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 argues that Woven baskets were not uniquely Palean. To support his/her claim, the author cites the following evidences: first, archaeologists discovered one Woven basket in Lithos; second, there is a very deep and broad river that can be crossed only by boat; third, no Palean boat has been found. Tough the issue has its merit, due to incomplete evidences and unaddressed assumptions, the conclusion is unsubstantiated.
To begin with, the author unfairly indicates that all the conditions about two villages and river are unchanged over years. That the current Brim River is very deep and broad does not necessarily mean it was very deep and wide in the ancient. It is plausible the river was very shallow in the ancient, so that it is obvious that people could easily pass river without any boats. There could be even no river in the ancient at all. The argument made by the author is questionable when there was dramatic change happening from past to present, especially the condition about the Brim River.
Moreover, the author assumes that boat is the only method to cross the river. Many other approaches to cross the river remain untested. If ancient people living around the river were all good at swimming, then Woven basket can be transported by people who swam. There could also be a bridge on the river, but as time passes, the bridge was ruined by flood and then no longer exists today. Woven baskets, therefore, can be readily transported to Lithos from Palea in the ancient. In addition, archaeologists only discovered one Woven basket in Lithos. The sample size is too small to evaluate the full story. Without evidence with regard to all other possible approaches passing the river in ancient, we are not equipped with the ability to draw any conclusion about the spread of Woven basket.
Last but not least, the fact that no Palean boat has been found does not mean there is no evidence about boat. Probably the boats were belonged to people in Lithos, who shared the boats in transporting Woven baskets. Archaeologists today may not be obtained with sophisticated tools or ways to detect the ancient relics of boats. The Palean boats might be made of disposable materials like wood in the ancient. They disposed through a series of processes with the assistance of rain, wind, and bacteria activities. The boats, in this case, are not likely to be found today even if there was a bridge in the past. To sum up, as it stands, the author makes conclusion based on several questionable assumptions which undermines its validity.
To further strengthen his argument, the author is recommended to provide evidences as follows: first, the comparison of river conditions between present and past; second, sophisticated investigation by experts shows that no boast ever existed in the history; third, the only way to approach Litho from Palea is by boating after excluding all other possibilities.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 5.0 out of 6
Category: Very Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 24 15
No. of Words: 491 350
No. of Characters: 2367 1500
No. of Different Words: 226 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.707 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.821 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.587 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 152 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 104 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 70 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 48 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.458 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.304 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.583 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.3 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.489 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.101 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 432, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ions, the conclusion is unsubstantiated. To begin with, the author unfairly ind...
^^^^^
Line 3, column 591, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ally the condition about the Brim River. Moreover, the author assumes that boat i...
^^^^^^
Line 6, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...sion about the spread of Woven basket. Last but not least, the fact that no Pal...
^^^^^
Line 8, column 613, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... even if there was a bridge in the past. To sum up, as it stands, the author make...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, if, may, moreover, second, so, then, therefore, third, in addition, to begin with, to sum up, with regard to
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 32.0 19.6327345309 163% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 13.6137724551 95% => OK
Pronoun: 21.0 28.8173652695 73% => OK
Preposition: 71.0 55.5748502994 128% => OK
Nominalization: 8.0 16.3942115768 49% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2472.0 2260.96107784 109% => OK
No of words: 489.0 441.139720559 111% => OK
Chars per words: 5.05521472393 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.70248278971 4.56307096286 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.74062812629 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 244.0 204.123752495 120% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.498977505112 0.468620217663 106% => OK
syllable_count: 749.7 705.55239521 106% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 14.0 8.76447105788 160% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 19.7664670659 106% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 81.2290231076 57.8364921388 140% => OK
Chars per sentence: 117.714285714 119.503703932 99% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.2857142857 23.324526521 100% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.0 5.70786347227 105% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => 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: 0.119357783742 0.218282227539 55% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0438782526856 0.0743258471296 59% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0496853203046 0.0701772020484 71% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0786417682639 0.128457276422 61% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.049898784894 0.0628817314937 79% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.0 14.3799401198 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 56.59 48.3550499002 117% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.36 12.5979740519 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.56 8.32208582834 103% => OK
difficult_words: 117.0 98.500998004 119% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 15.0 12.3882235529 121% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.