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 author’s contention regarding the inaccuracy of Dr. Field’s work and the reasons for it is rife with errors. Giving no information about the number of children being interviewed by Dr. Karp, the kind of questions be asked by him, and failing to acknowledge the time gap between Dr. Field’s and Dr. Karp’s study are some of the major holes in the author’s argument.
The most crucial factor that would influence the outcome of the interview conducted by Dr. Karp seems vague. The factor being the number of children that were interviewed by him. If the group was very small then it surely brings the accuracy of the results of the study into question. A small group of children surely cannot represent the children of the entire village. Among this group of children, there might be some exceptions who may have been raised by their biological parents instead of the villagers. Such children would be the outliers among the entire children of Tertia. Hence, interviewing and interrogating just a few of them does not prove that Dr. Karp’s study is veracious. Had the author mentioned that Dr.Karp interviewed a large subset of children and given numerical figures for unambiguity and accuracy, then the argument could have become compelling.
Another detail about which we are kept in the dark is the type of interview questions. If the questions were centered around the biological parents of the child then the child would surely talk about them. Even if the child was spending as little as 3 hours with their biological parents the entire day, he would surely have enough details to answer the interview questions. It might also be possible that the villagers could have contributed towards increasing the child’s knowledge about their actual parents. For instance, if a child’s parent was participating in a lot of welfare activities of the village, then surely the villagers would tell the child about the munificent deeds of his parent. Such children might have been a part of the group which was interviewed by Dr. Karp. All of the above clearly undermine the contention of the author of rejecting Field’s study. Hence, even if we knew the kind of interview questions, still the author’s argument would have been fallacious because of the failure of Dr. Karp to keep in mind the aforementioned subtleties in his study.
Finally, we are told that Dr.Field conducted his study in Tertia 20 years ago which is a long time during which the village and the ideology of its natives could have undergone a tremendous change. Therefore, it might be true that Dr. Karp findings are accurate in the research he conducted recently in Tertia however, this does not discount the possibility that Dr. Field’s study was erroneous. Both the studies could be credible and true because of the large gap in time between which they were carried out. Children could now be attending schools and as a result, would be spending less time with the villagers, or there could have been a surge in the crime rate in the last 20 years in Tertia due to which parents could be confining their children at home and thereby spending more time with them. There could be a plethora of reasons that could account for the shift in the nature and attitudes of the villagers in the 20 years’ time. Hence, the author should have also accepted the accuracy of Field’s study keeping the above-mentioned points in mind.
Looking at the fallacies that have been pointed out in the author’s argument, it surely needs to be revised and needs to be supplied with relevant details.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- not OK
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- OK
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read a sample:
https://www.testbig.com/gmatgre-essays/gre-argumentthe-following-appear…
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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: 25 15
No. of Words: 606 350
No. of Characters: 2892 1500
No. of Different Words: 243 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.962 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.772 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.512 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 191 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 148 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 102 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 61 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.24 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.148 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.6 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.324 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.503 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.198 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 340, Rule ID: SOME_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'some'.
Suggestion: some
...ld's and Dr. Karp's study are some of the major holes in the author's argume...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 180, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
... children that were interviewed by him. If the group was very small then it surely...
^^
Line 3, column 731, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: Karp
...cious. Had the author mentioned that Dr.Karp interviewed a large subset of children ...
^^^^
Line 5, column 88, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...ark is the type of interview questions. If the questions were centered around the ...
^^
Line 5, column 796, Rule ID: ALL_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'all the'.
Suggestion: All the
...roup which was interviewed by Dr. Karp. All of the above clearly undermine the contention ...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 30, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: Field
... study. Finally, we are told that Dr.Field conducted his study in Tertia 20 years...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 35, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...y. Finally, we are told that Dr.Field conducted his study in Tertia 20 years a...
^^
Line 9, column 162, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...s to be supplied with relevant details.
^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, hence, however, if, look, may, regarding, so, still, then, therefore, for instance, kind of, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 35.0 19.6327345309 178% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 23.0 12.9520958084 178% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 13.6137724551 125% => OK
Pronoun: 36.0 28.8173652695 125% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 84.0 55.5748502994 151% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 16.3942115768 61% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3025.0 2260.96107784 134% => OK
No of words: 604.0 441.139720559 137% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.0082781457 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.95746018188 4.56307096286 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.77426686177 2.78398813304 100% => OK
Unique words: 257.0 204.123752495 126% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.425496688742 0.468620217663 91% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 903.6 705.55239521 128% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 25.0 19.7664670659 126% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 22.8473053892 105% => OK
Sentence length SD: 57.5278158807 57.8364921388 99% => OK
Chars per sentence: 121.0 119.503703932 101% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.16 23.324526521 104% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.96 5.70786347227 87% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 8.0 5.25449101796 152% => 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: 9.0 4.67664670659 192% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.141021763834 0.218282227539 65% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0520159216489 0.0743258471296 70% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0405969891646 0.0701772020484 58% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0810224415923 0.128457276422 63% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0502120286303 0.0628817314937 80% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.2 14.3799401198 99% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 55.58 48.3550499002 115% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.07 12.5979740519 96% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.91 8.32208582834 95% => OK
difficult_words: 118.0 98.500998004 120% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 11.1389221557 104% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
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.