A recent study of eighteen rhesus monkeys provides clues as to the effects of birth order on an individual's levels of stimulation. The study showed that in stimulating situations (such as an encounter with an unfamiliar monkey), firstborn infant monkeys produce up to twice as much of the hormone cortisol, which primes the body for increased activity levels, as do their younger siblings. Firstborn humans also produce relatively high levels of cortisol in stimulating situations (such as the return of a parent after an absence). The study also found that during pregnancy, first-time mother monkeys had higher levels of cortisol than did those who had had several offspring.
The argument is flawed for numerous reasons. Primarily, the argument is not cogent for its overdepence on a study result the details of which is not presented here.
The entire argument is contingent on a study on a monkey species. However, the argument has not placed any further details about the study: the health condition of the monkey, the geographical location of the monkey. It may be possible that the first born infant on which the study was conducted has a health concern: have defects in the level of some of the body hormones which lead it to the excess amount of production of hormone cortisol. At the same time, it is also possible the first born infant is healthy but its younger siblings are not which is because they produce less hormone compared to the older one. So, we can conclude anything from this study as we do not know whether those 18 monkeys represents the entire monkey species or it is just a tiny fraction of a vast monkey species. The geographical location may also act here, it is possible that the study is true for certain area but the monkeys in other regions do not show the same level of hormone discrepancy among the siblings, and hence the argument is not valid for them.
Moreover, the argument cast generalization on the stimulating situations. It says that all stimulating situations being same will produce the same result placed in this argument. However, it may not be true: there is a possibility that the only in case of encounter with a unfamiliar body the first born infant produces more hormone but in other stimulating conditions it does not do that. At the same time, the human example placed here is also suffering the same fate, the argument cast generalizations. If the argument explicitly said that all stimulating situations are same and thus will be covered by this study result.
Similarly, the argument placed an example of first time mother but it has not provided any further details whether the mother is in good condition or not.
The argument is flawed for some unwarranted generalizations it made while placing the argument.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: ??? out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 15 15
No. of Words: 361 350
No. of Characters: 1698 1500
No. of Different Words: 151 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.359 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.704 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.638 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 117 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 91 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 59 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 30 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.067 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 11.521 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.733 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.393 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.616 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.151 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 348, Rule ID: SOME_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'some'.
Suggestion: some
...h concern: have defects in the level of some of the body hormones which lead it to the exce...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 758, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...he entire monkey species or it is just a tiny fraction of a vast monkey species. ...
^^
Line 5, column 272, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
...that the only in case of encounter with a unfamiliar body the first born infant p...
^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, hence, however, if, may, moreover, similarly, so, thus, while
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 22.0 19.6327345309 112% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 12.9520958084 46% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 26.0 28.8173652695 90% => OK
Preposition: 31.0 55.5748502994 56% => More preposition wanted.
Nominalization: 20.0 16.3942115768 122% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1740.0 2260.96107784 77% => OK
No of words: 361.0 441.139720559 82% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.81994459834 5.12650576532 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.35889894354 4.56307096286 96% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.7004545515 2.78398813304 97% => OK
Unique words: 164.0 204.123752495 80% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.454293628809 0.468620217663 97% => OK
syllable_count: 560.7 705.55239521 79% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 19.7664670659 76% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 24.0 22.8473053892 105% => OK
Sentence length SD: 58.2931290024 57.8364921388 101% => OK
Chars per sentence: 116.0 119.503703932 97% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.0666666667 23.324526521 103% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.26666666667 5.70786347227 92% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.20758483034 73% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.67664670659 21% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.173394922558 0.218282227539 79% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0632403974837 0.0743258471296 85% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0461165522827 0.0701772020484 66% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0760827013297 0.128457276422 59% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0568885797558 0.0628817314937 90% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.3 14.3799401198 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 47.12 48.3550499002 97% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.197005988 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.97 12.5979740519 87% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.84 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 69.0 98.500998004 70% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 12.3882235529 85% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 11.1389221557 104% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.