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.
The author’s argument that palean baskets were not uniquely palean is flawed for various reasons. In the argument, the author not only draws a strong conclusion based on unwarranted and vague statements, but also considers the present geographical data while concluding about baskets that were found back in the history.
First, the author based his conclusion on several unwarranted statements which are flawed. while considering the ways of crossing the brim river, the author concludes that only boats could have been used without considering other possibilities. The assumption here is that the other possibilities would not provide any information in analysing the situation which is wrong. For example, if the depth of the river is not very deep after a walkable distance along the river, the paleans could have crossed the river on foot. also, the author does not provide any information on the depth of the river along its entire path which makes it impossible to conclude that paleans could have crossed the river only on a boat. When the author cites the information that archaeologists could not find any palean boats, the author concludes that paleans would not have reached Lithosr which is unwarranted. The assumption here is that the sample of archaeologists who could not find boats can confirm that paleans did not cross the river which is unjustified. For examples, if the boats were actually present and archaeologists did not find them because they did not dig deep or they did not search across the entire river path. if the author had provided any information about how archaeologists searched for boats or cited any information which could confirm their approach to find the boats, it would have been easy to conclude that paleans would not have crossed the river.
Second, the author draws a firm conclusion based on vague or ambiguous statements. while quoting that archaeologists found a palean basket in lithos, the author does not provide any information on how similar are these baskets with that of palean baskets. The assumption here is that the similarity would not give any information in supporting or contradicting the conclusion which is unwarranted. For example, if the basket found in lithos is only one percent similar to the palean baskets, it is unwise to conclude that the basket in lithos belongs to palean baskets. because the author does not cite any information that can confirm the similarity of lithos basket with palean baskets, it is incorrect to conclude that palean baskets were not uniquely palean.
Third, the author considers the present geographical data while concluding about baskets that were found back in the history. The assumption here is that the geographical conditions do not change with time which is flawed. For example, if the depth of the river has increased recently and paleans could have crossed the river on foot, it is incorrect to conclude that paleans did not cross the river. because the author does not provide any information on the depth or the difficulty of crossing the brim river during the time of paleans, it is impossible to conclude that paleans did not cross the river. also, if there was no brim river during the paleans time, there would be no question of crossing the river and paleans could have easily reached lithos. if the author had provided information on the geographical conditions back then, it would have been easy to conclude that paleans could have crossed the river only by boats.
In conclusion, because the argument makes several unwarranted assumptions, the author fails to make a convincing case that palean baskets were not uniquely palean.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- not OK. we may say: the sample size is not big enough.
argument 3 -- duplicated to argument 1
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Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 2.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 16 15
No. of Words: 600 350
No. of Characters: 3000 1500
No. of Different Words: 165 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.949 4.7
Average Word Length: 5 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.634 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 200 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 150 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 91 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 64 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 37.5 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 21.456 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.625 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.443 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.627 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.166 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 4, column 92, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: While
...nwarranted statements which are flawed. while considering the ways of crossing the b...
^^^^^
Line 4, column 134, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ile considering the ways of crossing the brim river, the author concludes that on...
^^
Line 4, column 525, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Also
...s could have crossed the river on foot. also, the author does not provide any inform...
^^^^
Line 4, column 1219, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: If
...ot search across the entire river path. if the author had provided any information...
^^
Line 7, column 84, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: While
...based on vague or ambiguous statements. while quoting that archaeologists found a pal...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 571, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Because
...et in lithos belongs to palean baskets. because the author does not cite any informatio...
^^^^^^^
Line 10, column 402, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Because
...e that paleans did not cross the river. because the author does not provide any informa...
^^^^^^^
Line 10, column 607, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Also
...e that paleans did not cross the river. also, if there was no brim river during the ...
^^^^
Line 10, column 760, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: If
...leans could have easily reached lithos. if the author had provided information on ...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, if, second, so, then, third, while, for example, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 29.0 19.6327345309 148% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 18.0 12.9520958084 139% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 32.0 13.6137724551 235% => Less relative clauses wanted (maybe 'which' is over used).
Pronoun: 36.0 28.8173652695 125% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 56.0 55.5748502994 101% => OK
Nominalization: 20.0 16.3942115768 122% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3076.0 2260.96107784 136% => OK
No of words: 600.0 441.139720559 136% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.12666666667 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.94923200384 4.56307096286 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.71031773455 2.78398813304 97% => OK
Unique words: 183.0 204.123752495 90% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.305 0.468620217663 65% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 937.8 705.55239521 133% => 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: 15.0 8.76447105788 171% => OK
Subordination: 13.0 2.70958083832 480% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 26.0 22.8473053892 114% => OK
Sentence length SD: 40.6337321574 57.8364921388 70% => OK
Chars per sentence: 133.739130435 119.503703932 112% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.0869565217 23.324526521 112% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.91304347826 5.70786347227 69% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 9.0 5.25449101796 171% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 11.0 4.67664670659 235% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.166274225237 0.218282227539 76% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0695785722969 0.0743258471296 94% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0537265840647 0.0701772020484 77% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.118260721912 0.128457276422 92% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0187204596814 0.0628817314937 30% => 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: 15.8 14.3799401198 110% => 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: 12.77 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.06 8.32208582834 85% => OK
difficult_words: 81.0 98.500998004 82% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 12.3882235529 97% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.1389221557 111% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => 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.