The following appeared in article written by Dr. Karp, an anthropologist.
“Twenty years ago, Dr. Field visited the island of Tertia and concluded from his observations that children Tertia were reared by their own biological parents. However, my recent interviews with children living in the group of islands that includes Tertia shows that these children spend much more time talking about their biological parents than about 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.
In the article, Dr. Karp concludes that his research using the interview-centered approach proves the research of Dr. Field’s conclusion about Tertian village culture as invalid and thus, studying cultures using observation-centered approach is invalid as well. Dr. Karp came to this conclusion because his interview with children living in the group of islands that includes Tertia shows that the children spend much more time talking about their biological parents than about adults in the village. However, while the conclusion drawn by Dr. Karp might hold water, it rests on several unfounded assumptions that, if not substantiated, dramatically weaken the persuasiveness of the argument. Thus, the following three assumptions must be addressed.
Firstly, Dr. Karp assumes that the same set of people who were parents in Tertia twenty years ago are still parents at the time of interview. Perhaps, a large population of the village twenty years ago are aged people and many have passed away. It is also possible that the older generations of Tertia village are confined within the land mass of their village and are not exposed to cultures from other surrounding islands or villages, therefore, they can only but remain upon practicing the cultures they are used to. Unlike, the current generation of residence of Tertia village who might have been influenced by their exposure to technological advancement and their surrounding cultures, thereby causing them to deviate from their old cultural practices. If either of these scenarios proves true, then the assertion of Dr. Karp is significantly hampered.
Furthermore, Dr. Karp presumes that children speaking about that parents is a direct indication that the children were reared by their biological parents. Perhaps the children were reared as toddlers by another person and they have only recently returned back to their parents after they reach certain age. It also a possibility that the children only came to stay with their parents for vacation at the time Dr. Karp conducted his interview. The vacation could be a reason why the children talk so much about their parents, hoping to cherish all the moments they would be spending together before they depart again. If the above is the case, then Dr. Karp should rather conduct interviews for parents where he could get verified details on whether or not they are the ones who reared their biological children.
Lastly, Dr. Karp holds as a fact that the interview-centered method that his 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. Perhaps some of the graduate students are too lazy to go through the rigorous stress of conducting interview throughout the islands. They may end up coming up with ‘bogus’ results just to fill up missing data. It is also possible that the children being interviewed are not giving the correct information about who reared them because it may be a ‘thing’ considered shameful not being reared by one’s biological parents. If the above cases are true, then it is very unlikely that Dr. Karp gets a more accurate understanding of child-rearing traditions.
In conclusion, it is possible that the interview-centered approach used by Dr. Karp gives a more accurate result, however, it is necessary that Dr. Karp provides additional evidence indicating that the group of people observed by Dr. Field have the same ‘mentality’ and mindset about child-rearing, that children speaking about their parents essentially translates to them being reared by those parents and that the children interviewed would not rather give a false response when being asked about those who reared them.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 13 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 599 350
No. of Characters: 3094 1500
No. of Different Words: 269 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.947 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.165 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.847 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 221 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 178 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 123 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 66 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 28.524 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 14.898 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.762 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.33 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.474 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.147 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 247, Rule ID: RETURN_BACK[1]
Message: Use simply 'returned'.
Suggestion: returned
...ther person and they have only recently returned back to their parents after they reach certa...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 742, Rule ID: WHETHER[7]
Message: Perhaps you can shorten this phrase to just 'whether'. It is correct though if you mean 'regardless of whether'.
Suggestion: whether
... where he could get verified details on whether or not they are the ones who reared their biol...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 6, column 254, Rule ID: SOME_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'some'.
Suggestion: some
...e and in other island cultures. Perhaps some of the graduate students are too lazy to go th...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, furthermore, however, if, lastly, may, so, still, then, therefore, thus, well, while, as to, in conclusion, speaking about, talking about
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 31.0 19.6327345309 158% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 26.0 13.6137724551 191% => OK
Pronoun: 59.0 28.8173652695 205% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 74.0 55.5748502994 133% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 16.3942115768 73% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3175.0 2260.96107784 140% => OK
No of words: 599.0 441.139720559 136% => OK
Chars per words: 5.30050083472 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.94716853372 4.56307096286 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.94555450038 2.78398813304 106% => OK
Unique words: 277.0 204.123752495 136% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.462437395659 0.468620217663 99% => OK
syllable_count: 954.0 705.55239521 135% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 9.0 4.96107784431 181% => OK
Article: 4.0 8.76447105788 46% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 29.0 22.8473053892 127% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 98.539788918 57.8364921388 170% => OK
Chars per sentence: 158.75 119.503703932 133% => OK
Words per sentence: 29.95 23.324526521 128% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.2 5.70786347227 144% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 6.88822355289 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 10.0 4.67664670659 214% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.379851698194 0.218282227539 174% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.123412093095 0.0743258471296 166% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0810717129868 0.0701772020484 116% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.222952471058 0.128457276422 174% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0347794478448 0.0628817314937 55% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 18.5 14.3799401198 129% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 42.04 48.3550499002 87% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.6 12.197005988 120% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.05 12.5979740519 112% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.69 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 137.0 98.500998004 139% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 19.0 12.3882235529 153% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.6 11.1389221557 122% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => 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.