The following appeared as an editorial in a wildlife journal.
"Arctic deer live on islands in Canada's arctic region. They search for food by moving over ice from island to island during the course of a year. Their habitat is limited to areas warm enough to sustain the plants on which they feed, and cold enough, at least some of the year, for the ice to cover the sea separating the islands, allowing the deer to travel over it. Unfortunately, according to reports from local hunters, the deer populations are declining. Since these reports coincide with recent global warming trends that have caused the sea ice to melt, we can conclude that the decline in arctic deer populations is the result of deer being unable to follow their age-old migration patterns across the frozen sea."
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.
In an editorial in a wild life journal, it was published that the arctic deer which live on islands in Canada's arctic region are declining in number, as reported by the local hunters. The editorial has drawn similarities of this report with the recent global warning trends and drawn the conclusion that the decline in arctic deer population is due to inability of deer to follow their age old migration patterns across the frozen sea.
This argument is not based on reports from any authentic sources and is thereby very unconvincing. It rests on the feedback given by local hunters who themselves can be misguided as they are not the experts to notice the changing patterns. There is every possibility that the arctic deer have migrated to other regions leaving the hunters to make guesses. It is equally possible that in spite of the climatic changes, it is actually the local hunters who are responsible for the migration or decline of the arctic deer. Hence, the inability of deer to cope up with the changing climate is probably only a word spread by hunters to cover up the cruel pace at which they went on hunting the deer.
The author has quickly jumped to the conclusion that the population of arctic deer is waning because of global warming hampering their age-old patterns of migration across the frozen sea. Though it is true that global warming has caused sea ice in Polar Regions to melt, but it may not be the cause of decline of the arctic deer. They need a habitat cold enough for at least some part of the year and this condition is likely to have been met in the arctic region. Moreover, if global warming was the cause, then it should have affected other animals in the same region as well. No such issue is covered in the editorial.
The author was not only quick to assume that there is a decline in the arctic deer population, but also overlooked any causes of this, other than the global warming trends, when there can be different reasons for the decline of deer, if at all it is true. It could be due to their natural habitats being disturbed by increasing human interference, or due to increase in the number of their predators. The fall in number may also be associated with some sort of pollution of water or due to shortage of the plants they feed on. There may even be lack of suitable environment for their mating. Before arriving at any conclusion, the adaption trends of different animals, especially arctic deer in this case should have been studied. Since it is quite likely that just as birds change their timing and countries of migration, adapting to the changing climates, arctic deer have also adapted to the rise in temperature due to global warming and migrated to a different location.
Conclusively, the argument given by the author in the editorial of wild life journal is denounced due to lack of evidence. The author should have supported it with more reliable statistical data.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tue, 04/12/2016 - 11:56 | swetha kavuri | 70 | view |
Discourse Markers used:
['actually', 'also', 'but', 'hence', 'if', 'look', 'may', 'moreover', 'so', 'then', 'well', 'at least', 'sort of', 'in spite of', 'it is true']
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance in Part of Speech:
Nouns: 0.221621621622 0.25644967241 86% => OK
Verbs: 0.16036036036 0.15541462614 103% => OK
Adjectives: 0.10990990991 0.0836205057962 131% => OK
Adverbs: 0.045045045045 0.0520304965353 87% => OK
Pronouns: 0.0396396396396 0.0272364105082 146% => Less pronouns wanted. Try not to use 'you, I, they, he...' as the subject of a sentence
Prepositions: 0.145945945946 0.125424944231 116% => OK
Participles: 0.0594594594595 0.0416121511921 143% => OK
Conjunctions: 2.52915294804 2.79052419416 91% => OK
Infinitives: 0.0342342342342 0.026700313972 128% => OK
Particles: 0.0036036036036 0.001811407834 199% => OK
Determiners: 0.115315315315 0.113004496875 102% => OK
Modal_auxiliary: 0.0162162162162 0.0255425247493 63% => OK
WH_determiners: 0.0108108108108 0.0127820249294 85% => OK
Vocabulary words and sentences:
No of characters: 2949.0 2731.13054187 108% => OK
No of words: 514.0 446.07635468 115% => OK
Chars per words: 5.7373540856 6.12365571057 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.76146701107 4.57801047555 104% => OK
words length more than 5 chars: 0.34046692607 0.378187486979 90% => OK
words length more than 6 chars: 0.235408560311 0.287650121315 82% => OK
words length more than 7 chars: 0.157587548638 0.208842608468 75% => OK
words length more than 8 chars: 0.0992217898833 0.135150697306 73% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.52915294804 2.79052419416 91% => OK
Unique words: 231.0 207.018472906 112% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.449416342412 0.469332199767 96% => OK
Word variations: 51.7769438012 52.1807786196 99% => OK
How many sentences: 20.0 20.039408867 100% => OK
Sentence length: 25.7 23.2022227129 111% => OK
Sentence length SD: 57.2594970289 57.7814097925 99% => OK
Chars per sentence: 147.45 141.986410481 104% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.7 23.2022227129 111% => OK
Discourse Markers: 0.75 0.724660767414 103% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.14285714286 97% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 3.58251231527 0% => OK
Readability: 49.2408560311 51.9672348444 95% => OK
Elegance: 1.74264705882 1.8405768891 95% => OK
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.440821351181 0.441005458295 100% => OK
Sentence sentence coherence: 0.12594127371 0.135418324435 93% => OK
Sentence sentence coherence SD: 0.0649550135647 0.0829849096947 78% => OK
Sentence paragraph coherence: 0.595753329315 0.58762219726 101% => OK
Sentence paragraph coherence SD: 0.152109631557 0.147661913831 103% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.201140395939 0.193483328276 104% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.078271696406 0.0970749176394 81% => OK
Paragraph paragraph coherence: 0.539914296618 0.42659136922 127% => OK
Paragraph paragraph coherence SD: 0.0734582294766 0.0774707102158 95% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.331409562862 0.312017818177 106% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0591344674151 0.0698173142475 85% => OK
Task Achievement:
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.33743842365 96% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.87684729064 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.82512315271 83% => OK
Positive topic words: 5.0 6.46551724138 77% => OK
Negative topic words: 5.0 5.36822660099 93% => OK
Neutral topic words: 2.0 2.82389162562 71% => OK
Total topic words: 12.0 14.657635468 82% => OK
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6 -- The score is based on the average performance of 20,000 argument essays. This e-grader is not smart enough to check on arguments.
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations to cover all aspects.