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.
In the proposed survey by a Science daily, it was concluded that the higher the number of family meals teens have, lower will be their chances of engaging in bad behaviors. The proposed conclusion is a victim of less research and vague logics and is certainly full of various unanswered questions and assumptions.
First and foremost fallacy is that the behavior and academic performance of crores of teens are being generalized through a survey involving a mere 5000 teens. Statistically, this is a very small data set to extrapolate the behavior among all the teens. Had the survey involved a larger data set of the teens who take their meals with families, there can be some amount of credibility in going deeper into the argument proposed in the survey.
Now, even if the data set had been larger, the assumption that the teens who reportedly eating the most meals with their families were the least likely to use illegal drugs, tobacco, or alcohol, is completely naive and unjustifiable. There can be numerous factors that play role in deciding the habits of a teen, despite of whether he is having meals with his family or not. There may be a case where a teen is having meals with his family but staying outside most of the time, with his group of junky friends or the family itself is containing those bad habits or the teen is spending most of the time on his own except the family meals, and is stealthily being involved in all those illicit activities. In all these cases, merely having meals with the family won't prevent a teen to not being involved in the consumption of alcohol or other illegal drugs.
Moving on, the other severe assumption claims that family meals leads to higher grades, better self-esteem, and lower rates of depression. This also has a lot of logical holes in it. There can be scenarios where the teen is a born talent or he is spending most of the time in study circles constituting his erudite friends or he lives in a hostel but just joins his family for meals or his family is creating a healthy ambiance where parents are regulaly communicating with their children, helping them with their studies, conducting family extempore sporadically and all this is leading to the teen's better self-esteem and good academic performance. Merely, having food with the family can't be taken as the sole reason for a teen's higher grades, better self-esteem, and lower rates of depression.
Culminating the discussion, it is true that family dinners and meet ups are very essential for inculcating an atmosphere of positivity and optimism for the teens and ultimately play a crucial role in their morale and academics but the fallacies and assumptions taken by the survey can also not be ignored and it can't be concluded that having a high number of family meals keeps teens from engaging in bad behaviors. Had the survey presented some specific data about all the above mentioned loopholes and hit the right set of questions, it could have led to a more mature conclusion.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 531, Rule ID: PROGRESSIVE_VERBS[1]
Message: This verb is normally not used in the progressive form. Try a simple form instead.
...p of junky friends or the family itself is containing those bad habits or the teen is spendin...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 687, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
...ce. Merely, having food with the family cant be taken as the sole reason for a teens...
^^^^
Line 4, column 724, Rule ID: A_PLURAL[1]
Message: Don't use indefinite articles with plural words. Did you mean 'a teen' or simply 'teens'?
Suggestion: a teen; teens
...ly cant be taken as the sole reason for a teens higher grades, better self-esteem, and ...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 313, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
...e survey can also not be ignored and it cant be concluded that having a high number ...
^^^^
Line 5, column 313, Rule ID: IT_VBZ[1]
Message: Did you mean 'cants'?
Suggestion: cants
...e survey can also not be ignored and it cant be concluded that having a high number ...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, if, may, so, it is true
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 32.0 19.6327345309 163% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.9520958084 54% => OK
Conjunction : 29.0 11.1786427146 259% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 36.0 28.8173652695 125% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 62.0 55.5748502994 112% => OK
Nominalization: 8.0 16.3942115768 49% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2487.0 2260.96107784 110% => OK
No of words: 518.0 441.139720559 117% => OK
Chars per words: 4.80115830116 5.12650576532 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.77070365392 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.63344593489 2.78398813304 95% => OK
Unique words: 240.0 204.123752495 118% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.46332046332 0.468620217663 99% => OK
syllable_count: 785.7 705.55239521 111% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 3.0 8.76447105788 34% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
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: 34.0 22.8473053892 149% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 112.972366336 57.8364921388 195% => OK
Chars per sentence: 165.8 119.503703932 139% => OK
Words per sentence: 34.5333333333 23.324526521 148% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.73333333333 5.70786347227 48% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.415993835856 0.218282227539 191% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.148347307795 0.0743258471296 200% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.114618332596 0.0701772020484 163% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.21342764021 0.128457276422 166% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.115037015033 0.0628817314937 183% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 18.4 14.3799401198 128% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 45.43 48.3550499002 94% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.4 12.197005988 126% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.15 12.5979740519 89% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.8 8.32208582834 106% => OK
difficult_words: 114.0 98.500998004 116% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 15.6 11.1389221557 140% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.