The following appeared on the Website Science News Today.
"In a recent survey of more than 5,000 adolescents, the teens who reported eating the most meals with their families were the least likely to use illegal drugs, tobacco, or alcohol. Family meals were also associated with higher grades, better self-esteem, and lower rates of depression. Almost 30 percent of the teens said they ate at least seven meals per week with their families. Clearly, having a high number of family meals keeps teens from engaging in bad behaviors."
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument.
The author concludes that teens who eat the most meals with their families were the least likely to engage in illicit use of drugs. He further states that family meals are associated with higher grades, better self-esteem and lower rates of depression. He reaches this conclusion from a recent survey of more than 5000 adolescents of which almost 30 percent stated that they ate at least seven meals per week with their families. While the author’s conclusion might be true, the evidences used to back up his conclusion seem spurious.
First, the author assumes that the family meal times are used to discuss the perils of illicit drug use. It is possible that most of the teens who participated in the survey attend schools where they are taught about different illegal drugs and the dangers associated with the use of such drugs. In addition, these adolescents could also be living in neighborhoods where they have witnessed the severe repercussions of using illegal drugs and this has served as a deterrent to them. If these scenarios are true, the author’s conclusion that adolescents who eat the most meals with their families is significantly diminished.
Secondly, the author assumes that the adolescents who participated in the survey were telling the truth. Perhaps these adolescents did not want to portray themselves in a bad manner and they gave information which they felt will be most pleasing to the interviewer. If this is true, it is likely that the adolescents lied about the number of meals they ate with their families as well as their school grades, self-esteem level, rates of depression and their use of illegal drugs. To increase the plausibility of his conclusion, the author needs to prove that the participants of the survey were honest in their responses.
Finally, the author assumes that the almost 30 percent of the adolescents who said that they ate at least seven weekly meals with their families can be used to conclude for the remaining population of adolescents. Out of the 5000 who were interviewed, 30 percent is not a very significant number and cannot be used to extrapolate for the remaining 70 percent. This in turn means that the 30 percent cannot be used as a determinant for the population of adolescents living in the town where the survey was conducted. To increase the credibility of his conclusion, the author needs to account for the remaining 70 percent of his respondents and also state whether they are a determinant of all the adolescents living in the town.
In conclusion, the author’s assertion that adolescents who ate the most meals with their families were the least likely to engage in social vices may be plausible. However, he needs to address the points cited above to increase the persuasiveness of his argument.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 9 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 2 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 466 350
No. of Characters: 2275 1500
No. of Different Words: 184 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.646 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.882 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.715 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 149 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 104 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 77 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 58 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.889 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.959 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.611 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.381 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.381 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.151 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 166, Rule ID: IN_A_X_MANNER[1]
Message: Consider replacing "in a bad manner" with adverb for "bad"; eg, "in a hasty manner" with "hastily".
...ents did not want to portray themselves in a bad manner and they gave information which they fe...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 566, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...e the credibility of his conclusion, the author needs to account for the remainin...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, first, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, well, while, at least, in addition, in conclusion, as well as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 23.0 19.6327345309 117% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.9520958084 54% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 25.0 13.6137724551 184% => OK
Pronoun: 49.0 28.8173652695 170% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 63.0 55.5748502994 113% => OK
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: 2324.0 2260.96107784 103% => OK
No of words: 466.0 441.139720559 106% => OK
Chars per words: 4.98712446352 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.64618479453 4.56307096286 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.80383345942 2.78398813304 101% => OK
Unique words: 186.0 204.123752495 91% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.399141630901 0.468620217663 85% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 705.6 705.55239521 100% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 22.8473053892 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 37.7627829718 57.8364921388 65% => OK
Chars per sentence: 129.111111111 119.503703932 108% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.8888888889 23.324526521 111% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.83333333333 5.70786347227 120% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.371044717662 0.218282227539 170% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.144717850724 0.0743258471296 195% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.109827691002 0.0701772020484 157% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.250349553843 0.128457276422 195% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0684838579863 0.0628817314937 109% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.0 14.3799401198 104% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 54.56 48.3550499002 113% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.96 12.5979740519 95% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.62 8.32208582834 92% => OK
difficult_words: 81.0 98.500998004 82% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 12.3882235529 85% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.1389221557 108% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.