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 discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
Dr. Karp states that interview-centered method of study adopted by his team provides much more accurate knowledge about traditions regarding child-rearing in Tertia island and other islands because its conclusions refute a former study conducted by Dr. Field 20 years ago which used observation-centered method to show that children were reared by the whole community. However, some other evidences are needed for such argument to be valid:
First, the sample size for both studies should be presented and compared. Whithout knowing how many people of that island were studied, those studies cannot be compared. Maybe the first study observed all people of the village while the second only chose three families. It is also possible that both studies chose samples which were too small to yied information which can be generalized to the whole island. If any of these circumstances happened, this argument is weakened.
Next, even if both studies chose an appropriate sample, it is unknown whether anything interfeared with the culture of the islanders in the past 20 years. Evidence should be presented regarding that this culture was stable in the past 20 years. For example, maybe they started to use TV and other forms of technology, which led to adopting the culture presented in the media. Or many people from other places and islands have immigrated to that island and they are rearing their children according to the culture they brought with themselves. In such circumstances, the conclusion stated cannot be drawn.
Last, evidence regarding the validity of study questions should be provided. What if the second study included mainly questions about biological parents? It is likely that people talk about their biologiacl parents if they are stricty asked about them. What if study questions answered by observators implied a biased view toward bearing the children by entire village and hence, researchers provided biased answers? In these instances the argument does not hold water.
After all is said and done, the current argument, without further evidenvce, is extremely flawed and it is not possible to conclude that observation-centered approach adopted by Dr. Karp is any more valid than the observation-based method used by Dr. Field. However, if the aforementioned evidences are provided, a better evaluation of this argument is possible.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 373 350
No. of Characters: 1948 1500
No. of Different Words: 195 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.395 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.223 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.893 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 146 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 109 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 74 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 42 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.632 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 11.504 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.789 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.29 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.532 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.078 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
Dr. Karp states that interview-centered ...
^^^^
Line 3, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...needed for such argument to be valid: First, the sample size for both studies ...
^^^
Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... happened, this argument is weakened. Next, even if both studies chose an appr...
^^^
Line 7, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...he conclusion stated cannot be drawn. Last, evidence regarding the validity of...
^^^
Line 9, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ces the argument does not hold water. After all is said and done, the current ...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, hence, however, if, may, regarding, second, so, while, after all, for example
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 12.9520958084 46% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 11.1786427146 81% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 28.8173652695 97% => OK
Preposition: 45.0 55.5748502994 81% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 16.3942115768 73% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1995.0 2260.96107784 88% => OK
No of words: 373.0 441.139720559 85% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.34852546917 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.39467950092 4.56307096286 96% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.95845688406 2.78398813304 106% => OK
Unique words: 200.0 204.123752495 98% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.536193029491 0.468620217663 114% => OK
syllable_count: 613.8 705.55239521 87% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 4.0 8.76447105788 46% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 75.4528918524 57.8364921388 130% => OK
Chars per sentence: 110.833333333 119.503703932 93% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.7222222222 23.324526521 89% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.0 5.70786347227 88% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 8.20758483034 24% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 11.0 4.67664670659 235% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.168909369969 0.218282227539 77% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0404540459186 0.0743258471296 54% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0598795059207 0.0701772020484 85% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0954006863607 0.128457276422 74% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0593742123584 0.0628817314937 94% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.1 14.3799401198 98% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.75 12.5979740519 109% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.73 8.32208582834 105% => OK
difficult_words: 97.0 98.500998004 98% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 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.