TOEFL integrated writing: Chaco housing

The reading and the listening are about the mysterious “great houses” found by archaeologists in the Chaco Canyon area of New Mexico. The author presents three theories about the possible purpose of these structures, while the lecturer argues that each of the author’s theories is unfounded and that the true use of the houses is unknown.

First of all, the author says that the structures were used for residential purposes. It is noted that they are very similar to the “apartment buildings” located in nearby Taos, New Mexico, where people have been living for centuries. The professor casts doubt on this theory. She says that while the buildings may resemble such apartment buildings from the outside, their interiors do not. She points out that the great houses do not contain very many fireplaces, which would have been necessary if they were inhabited by families.

Secondly, the author mentions that the structures could have been used to store food. The article asserts that the Chaco people consumed great quantities of maize, which could have been stored in the houses for long periods of time without spoiling. On the other hand, the professor says that excavations of the sites have not turned up any signs of maize. She says that if the buildings had been used to store this crop, we would have found signs of either spilled maize or containers for maize.

Finally, the author states that the structures could have served as ceremonial centers. The author observes that archeologists found a mound of broken pots near one of the houses, and that pots were used by people of the region during special occasions. The professor notes, in contrast, that the mound contained other materials as well, including many which would not have been used in ceremonies. She feels that the mound was merely a trash heap left behind when the house was being constructed.

Votes
Average: 0.3 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Transition Words or Phrases used:
finally, first, if, may, second, secondly, so, well, while, in contrast, first of all, on the other hand

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 17.0 10.4613686534 163% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 5.04856512141 139% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 7.30242825607 55% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 20.0 12.0772626932 166% => OK
Pronoun: 27.0 22.412803532 120% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 36.0 30.3222958057 119% => OK
Nominalization: 2.0 5.01324503311 40% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1590.0 1373.03311258 116% => OK
No of words: 314.0 270.72406181 116% => OK
Chars per words: 5.06369426752 5.08290768461 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.20951839842 4.04702891845 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.62629778556 2.5805825403 102% => OK
Unique words: 167.0 145.348785872 115% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.531847133758 0.540411800872 98% => OK
syllable_count: 468.9 419.366225166 112% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 3.25607064018 246% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 13.0662251656 115% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 41.0363524478 49.2860985944 83% => OK
Chars per sentence: 106.0 110.228320801 96% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.9333333333 21.698381199 96% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.93333333333 7.06452816374 98% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 4.45695364238 45% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.27373068433 187% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.0751832669947 0.272083759551 28% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0270938792709 0.0996497079465 27% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0427735354713 0.0662205650399 65% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0531367562797 0.162205337803 33% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0342887632258 0.0443174109184 77% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.9 13.3589403974 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 59.64 53.8541721854 111% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 11.0289183223 90% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.07 12.2367328918 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.3 8.42419426049 99% => OK
difficult_words: 73.0 63.6247240618 115% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.498013245 95% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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It is not exactly right on the topic in the view of e-grader. Maybe there is a wrong essay topic.

Rates: 3.33333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 1.0 Out of 30
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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.