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, archa

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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.

While it may be true that the Palean baskets were not uniquely Palean, the writer needs further evidence to corroborate his preposition. The argument is rife with holes and unsubstantiated points. Some insights need to be provided to strengthen this argument.

The discovery of such a basket in Lithos, a neighboring community to Palea, separated by River Brim, does not necessary mean that the basket found originated from Lithos or is the same as the Palean basket. The author of this article needs to say exactly the quantity of this basket that was found by the archaeologists. If the quantity found is just one or two baskets, then, it will be difficult to surmise that the baskets were produced by the people of Lithos, where as, reasonable quantity such as fifty or more would really raise questions. What about the unique features of the Palean basket and the features found on this particular basket? The author needs to provide insight into the unique features found on this basket and that of the Palean basket to establish that it is the same basket. Suppose this basket has the same unique features as the Palean basket but was taken to Palea by a Palean?

The writer however, claims that the baskets would not have been taken to Lithos by a Palean because no Palean boat have been found in Lithos. The writer needs to establish that there is no other route to Lithos other than through River Brim. Even at that, Paleans may be good swimmers and thus may have crossed to Lithos by swimming. They may also have left their boats at the bank of the river only for wave to wash it back to Lithos. Until these questions have been answered, it is difficult to conclude that the Palean baskets were not uniquely Palean.

Additionally, the people of Lithos may have crossed over to Palea and returned to their village with the basket. The writer needs to provide evidence that the basket was not transported to Lithos by the people of Lithos or by other neighboring communities to support his conclusion.

Finally, other options need to be exploited in other to prove this argument right. The writer ought to provide insight into the socio-cultural activities of the Paleans. Do they give this basket as gift during marriage ceremonies or use them in making sacrifices or rituals to the water spirit? Any of these could have led to the basket getting to lithos. More so, if the Paleans use this basket in fishing, the basket found in Lithos may have been one lost by a fisherman from Palea and then got washed down to Lithos by the river.

Except an insight is provided into all these questions and many more, it is difficult to prove that the Palean baskets are not uniquely Palean.

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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: 22 15
No. of Words: 472 350
No. of Characters: 2174 1500
No. of Different Words: 182 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.661 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.606 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.372 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 154 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 89 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 57 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 32 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.455 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.061 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.409 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.354 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.586 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.14 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5