by certain circumstant...
^^^^^^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, conversely, however, if, may, so, then, therefore, while

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.9520958084 54% => OK
Conjunction : 25.0 11.1786427146 224% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 18.0 13.6137724551 132% => OK
Pronoun: 40.0 28.8173652695 139% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 68.0 55.5748502994 122% => OK
Nominalization: 25.0 16.3942115768 152% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3094.0 2260.96107784 137% => OK
No of words: 571.0 441.139720559 129% => OK
Chars per words: 5.41856392294 5.12650576532 106% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.88831323574 4.56307096286 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.05909802592 2.78398813304 110% => OK
Unique words: 271.0 204.123752495 133% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.474605954466 0.468620217663 101% => OK
syllable_count: 950.4 705.55239521 135% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 16.0 8.76447105788 183% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 27.0 22.8473053892 118% => OK
Sentence length SD: 67.2453456228 57.8364921388 116% => OK
Chars per sentence: 147.333333333 119.503703932 123% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.1904761905 23.324526521 117% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.19047619048 5.70786347227 56% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.67664670659 171% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.166476854168 0.218282227539 76% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0528200720703 0.0743258471296 71% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0601717951196 0.0701772020484 86% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0957633712787 0.128457276422 75% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0433155002817 0.0628817314937 69% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.7 14.3799401198 123% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 35.61 48.3550499002 74% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.0 12.197005988 123% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.45 12.5979740519 115% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.26 8.32208582834 111% => OK
difficult_words: 155.0 98.500998004 157% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.8 11.1389221557 115% => OK
text_standard: 15.0 11.9071856287 126% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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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.

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, conversely, however, if, may, so, then, therefore, while

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments