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 nderstanding 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.
Dr. Karp is trying to understand the child rearing traditions in Tertia. While doing so, he is also comparing his methodology with that of a Dr. Field, who also studied the same thing 20 years ago using a different approach. Through a series of assumptions which are rife with holes and inconsistencies, he has concluded that his method will yield much better results than the Dr. Field's method of observation.
Dr. Karp compares his findings the observations of Dr. Field who worked the issue 20 years ago. While doing so, he does not consider the fact that the social conditions in the village of tertia my have radically changed i the past two decades. 20 years is a significant amount of time, especially if the social changes caused by the generation gap are to be taken into consideration. It is definitely possible that the observation of Dr. Feild was accurate 20 years ago and the social landscape of the Tertian village changed in the past 2 decades. The citizens who were children 20 years ago could have a grown up to have a different approach towards child rearing than their parents. It is also possible that the Tertian village underwent extensive modernization in the span of 20 years and now follows the conventional child rearing practices followed in other parts of the world.
It is entirely within the scope of possibility that the Tertian village still follows the old practices of child rearing and Dr. Karp missed it in his interviews. This logic comes into picture because the passage says that Dr. Karp interviewed the children from the group of islands of which tertia is a part. It can be said that the children Dr. Karp interviewed did come from the island of Tertia but from some other island where the old child rearing practices were never followed. If these children were not Tertian, then indeed Dr. Karp's data holds true, but invalid in this argument.
Diving deeper in the article, Dr. Karp assumes that just because the children don't talk about the other villagers implies that the villagers play no part in the child rearing process. This statement may not hold its ground on many accounts. It is possible that the children were too nervous to coherently answer any of the asked questions, or too wary of a foreign stranger poking around in their personal life. Also, being children, any answers given by them would have to be cross-checked with some authority before it can be considered as a fact.
In conclusion, Dr. Karp needs ask whether the all the children were from Tertia or not. Also, the accounts given by these children need to be verified. he also needs to check whether there have been any changes in the social landscape of Tertia in the past 2 decades. After all these questions have been answered, a cogent comparison can be done in the two techniques applied for analysis on the island of Tertia.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 11 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 496 350
No. of Characters: 2321 1500
No. of Different Words: 230 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.719 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.679 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.535 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 153 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 119 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 74 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 44 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.8 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.623 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.6 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.345 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.558 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.151 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 138, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...eries of assumptions which are rife with holes and inconsistencies, he has conclu...
^^^
Line 6, column 133, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...t two decades. 20 years is a significant amount of time, especially if the social...
^^^
Line 13, column 134, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... practices of child rearing and Dr. Karp missed it in his interviews. This logic ...
^^^
Line 15, column 136, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... come from the island of Tertia but from some other island where the old child re...
^^^
Line 16, column 135, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... were not Tertian, then indeed Dr. Karps data holds true, but invalid in this arg...
^^^
Line 19, column 79, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: don't
... assumes that just because the children dont talk about the other villagers implies ...
^^^^
Line 19, column 131, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...out the other villagers implies that the villagers play no part in the child rear...
^^^
Line 20, column 134, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...n many accounts. It is possible that the children were too nervous to coherently ...
^^^
Line 21, column 132, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... foreign stranger poking around in their personal life. Also, being children, any...
^^^
Line 25, column 131, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...so, the accounts given by these children need to be verified. he also needs to ch...
^^^
Line 26, column 22, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: He
...y these children need to be verified. he also needs to check whether there have ...
^^
Line 28, column 11, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...d for analysis on the island of Tertia
^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, if, may, so, still, then, while, after all, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.6327345309 127% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 13.6137724551 125% => OK
Pronoun: 38.0 28.8173652695 132% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 64.0 55.5748502994 115% => OK
Nominalization: 7.0 16.3942115768 43% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2411.0 2260.96107784 107% => OK
No of words: 495.0 441.139720559 112% => OK
Chars per words: 4.87070707071 5.12650576532 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.71684168287 4.56307096286 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.59522923342 2.78398813304 93% => OK
Unique words: 236.0 204.123752495 116% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.476767676768 0.468620217663 102% => OK
syllable_count: 708.3 705.55239521 100% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.4 1.59920159681 88% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 12.0 4.96107784431 242% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 4.0 8.76447105788 46% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 40.8974160486 57.8364921388 71% => OK
Chars per sentence: 114.80952381 119.503703932 96% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.5714285714 23.324526521 101% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.2380952381 5.70786347227 57% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 23.0 5.15768463074 446% => Less paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 12.0 5.25449101796 228% => Less language errors wanted.
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: 13.0 4.67664670659 278% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.306996925947 0.218282227539 141% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.105178012206 0.0743258471296 142% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0724070903871 0.0701772020484 103% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0929273588016 0.128457276422 72% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0691609711242 0.0628817314937 110% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.3 14.3799401198 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 65.05 48.3550499002 135% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 12.197005988 81% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.26 12.5979740519 89% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.0 8.32208582834 96% => OK
difficult_words: 101.0 98.500998004 103% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Maximum six paragraphs wanted.
Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.