"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 assumptions prove unwarranted.
While it may be possible that an interview-centred approach might be superior to an observation-centred one, in the scope of the child rearing traditions of isolated cultures, the author does not make a solid case about his opinions.
Firstly, the statement that children are reared by the village in Tertia might not paint a complete picture, as it makes it seem like there’s absolutely no difference between a biological parent and the rest of the community. It is entirely possible that Tertia has a very small community of people, and as is the case in small communities, there must be significant fraternization within the community. This can seemingly paint a picture of children being raised by the community without special privileges being afforded to the biological parents, when it’s more akin to a child living in a large family. It is likely the parents still are the closest to the child, but the rest of the village is extremely close too, and everyone in this close knit plays a vital role in rearing the child.
Moreover, the method followed of interviewing the children might have its own set of shortcomings. The author most likely designed the questionnaire. This questionnaire thus might reflect his own biases and expectations. Even if the author might not have meant to be biased, a stark difference of cultures and a poor understanding of the subjects being interviewed can give rise to biased sets of questions.
Even the inference of the children speaking most about their parents cannot be spun off into a refutation of Dr. Field’s observations. As mentioned, even if the parents are the child’s primary caregivers, the rest of the community can certainly play a crucial role in child rearing too. The child will still associate with his biological parents, but that still means it is being raised by a small community.
Thus, as it stands, it is not right to conclude that an observation centred approach is inferior to an interview centred one, and thus the author’s arguments for the same are not convincing enough.
- The surest indicator of a great nation is represented not by the achievements of its rulers artists or scientists but by the general welfare of its people 62
- In any field of inquiry the beginner is more likely than the expert to make important contributions 50
- Teachers salaries should be based on their students academic performance 79
- Governments should offer college and university education free of charge to all students 70
- Governments should place few if any restrictions on scientific research and development 58
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 2 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 13 15
No. of Words: 343 350
No. of Characters: 1669 1500
No. of Different Words: 169 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.304 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.866 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.917 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 113 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 91 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 66 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 41 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 26.385 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.195 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.692 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.362 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.362 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.065 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, firstly, if, may, moreover, so, still, thus, while
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 6.0 13.6137724551 44% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 22.0 28.8173652695 76% => OK
Preposition: 41.0 55.5748502994 74% => 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: 1721.0 2260.96107784 76% => OK
No of words: 343.0 441.139720559 78% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.01749271137 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.30351707066 4.56307096286 94% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.03136906005 2.78398813304 109% => OK
Unique words: 173.0 204.123752495 85% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.504373177843 0.468620217663 108% => OK
syllable_count: 531.0 705.55239521 75% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 5.0 1.67365269461 299% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 19.7664670659 66% => 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: 56.1082006262 57.8364921388 97% => OK
Chars per sentence: 132.384615385 119.503703932 111% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.3846153846 23.324526521 113% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.76923076923 5.70786347227 84% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.19013052269 0.218282227539 87% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0682846124398 0.0743258471296 92% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0391395045345 0.0701772020484 56% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.102449981261 0.128457276422 80% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0233110207806 0.0628817314937 37% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.4 14.3799401198 107% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 53.55 48.3550499002 111% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.13 12.5979740519 96% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.56 8.32208582834 103% => OK
difficult_words: 79.0 98.500998004 80% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 20.5 12.3882235529 165% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.1389221557 111% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 54.17 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.25 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.