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 claim that the Palean-designed baskets found in Lithos leading to the conclusion that the woven design was not unique to Palea requires more evidence to be rhetorically sound. The assumptions made in the logical leaps and the absence of counter-arguments forms a weak argument.
First, the author assumes that the Brim river is historically just as board and deep as it is now as it was in ancient times. The problem with this assumption is that historically geographical landmarks are shaped by nature and change over time. For example, the ice-bridge that connected present-day Russia and Alaska was theorized to exist in the past allowing for human migration to the Americas but has long since melted away. Based on this phenomenon, it cannot be too unreasonable that the Brim river used to be shallow or narrow allowing the Paleans to exchange goods with the brims without the use of a boat. evidence proving or disproving the static nature of the stream would need to be included before the size justification can be used to rule out the novelty of the baskets.
also, the author also insinuates that because no Palean boats were found, none existed. In other to prove the absence of boats used by Paleans evidence supporting the types of Palean boat making materials at the time would need to be addressed. The Paleans can only be proven to be boat deficient if and only if it was physically impossible for them to build a boat with the materials they had at the time. Otherwise the possibility that they build short-lasting boats still stands and does not rule out the conclusion that they had no boats.
Finally, the counterarguments against 3rd party trades was never discussed or addressed. The claim assumes that the only way the basket could have traveled from the Paleans to the brims was through direct trade; however, if there were a group of third-party traders who visited society to society exchanging goods this would rule out the necessity that the basket had to be obtained first-hand from the Palean people. History of trading posts or aquatic, nomadic merchants would have to be analyzed and considered as their presence would also nullify the conclusion obtained by the argument.
Thus, the argument that the Palean baskets are not uniquely Palean is still rather incomplete and more evidence is required to arrive at a conclusion. The statement omits acknowledgment of critical counter-arguments and makes assumptions regarding the terrain and Palean culture which were unproven given the current amount of evidence.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 15 15
No. of Words: 423 350
No. of Characters: 2093 1500
No. of Different Words: 210 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.535 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.948 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.8 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 143 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 109 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 71 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 48 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 28.2 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 13.809 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.667 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.316 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.584 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.064 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 11, column 618, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Evidence
...th the brims without the use of a boat. evidence proving or disproving the static nature...
^^^^^^^^
Line 21, column 1, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Also
...e novelty of the baskets. also, the author also insinuates that becaus...
^^^^
Line 21, column 408, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Otherwise,
...ith the materials they had at the time. Otherwise the possibility that they build short-l...
^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, however, if, regarding, so, still, third, thus, for example
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.6327345309 132% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 15.0 11.1786427146 134% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 28.8173652695 83% => OK
Preposition: 57.0 55.5748502994 103% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 16.3942115768 98% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2188.0 2260.96107784 97% => OK
No of words: 423.0 441.139720559 96% => OK
Chars per words: 5.17257683215 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.53508145475 4.56307096286 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.84008880715 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 216.0 204.123752495 106% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.510638297872 0.468620217663 109% => OK
syllable_count: 668.7 705.55239521 95% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 4.96107784431 20% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
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: 54.914564325 57.8364921388 95% => OK
Chars per sentence: 136.75 119.503703932 114% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.4375 23.324526521 113% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.375 5.70786347227 94% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 8.20758483034 24% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.130398741753 0.218282227539 60% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0414168454386 0.0743258471296 56% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.046124593971 0.0701772020484 66% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0783562856854 0.128457276422 61% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0404797292093 0.0628817314937 64% => 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: 13.0 12.5979740519 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.92 8.32208582834 107% => OK
difficult_words: 107.0 98.500998004 109% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.1389221557 111% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 75.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.5 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.