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 it may be true that Dr. Karp's interview-centered approach to studying cultures is valid as compared to Dr. Field's observation-centered approach to studying cultures, the author's argument does not make a cogent case for accuracy in understanding child-rearing traditions. The argument is rife with holes and assumptions, and thus, not strong enough to render it valid.
The assumption that what happened 20 years ago should remain true. Dr. Karp failed to acknowledge the possibility of some changes in child rearing traditions that would have occurred, as it is now two decades ago Dr. Field's research was conducted. 20 years is long enough to witness a tremendous shift of cultures and traditions in Tertia. As a result, completely refuting Dr. Field's hypothesis is needless.
Secondly, there is no clear statement as to why the children were talking more about their parents than other adults. It was assumed that the children talking more about their biological parents than other adults translates to them being raised by them. What kind of questions were asked? it could be that the children were asked things related to their biological parents. Until this is cleared, the conclusion remains invalid.
Also, it will be important to know how representative the survey was. The author stated that his interviews involve children living in the group of islands, that includes Tertia. It will be necessary to know Tertia's specific data and how the survey was conducted before making such a broad conclusion.
While the argument presents an interesting hypothesis, the survey carried out is not strong enough to establish the validity of the conclusion to even a small degree as the assumptions made are not convincing enough.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 7 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 14 15
No. of Words: 279 350
No. of Characters: 1432 1500
No. of Different Words: 155 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.087 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.133 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.942 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 109 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 81 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 61 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 33 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.929 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.075 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.5 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.314 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.314 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.081 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 177, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...ered approach to studying cultures, the authors argument does not make a cogent case fo...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 289, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: It
...hem. What kind of questions were asked? it could be that the children were asked t...
^^
Line 4, column 156, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...children living in the group of islands, that includes Tertia. It will be necessa...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, if, may, second, secondly, so, thus, while, as to, kind of, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 12.9520958084 46% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 11.1786427146 36% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 7.0 13.6137724551 51% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 21.0 28.8173652695 73% => OK
Preposition: 29.0 55.5748502994 52% => More preposition wanted.
Nominalization: 6.0 16.3942115768 37% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1461.0 2260.96107784 65% => OK
No of words: 279.0 441.139720559 63% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.23655913978 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.08696624509 4.56307096286 90% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.99387658015 2.78398813304 108% => OK
Unique words: 165.0 204.123752495 81% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.591397849462 0.468620217663 126% => OK
syllable_count: 431.1 705.55239521 61% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 19.7664670659 76% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 18.0 22.8473053892 79% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 63.1567362467 57.8364921388 109% => OK
Chars per sentence: 97.4 119.503703932 82% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.6 23.324526521 80% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.13333333333 5.70786347227 90% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.191515841724 0.218282227539 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0545557900337 0.0743258471296 73% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0417512837332 0.0701772020484 59% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0889138330049 0.128457276422 69% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0492205657039 0.0628817314937 78% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.6 14.3799401198 88% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 61.67 48.3550499002 128% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.1 12.197005988 75% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.11 12.5979740519 104% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.17 8.32208582834 110% => OK
difficult_words: 82.0 98.500998004 83% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.1389221557 83% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.