The following appeared in an article written by Dr. Karp, an anthropologist.
"Twenty years ago, Dr. Field, a noted anthropologist, visited the island of Tertia and
concluded from his observations that children in Tertia were reared by an entire village
rather than by their own biological parents. However, my recent interviews with children
living in the group of islands that includes Tertia show that these children spend much more
time talking about their biological parents than about other adults in the village. This
research of mine proves that Dr. Field's conclusion about Tertian village culture is invalid
and thus that the observation-centered approach to studying cultures is invalid as well. The
interview-centered method that my team of graduate students is currently using in Tertia will
establish a much more accurate understanding of child-rearing traditions there and in other
island cultures."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumption prove unwarranted.
In the article, the author disputes the observation of Dr. Field that children in Tertia are reared by an entire village rather than by their own biological parents. To buttress his conclusion, Dr. Karp conducted interviews with children living in the group of island that includes Tertia and found them talking more about their biological parents than about other adults in the village. Futher Dr, Karp suggests that the observation-centered approach adopted by Dr. Field is invalid. Instead, interview-centered method used in his own research should be given more credit. While Dr. Karp's research and method may be valid to some extent, the reasoning of this article is unconvincing due to several unsubstantiated assumptions which, if proven unwarranted, could seriously challenge the author's conclusion.
To start with, the author assumes that the situation in Tertia remains unchanged during the twenty year period, or to put it more clear, that children in Tertia were raised by their biological parents twenty years ago as they do now. However, this assumption is open to doubt. Moreover, the author's interview is conducted in the group of islands including Tertia but is not particularly focused on Tertia. The underlying assumption here is that the children-rearing mechanism is the same in the group of islands, but we simply do not know. If the situation in Tertia has changed during the past twenty years or the situation on Tertia is completely different, then the author's conclusion is potentially questionable.
In addition, granted that the situation has not been influenced by time or location, the assumption that children has give reliable answers during the interview is still in doubt. Generally speaking, reactions during interviews can be influenced by many factors, such as the questions raised up be the interviewer, and the decoration in the interview room. These factors may hint the children to talk more about their biological parents than about other adults in the village. If this scenario turns out to be true, the author's conclusion that children in Tertia are reared by their biological parents is weakened.
Finally, even if we acknowledge for now that the results of the two research are comparable and that the chilren's answers during the interviews are reliable, that children are talking more about their biological parents does not equal to that they are actually reared by their biological parents. This assumption is rendered in jeopardy because the children are probably tend to talk more about their biological parents out of the special emotional link.
To draw a conclusion, the author's cconclusion might be reasonable but cannot be safely guranteed. We need to deliberately consider the validity of the aforementioned assumptions to better evaluate whether or not to accept Dr Karp's claim.
- The following appeared as part of a letter to the editor of a scientific journal."A recent study of eighteen rhesus monkeys provides clues as to the effects of birth order on an individual's levels of stimulation. The study showed that in stimul 29
- In surveys Mason City residents rank water sports (swimming, boating and fishing) among their favorite recreational activities. The Mason River flowing through the city is rarely used for these pursuits, however,and the city park department devotes little 75
- As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate. 83
- Some people believe that government funding of the arts is necessary to ensure that the arts can flourish and be available to all people. Others believe that government funding of the arts threatens the integrity of the arts. 83
- Claim Governments must ensure that their major cities receive the financial support they need in order to thrive Reason It is primarily in cities that a nation s cultural traditions are preserved and generated 92
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: 18 15
No. of Words: 451 350
No. of Characters: 2349 1500
No. of Different Words: 205 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.608 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.208 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.936 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 183 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 138 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 102 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 66 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.056 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.874 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.667 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.353 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.577 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.15 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 789, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...arranted, could seriously challenge the authors conclusion. To start with, the aut...
^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 670, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...ertia is completely different, then the authors conclusion is potentially questionable....
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 521, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...this scenario turns out to be true, the authors conclusion that children in Tertia are ...
^^^^^^^
Line 13, column 372, Rule ID: BEEN_PART_AGREEMENT[2]
Message: Consider using a past participle here: 'tended'.
Suggestion: tended
...pardy because the children are probably tend to talk more about their biological par...
^^^^
Line 17, column 198, Rule ID: WHETHER[7]
Message: Perhaps you can shorten this phrase to just 'whether'. It is correct though if you mean 'regardless of whether'.
Suggestion: whether
...entioned assumptions to better evaluate whether or not to accept Dr Karps claim.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, finally, however, if, may, moreover, so, still, then, while, in addition, such as, to start with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 11.1786427146 98% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 35.0 28.8173652695 121% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 64.0 55.5748502994 115% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 16.3942115768 79% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2406.0 2260.96107784 106% => OK
No of words: 451.0 441.139720559 102% => OK
Chars per words: 5.33481152993 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.60833598836 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.98898096472 2.78398813304 107% => OK
Unique words: 211.0 204.123752495 103% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.467849223947 0.468620217663 100% => OK
syllable_count: 717.3 705.55239521 102% => 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: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 22.8473053892 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 60.1499412477 57.8364921388 104% => OK
Chars per sentence: 133.666666667 119.503703932 112% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.0555555556 23.324526521 107% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.16666666667 5.70786347227 108% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => 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: 0.223797755974 0.218282227539 103% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0784495451637 0.0743258471296 106% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0815447939577 0.0701772020484 116% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.117933748925 0.128457276422 92% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0967369723307 0.0628817314937 154% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.2 14.3799401198 113% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 46.1 48.3550499002 95% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.93 12.5979740519 111% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.59 8.32208582834 103% => OK
difficult_words: 106.0 98.500998004 108% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.1389221557 108% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.