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 article recommended that by conducting interview-centered method, accurate information can be achieved about child-rearing practices on Tertian island, citing references from two methods previously run on that island. While the argument seems to be quite plausible at the first glance, a closer scrutiny sheds light on a plethora of questions that need to be answered which are crucial for the conclusion to be effective.
To begin with, the article compared two methods: observation centered - that was conducted almost twenty years ago, and the other one, interview-centered, conducted of late. Well, twenty years is a huge gap! A myriad of things can be changed meanwhile including the demography, culture, life-style and perspective of the sample residents observed. It is entirely possible that the actual scenario of children being reared by the entire village, according to the observation of Dr. Field at that time, was true indeed. With the course of twenty years, the mindset of the parents of the village might have been changed and now the children are reared by their biological parents. There can be absolutely no conflict between these two methods.
Furthermore, the data presented lack a depth of detail that would help us to evaluate the significance of the study results. How many people were interviewed and how many are observed? Also, it is very crucial to know that what percentage, (if any) of the sample was common to both of the methods that can actually reflect the change in the rearing style. If it happens that the children those were being observed by Dr. Field, are the parents, namely the subject of the study of Dr. Karp- then the result would be conveying something significant. So, before answering these questions, it is too reckless for the author to conclude that the recent method will act more effectively to gather the correct information.
Last but not the least, it has been mentioned that Dr. Karp visited other islands too excluding the Tertia island and he spent more time interviewing with the children than their parents. As a consequence, his observation should reflect the rearing pattern of the whole group of islands and is not only limited to the Tertia island. So, without segregating the interviews of Tertia island's children exclusively, his generalized result cannot be taken for granted.
While it ultimately be the case that the conclusion is reasonable, we cannot assert it from the argument where it stands now.There are simply too many unexplored variables and the researchers could strengthen the case by answering those.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
samples:
https://www.testbig.com/story/gre-argument-essay-topic-21-outline
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 17 15
No. of Words: 421 350
No. of Characters: 2117 1500
No. of Different Words: 222 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.53 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.029 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.813 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 159 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 116 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 81 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 55 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.765 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.033 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.588 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.297 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.547 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.076 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 120, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...s conducted almost twenty years ago, and the other one, interview-centered, condu...
^^
Line 7, column 361, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...rtia island. So, without segregating the interviews of Tertia islands children ex...
^^
Line 9, column 126, Rule ID: SENTENCE_WHITESPACE
Message: Add a space between sentences
Suggestion: There
...t from the argument where it stands now.There are simply too many unexplored variable...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, furthermore, if, so, then, well, while, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 29.0 19.6327345309 148% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.9520958084 100% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 32.0 28.8173652695 111% => OK
Preposition: 49.0 55.5748502994 88% => 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: 2180.0 2260.96107784 96% => OK
No of words: 420.0 441.139720559 95% => OK
Chars per words: 5.19047619048 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.52701905584 4.56307096286 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.90273139465 2.78398813304 104% => OK
Unique words: 235.0 204.123752495 115% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.559523809524 0.468620217663 119% => OK
syllable_count: 665.1 705.55239521 94% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 19.7664670659 81% => 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: 26.0 22.8473053892 114% => OK
Sentence length SD: 47.3958974359 57.8364921388 82% => OK
Chars per sentence: 136.25 119.503703932 114% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.25 23.324526521 113% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.0625 5.70786347227 89% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 6.88822355289 29% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.271529194037 0.218282227539 124% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0842328776709 0.0743258471296 113% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0664576951011 0.0701772020484 95% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.132590855263 0.128457276422 103% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0865956125184 0.0628817314937 138% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.1 14.3799401198 112% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 45.09 48.3550499002 93% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 12.197005988 110% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.12 12.5979740519 104% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.25 8.32208582834 111% => OK
difficult_words: 115.0 98.500998004 117% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.1389221557 111% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 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.