"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 argument claims that having meals with one's own family is correlated with better prosperity in life and staying away from destructive habits like smoking or drug abuse. Although spending quality time with family helps to relieve stress and bring happiness, yet the argument doesnot provide appropriate examples as to how family meals can help build good qualities in a teenager hence failing to make a cogent case how teenagers can be kept away from bad behaviors by having meals with their loved and dear ones.
Firstly, the survey had been reported to be done on 5000 teenagers, however, there is no mention about the diversity in the data. It had not been reported accurately if the teens surveyed were from the same city, or whether they were in the same age group and these are vital information to judge the accuracy of the survey report. For instance, if the data had been taken from teens who spend their meal time engrossed in doing science projects, it's a false argument that they will likely be indulged in illegal habits in the future and end up in depression or lower self-esteem.
Besides, 30 percent of the teens had reported to eat atleast 7 meals a week with their family, but this doesnot clear the fact about the remaining 70 percent. It might have been possible that the majority of adolescents (more than 50 percent) had 1 or 2 family meals a week, yet scoring good grades in school and going to become successful in their profession. Moreover, there is no mention of the 30 percent of teens that had high number of family meals ended up in life. Just stating that one has meals regularly with their family doesn't automatically imply that those teens weren't involved in illegal activities. One of the best example is of Pablo Escobar, the drug Lord who ruled the narcotics business in Mexico at one time. He had meals everyday with his family since childhood, although unlike the argument's claim, ended up being involved in illicit activities. Therefore such a statistical value without any final result is mere speculation and can't be taken in face value.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 12 15
No. of Words: 362 350
No. of Characters: 1697 1500
No. of Different Words: 206 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.362 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.688 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.391 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 109 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 80 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 52 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 29 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 30.167 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 11.172 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.583 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.382 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.553 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.11 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 3 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 448, Rule ID: IT_IS[17]
Message: Did you mean 'it's' (='it is') instead of 'its' (possessive pronoun)?
Suggestion: it's; it is
...me engrossed in doing science projects, its a false argument that they will likely ...
^^^
Line 5, column 38, Rule ID: ADMIT_ENJOY_VB[3]
Message: This verb is used with the gerund form: 'reported eating'.
Suggestion: reported eating
... Besides, 30 percent of the teens had reported to eat atleast 7 meals a week with their famil...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 532, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...e has meals regularly with their family doesnt automatically imply that those teens we...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 576, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: weren't
...nt automatically imply that those teens werent involved in illegal activities. One of ...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 743, Rule ID: EVERYDAY_EVERY_DAY[3]
Message: 'Everyday' is an adjective. Did you mean 'every day'?
Suggestion: every day
...ess in Mexico at one time. He had meals everyday with his family since childhood, althou...
^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 869, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Therefore,
...p being involved in illicit activities. Therefore such a statistical value without any fi...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 953, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
...ny final result is mere speculation and cant be taken in face value.
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
besides, but, first, firstly, hence, however, if, moreover, therefore, as to, for instance
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 19.6327345309 87% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 12.9520958084 31% => OK
Conjunction : 14.0 11.1786427146 125% => OK
Relative clauses : 8.0 13.6137724551 59% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 21.0 28.8173652695 73% => OK
Preposition: 52.0 55.5748502994 94% => 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: 1726.0 2260.96107784 76% => OK
No of words: 360.0 441.139720559 82% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.79444444444 5.12650576532 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.35587717469 4.56307096286 95% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.4570319845 2.78398813304 88% => OK
Unique words: 210.0 204.123752495 103% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.583333333333 0.468620217663 124% => OK
syllable_count: 540.9 705.55239521 77% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 3.0 8.76447105788 34% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 0.0 4.22255489022 0% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 12.0 19.7664670659 61% => 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: 30.0 22.8473053892 131% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 65.2122602651 57.8364921388 113% => OK
Chars per sentence: 143.833333333 119.503703932 120% => OK
Words per sentence: 30.0 23.324526521 129% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.5 5.70786347227 131% => OK
Paragraphs: 3.0 5.15768463074 58% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 7.0 5.25449101796 133% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 0.0 4.67664670659 0% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.305898339425 0.218282227539 140% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.112671183609 0.0743258471296 152% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0598152393983 0.0701772020484 85% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.198595639498 0.128457276422 155% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0269672304605 0.0628817314937 43% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.1 14.3799401198 112% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 49.49 48.3550499002 102% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.8 12.197005988 113% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.09 12.5979740519 88% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.98 8.32208582834 108% => OK
difficult_words: 88.0 98.500998004 89% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 17.5 12.3882235529 141% => OK
gunning_fog: 14.0 11.1389221557 126% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Minimum four paragraphs wanted.
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.