Woven baskets characterized by a particular distinctive pattern have
previously been found only in the immediate vicinity of the prehistoric village
of Palea and therefore were believed to have been made only by the Palean
people. Recently, however, archaeologists discovered such a "Palean" basket
in Lithos, an ancient village across the Brim River from Palea. The Brim River
is very deep and broad, and so the ancient Paleans could have crossed it only
by boat, and no Palean boats have been found. Thus it follows that the so-
called Palean baskets were not uniquely Palean.
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to
evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or
strengthen the argument.
After the recent discovery of Palean baskets in Lithos, the author makes the conclusion that the Palean baskets were not only made by Palean in the ancient Palea. The discovery in Lithos turns out that the fact about Palean basket style known as a unique thing should be modified, because there had been no transportation from Palea to Lithos except for Brim River people in ancient times could not cross. This argument, however, rests upon somewhat scanty inferences, so the argument could be contradicted by some specific evidence.
To begin with, The primary assumption underlying the author's conclusion is that the author believes such a "Palean" basket archaeologists discovered exactly falls into line with the Palean thing. This kind of assumption needs the specific evidence that there are many Palean baskets, not only one in Lithos. If it is the only one in Lithos, the conclusion would be more easily challenged by even minor evidence like the difference of some patterns, a vestige of different techniques added on it, and so on. Even a few differences which can be found in the small part of basket in Lithos compared to the Palean basket can be a strong proof that the argument cannot confirm yet, therefore, the author needs to discuss about the number of Palean woven basket in Lithos and the sameness between Palean basket in Palea and in Lithos including ingridients and pattern.
The assumptions about the exchange between the two ancient villages are rife with holes, so it is insufficient to right draw the conclusion. The author presumes that there was no exchange at all between Palea and Lithos due to the difficulty in crossing the Brim River, and it would be buttressed by the evidence that no Palean boats have been found. But the argument might remain cogent, only if archaeologists may hardly discover additional evidence like Lithos' boats in the Brim River, another ways to access Lithos from Palea such as land route, bridge. Archaeologitsts might find even one specific evidence for verifying the exchange between two prehistoric villages, then in no sense it can be said that Palean baskets style is common.
In a similar vein, we can't exclude the possibility that the exchange between two villages after ancient times. It means the Palean basket discovered in Lithos could be imported from Palea after ancient or could be made by the next generations who knew the imported techniques of making woven baskets popular in Palea before few centuries. We can imagine archaeologists can find some inventories of the import in Middle Age or try to use carbon dating down the road. Then, some inventories of the import can aggravate the argument because the Palean basket in Lithos were imported later times, or else carbon dating which determines the age of Palean basket in Lithos is after the ancient times would turn out that some people who lived in Lithos in middle age made the Palean basket with the techniques transferred from Palea.
With above pieces of evidence, the author's argument is not sufficient to make a cogent case. It is needed that the evidence that such a Palean basket in Lithos is completely same with woven baskets in Palea and there is no transportation between two villages until now in order to substantiate the author's argument.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 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: 551 350
No. of Characters: 2695 1500
No. of Different Words: 221 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.845 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.891 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.576 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 199 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 120 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 88 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 47 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 32.412 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 13.231 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.588 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.394 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.594 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.125 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 366, Rule ID: HE_VERB_AGR[8]
Message: The proper name in singular (River) must be used with a third-person verb: 'peoples'.
Suggestion: peoples
...m Palea to Lithos except for Brim River people in ancient times could not cross. This ...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 54, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
..., The primary assumption underlying the authors conclusion is that the author believes ...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 106, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
...lusion is that the author believes such a 'Palean' basket archaeologist...
^
Line 13, column 23, Rule ID: CANT[1]
Message: Did you mean 'can't' or 'cannot'?
Suggestion: can't; cannot
...e is common. In a similar vein, we cant exclude the possibility that the exchan...
^^^^
Line 17, column 36, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
... With above pieces of evidence, the authors argument is not sufficient to make a co...
^^^^^^^
Line 17, column 299, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
... until now in order to substantiate the authors argument.
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, however, if, may, so, then, therefore, except for, kind of, such as, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.6327345309 127% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 18.0 12.9520958084 139% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 23.0 28.8173652695 80% => OK
Preposition: 88.0 55.5748502994 158% => OK
Nominalization: 20.0 16.3942115768 122% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2765.0 2260.96107784 122% => OK
No of words: 551.0 441.139720559 125% => OK
Chars per words: 5.01814882033 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.84493438435 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.67123016011 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 231.0 204.123752495 113% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.419237749546 0.468620217663 89% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 872.1 705.55239521 124% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => 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: 17.0 19.7664670659 86% => OK
Sentence length: 32.0 22.8473053892 140% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 75.0105413584 57.8364921388 130% => OK
Chars per sentence: 162.647058824 119.503703932 136% => OK
Words per sentence: 32.4117647059 23.324526521 139% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.11764705882 5.70786347227 90% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.146061145773 0.218282227539 67% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0538839272689 0.0743258471296 72% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0422309742887 0.0701772020484 60% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0944191416372 0.128457276422 74% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0242581015142 0.0628817314937 39% => 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: 18.4 14.3799401198 128% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 39.0 48.3550499002 81% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.8 12.197005988 130% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.43 12.5979740519 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.15 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 102.0 98.500998004 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 14.8 11.1389221557 133% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.