The following appeared in a newsletter published by the Appleton school district.
"In a recent study more than 5,000 adolescents were asked how often they ate meals with their families. Almost 30 percent of the teens said they ate at least seven meals per week with their families. Furthermore, according to the same survey, teens who reported having the most family meals per week were also the ones least likely to have tried illegal drugs, tobacco, and alcohol. Family meals were also associated with lower rates of problems such as low grades in school, low self-esteem, and depression. We therefore recommend that families have as many meals together as possible. We predict that doing so will greatly benefit adolescents and turn troubled teens away from bad behaviors."
Write a response in which you discuss which questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
The recommendation made in the newsletter published by the Appleton school district on the relationship between families having as many meals together as possible and the benefits to adolescents as well as turning troubled teens away from bad behaviors is hinged on 1. A recent study comprising more than 5000 adolescents. 2. Teens who reported having the most meals also reported having the least likelihood to have tried illegal drugs. 3. Family meal were associated with lower rates of problems such as low self-esteem, depression and low grades.
Firstly, the survey methodology may be problematic in two respects. One, the survey clearly provided the respondents with alternatives. This would have significantly impacted the results of the survey given that some teens may have preferred to answer in a different way other than the alternatives the survey provided. For example, some respondents would have loved to discount family meals that did not go well or even underreported them. Secondly, was the respondents’ identity anonymous or made confidential. Since these respondents are teens who are usually under the care of their parents or wards, if they were not guarantee that the confidentiality of their response then they would have given answers that were not sincere. In both cases, this may significantly impede on the credibility of the survey.
In a recent study more than 5,000 adolescents were asked how often they ate meals with their families. Almost 30 percent of the teens said they ate at least seven meals per week with their families. Furthermore, according to the same survey, teens who reported having the most family meals per week were also the ones least likely to have tried illegal drugs, tobacco, and alcohol. Family meals were also associated with lower rates of problems such as low grades in school, low self-esteem, and depression. We therefore recommend that families have as many meals together as possible. We predict that doing so will greatly benefit adolescents and turn troubled teens away from bad behaviors
Even if we assume that the methodology was perfectly carried out and respondents were sincere in their answer. The author of this piece failed to substantiate whether the 5,000 respondents represent the minimum sample size. Also, the author fails to clearly articulate the percent of teens who reported having the most family meals per week. This number may be significantly small and negligent to make such recommendation.
Furthermore, the author fails to support the assertion that family meals were also associated with lower rates of problems such as low grades in school, low self-esteem, and depression. Clearly, the survey conducted did not cover this aspect. The author has to bolster this claim with empirical data of research linking family meals with the aforementioned problems which in this case is not provided. Thus, it is unreasonable to base this recommendation on such unproven assumption.
The author also assumes that the amount of family meals per week alone is sufficient to greatly benefit adolescents and turn troubled teens away. Are there other factors that other than family meals that was not captured by the survey? It is possible that teens that had the most family meals where kids from wealthy neighborhood who had access to private tutors and went to better school. Failure to provide information that suggest that ties family meals alone with such benefits renders the argument unsound.
In sum, the author must provide answer how the soundness on the survey methodology, that the size of the survey respondents represents the sample size of the entire adolescents. Furthermore, is the number of family meals alone attributable to the claimed benefits and evidence to substantiate that no other means can achieve the same result. Until then, this recommendation amounts to poorly contrived advice.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 5 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 3 2
No. of Sentences: 33 15
No. of Words: 623 350
No. of Characters: 3204 1500
No. of Different Words: 256 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.996 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.143 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.745 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 221 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 157 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 114 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 75 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18.879 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.911 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.636 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.273 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.273 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.075 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 252, Rule ID: IN_A_X_MANNER[1]
Message: Consider replacing "in a different way" with adverb for "different"; eg, "in a hasty manner" with "hastily".
...some teens may have preferred to answer in a different way other than the alternatives the survey ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 622, Rule ID: BEEN_PART_AGREEMENT[2]
Message: Consider using a past participle here: 'guaranteed'.
Suggestion: guaranteed
...heir parents or wards, if they were not guarantee that the confidentiality of their respo...
^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, furthermore, if, may, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, thus, well, as to, at least, for example, such as, as well as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 22.0 19.6327345309 112% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.9520958084 77% => OK
Conjunction : 14.0 11.1786427146 125% => OK
Relative clauses : 24.0 13.6137724551 176% => OK
Pronoun: 42.0 28.8173652695 146% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 71.0 55.5748502994 128% => OK
Nominalization: 9.0 16.3942115768 55% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3277.0 2260.96107784 145% => OK
No of words: 623.0 441.139720559 141% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.26003210273 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.99599519102 4.56307096286 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.8337682549 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 268.0 204.123752495 131% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.430176565008 0.468620217663 92% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1005.3 705.55239521 142% => 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: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 31.0 19.7664670659 157% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 53.5732355872 57.8364921388 93% => OK
Chars per sentence: 105.709677419 119.503703932 88% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.0967741935 23.324526521 86% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.8064516129 5.70786347227 84% => OK
Paragraphs: 7.0 5.15768463074 136% => Less paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 13.0 6.88822355289 189% => OK
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: 0.372319166129 0.218282227539 171% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.102172198778 0.0743258471296 137% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.127075225127 0.0701772020484 181% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.187840786968 0.128457276422 146% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.147722826899 0.0628817314937 235% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.4 14.3799401198 93% => Automated_readability_index is low.
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: 13.23 12.5979740519 105% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.2 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 141.0 98.500998004 143% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 12.3882235529 93% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
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.