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.
In this statement, the author questioned the validity of the claim that the Palean baskets are only made by Palean people. The author based his/her induction on a new archaeological discovery: a Palean basket is found in an ancient village Lithos, which is segregated from the village Palea by a wide and deep river. Considering there was no signs of boat found in the village Palea, the author argued that Palean people had no means of crossing the river thus the newly found “Palean basket” is made by the people in Lithos on their own, and consequently putting the “Palea originated Palean basket” theory questionable.
Though the author based his/her induction on some archeaological facts, I have to argue that there are several questions remaining unanswered and more evidences are required if the author want this induction to be more grounded and reasonable.
First of all, the author claimed that Palean people “would” have a hard time crossing the river without a boat, because the river “is” wide and broad now. The tense differences here clearly indict the questionable induction. We still need more evidence to convince us that the river “was” also deep and broad at the ancient time of those two villages. However, if geological evidence shows us that the river was not that deep or wide at that time, or even the river did not exist at all during that period, the author’s claim would be heavily weakened and thus making his/her conclusion questionable or even invalid.
In addition to that, even if we concede at the hypothesis that river was always that wide and deep, the author’s induction based heavily on the fact that there is no sign of boat in the Palea village, so they villagers should have no way of crossing the river. The most questionable judgement here is that only by boat can those people cross this river. Nevertheless, if evident comes out to be that those villigers had an amazing ability at building strong and stable bridges, this would be a detrimental clue to the author’s claim. In other words, we still need more evidence to prove that only by boats can those villagers cross the river, and if it proved not true, the author’s statement would undoubtedly be unwarrented.
Finally, with a more detailed scrutiny, another very rudimentary assumptions still requires evidence to justify it: Whether or not these two villages were actually the same tribe but in different times. In other words, since there is no evidence that these two villages existed in the same period of time, they might have migrated from the village Palea to the village Lithos, and this would perfectly explain that why the distinct “Palean bastket” have been found in the village Lithos as well. If new evidence indicts that they were actually the same tribe, the author’s claim will also be heavily weakened.
To put it together, we still need more evidence to prove that wether the river was also broad and deep during that period of time, whether by boat is the only way for the villagers in Palea to cross the river, and whether village Palea and village Lithos were actually the same tribe. Only after the illumination of these questions by new evidences, can we draw a farther conclusion that if the author’s claim is valid and reasonable.
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: 560 350
No. of Characters: 2636 1500
No. of Different Words: 208 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.865 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.707 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.435 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 164 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 121 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 82 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 46 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 32.941 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 13.117 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.765 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.388 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.64 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.21 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 9, column 117, Rule ID: WHETHER[7]
Message: Perhaps you can shorten this phrase to just 'Whether'. It is correct though if you mean 'regardless of whether'.
Suggestion: Whether
... still requires evidence to justify it: Whether or not these two villages were actually the sa...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 291, Rule ID: PERIOD_OF_TIME[1]
Message: Use simply 'period'.
Suggestion: period
... these two villages existed in the same period of time, they might have migrated from the vill...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 11, column 116, Rule ID: PERIOD_OF_TIME[1]
Message: Use simply 'period'.
Suggestion: period
...ver was also broad and deep during that period of time, whether by boat is the only way for th...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, consequently, finally, first, however, if, nevertheless, so, still, thus, well, in addition, first of all, in other words
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.6327345309 127% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.9520958084 100% => OK
Conjunction : 20.0 11.1786427146 179% => OK
Relative clauses : 23.0 13.6137724551 169% => OK
Pronoun: 55.0 28.8173652695 191% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 60.0 55.5748502994 108% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2810.0 2260.96107784 124% => OK
No of words: 557.0 441.139720559 126% => OK
Chars per words: 5.04488330341 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.85807034144 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.82429312807 2.78398813304 101% => OK
Unique words: 228.0 204.123752495 112% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.40933572711 0.468620217663 87% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 886.5 705.55239521 126% => 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: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 5.0 1.67365269461 299% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 8.0 4.22255489022 189% => 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: 73.6466359695 57.8364921388 127% => OK
Chars per sentence: 165.294117647 119.503703932 138% => OK
Words per sentence: 32.7647058824 23.324526521 140% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.35294117647 5.70786347227 146% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 8.20758483034 37% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.164877904172 0.218282227539 76% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0674386168783 0.0743258471296 91% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0646431590419 0.0701772020484 92% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.102135879882 0.128457276422 80% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0665189803304 0.0628817314937 106% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 18.7 14.3799401198 130% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 39.0 48.3550499002 81% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.8 12.197005988 130% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.54 12.5979740519 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.12 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 102.0 98.500998004 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 20.0 12.3882235529 161% => OK
gunning_fog: 14.8 11.1389221557 133% => OK
text_standard: 20.0 11.9071856287 168% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.