The following appeared as a part of a letter to the editor of a scientific journal.
A new study of a colony of meerkats provides insights into the effects of dominance on a male meerkat’s level of testosterone. The study showed that the dominant male of the meerkat colony had blood levels of testosterone that were, on average, about double those of the colony’s non-dominant males. Alpha or dominant, male dogs also have higher levels of testosterone than non-dominant males. The study also found that the male offspring of dominant male meerkats were born with higher testosterone levels than male offspring of non-dominant males.
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument.
The conclusion from the observations of a study on a male meerkats colony is that the testosterone levels are related to dominance. The author tries to make a compelling argument by correlating the observation in meerkats to similar observations in dogs. However, as the assumptions that the argument bases on are pliable, other competing explanations are possible.
The study says that the male offspring of dominant male meerkats were born with higher testosterone levels than male offspring of non-dominant males which indicates a possibility that the levels of testosterone in a meerkat are just hereditary. If the levels of testosterone in meerkats are genetic, then the existence of a correlation is just a misperception.
Also, the study involved only a single colony of meerkats and the number of meerkats studied is not specified opens to a possibility that the observation is limited to that specific colony of meerkats. So, the results may not reflect on the whole meerkat population. Furthermore, species restraining to a specific habitat behave differently from those of other habitats. With this information not being specified, it is possible that, if assumed that there is a relation between testosterone levels and dominance, this observation is constrained only to the meerkats under study but not while.
Not only the above specified, but the argument also attempts to corroborate the observation in meerkats with that of dogs. Even if the two animals represent the same behavior, as long as they are of different species, they cannot be related. The reasons for these levels of testosterone in dogs and meerkats could be for different reasons. For instance, in dogs, it might just be an indication of foreign presence while in meerkats, it could be a way to regulate body temperature. Therefore, a similar observation in two different animals should not be misinterpreted as the phenomenon could be for different reasons.
To sum it up, dominance and the levels of testosterone cannot be correlated as long as there is not enough evidence because other possible explanations, as stated above, are possible for the observed phenomenon.
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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: 344 350
No. of Characters: 1773 1500
No. of Different Words: 146 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.307 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.154 4.6
Word Length SD: 3.106 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 132 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 112 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 87 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 56 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.933 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.136 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.667 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.351 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.6 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.066 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 59, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'meerkats'' or 'meerkat's'?
Suggestion: meerkats'; meerkat's
...m the observations of a study on a male meerkats colony is that the testosterone levels ...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, furthermore, however, if, may, so, then, therefore, while, for instance, on the whole
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 12.9520958084 62% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 11.1786427146 54% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 19.0 28.8173652695 66% => OK
Preposition: 48.0 55.5748502994 86% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1834.0 2260.96107784 81% => OK
No of words: 344.0 441.139720559 78% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.33139534884 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.30665032142 4.56307096286 94% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.19201269387 2.78398813304 115% => OK
Unique words: 156.0 204.123752495 76% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.453488372093 0.468620217663 97% => OK
syllable_count: 595.8 705.55239521 84% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 19.7664670659 76% => 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: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 50.3081173039 57.8364921388 87% => OK
Chars per sentence: 122.266666667 119.503703932 102% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.9333333333 23.324526521 98% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.4 5.70786347227 112% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 6.88822355289 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
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: 0.243811916871 0.218282227539 112% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0902422430744 0.0743258471296 121% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.103692648812 0.0701772020484 148% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.154869071751 0.128457276422 121% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.102502032914 0.0628817314937 163% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.1 14.3799401198 105% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 40.69 48.3550499002 84% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.1 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.93 12.5979740519 111% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.63 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 85.0 98.500998004 86% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.5 12.3882235529 101% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.