Twenty years ago, Dr. Field, a noted anthropologist, visited the island of Tertia. Using an observation-centered approach to studying Tertian culture, he concluded from his observations that children in Tertia were reared by an entire village rather than by their own biological parents. Recently another anthropologist, Dr. Karp, visited the group of islands that includes Tertia and used the interview-centered method to study child-rearing practices. In the interviews that Dr. Karp conducted with children living in this group of islands, the children spent much more time talking about their biological parents than about other adults in the village. Dr. Karp decided that Dr. Field's conclusion about Tertian village culture must be invalid. Some anthropologists recommend that to obtain accurate information on Tertian child-rearing practices, future research on the subject should be conducted via the interview-centered method.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
The passage discusses two conflicting researches about child-rearing in certain islands by Dr. Field and Dr. Karp using observation-based and interview-based approach, respectively. Dr. Field's research from 20 years ago concluded that children in the Island of Tertia were reared by the whole village rather than their parents. On the contrary, Dr. Karp's recent study in a group of islands concluded that children spent most of the time talking about their parents. The passage suggests that further studies must be conducted to get a more accurate look on child-rearing practices in Island of Tertia via interview-based approach. However, the recommendation is based on the assumption that both the studies are comparable to each other and that interview-based method is superior to observation-based method.
Firstly, the two studies by the anthropologists are incomparable. This is because there is have a gap of about 20 years. In the 20 year span, it is possible that child-rearing practices have changed in the Island of Tertia. It would be unfair to compare a study that was conducted 20 years with a study conducted recently. Furthermore, the demographics of the studies conducted are different. Dr. Field's study was entirely conducted in the Island of Tertia whereas Dr. Karp's study was conducted in a group of islands that included the Island of Tertia. Dr. Karp generalizes it results to Island of Tertia. One cannot generalize his/her study especially when the testing environment is different.
Secindly, the author of the passage supports the interview-based method for conducting the study. However, the author does not provide evidence that the Dr. Karp's study was better and more accurate than Dr. Field's study. The is no evidence whether interview-based methods are actually better than observation-based methods. What if during the interview a child lies? A child might lie if he is forced by parents to give the interview. Generally, children are more interested in playing rather than giving interviews. A child that is forced to give interview is highly likely to answer questions without thinking so that he/she can finish the interview as soon as possible and then play his games.
In conclusion, the loopholes mentioned above must be answered before agreeing with the recommendation in the passage. In its current form, the recommendation lacks strong evidence to be considered.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 22 15
No. of Words: 382 350
No. of Characters: 1992 1500
No. of Different Words: 176 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.421 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.215 4.6
Word Length SD: 3.167 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 153 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 115 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 78 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 53 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 17.364 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.055 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.545 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.311 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.49 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.126 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 92, Rule ID: BEEN_PART_AGREEMENT[1]
Message: Consider using a past participle here: 'had'.
Suggestion: had
... incomparable. This is because there is have a gap of about 20 years. In the 20 year...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, first, firstly, furthermore, however, if, look, so, then, whereas, in conclusion, talking about, on the contrary
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 12.9520958084 46% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 11.1786427146 45% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 28.8173652695 83% => OK
Preposition: 50.0 55.5748502994 90% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 16.3942115768 67% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2033.0 2260.96107784 90% => OK
No of words: 380.0 441.139720559 86% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.35 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.41515443553 4.56307096286 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.23568550153 2.78398813304 116% => OK
Unique words: 180.0 204.123752495 88% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.473684210526 0.468620217663 101% => OK
syllable_count: 610.2 705.55239521 86% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 2.70958083832 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 22.0 19.7664670659 111% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 22.8473053892 74% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 43.2627232516 57.8364921388 75% => OK
Chars per sentence: 92.4090909091 119.503703932 77% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.2727272727 23.324526521 74% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.54545454545 5.70786347227 97% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 6.88822355289 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
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: 0.303057555665 0.218282227539 139% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0903168318664 0.0743258471296 122% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0926438652268 0.0701772020484 132% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.158218671755 0.128457276422 123% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.116284189759 0.0628817314937 185% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.4 14.3799401198 86% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 54.22 48.3550499002 112% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 12.197005988 81% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.45 12.5979740519 107% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.85 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 81.0 98.500998004 82% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 11.1389221557 79% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => 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.