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.
To prove that the Palean baskets were uniquely Palean would require an exhaustive proof demonstrating that all non-Palean civilizations did not make the so-called “Palean” baskets, and such a proof would likely be very difficult. This argument makes a claim that these baskets were not uniquely Palean, although it contains several assumptions such that it is not logically sound. While we cannot prove these baskets were uniquely Palean, the given argument is probably not the one that will invalidate this idea.
One large hole lies in the statement that “no Palean boats have been found.” By no means does this statement demonstrate that no Palean boats exist. As one possibility, Paleans could have used boats, but said boats were scrapped for materials, destroyed later, or were left forgotten and composted.
Beyond that point, Paleans may not have needed boats. While it is unlikely the Paleans would have had the architectural knowledge to build bridges, they may have not needed to. Perhaps if the river were of smaller width in prehistoric times, the Paleans could have used a large tree trunk or something similar as a makeshift bridge. Additionally, rivers are dynamic entities. They are affected by erosion and other geological processes, so it is possible the river could have been much shallower or even in a different location entirely so the Paleans would not have even needed to cross a river to reach Lithos. Without proof that the river was deep and broad in prehistoric times, which could perhaps be obtained by examining geological records, we cannot be sure that a boat was the only option to cross that part of the land.
This point is more of a stretch, but it may also be possible for Paleans to have at one point crossed the site where the Brim River is currently located and settled in what we currently call Lithos. If this were the case, the inhabitants of Lithos would have been of Palean descent. Whether the baskets were Palean would then be a different question. At what point does a society become fundamentally different enough such that it can be dissociated from its former name and be given a new name, and does such a point even exist? Stepping back from this question, even if the people of Lithos were at one point Palean but were not at the time the basket was produced, we would still call the basket “Palean” if Paleans were the original manufacturer.
This leads into my final point regarding this argument. As is the case with many products today, an item will often be called by the name of its most noteworthy instance. For example, if one were to say “give me a Kleenex” when asking for a tissue, most people would understand the person was asking for a tissue and not specifically a Kleenex tissue. This applies to other brands such as Tylenol, jet skis, or bubble wrap. Even if Paleans started producing baskets and completely unrelated people from Lithos began producing very similar (or identical) baskets at a later time, these baskets would still be considered Palean if Palea was the most prolific producer. This point in particular lies on tentative ground, although I intend for it to be more of a semantic debate about whether what something is depends on its manufacturer or its inventor.
Overall, I don’t think that argument is enough to determine the baskets are not uniquely Palean.
- 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 69
- To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In deve 83
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 24 15
No. of Words: 572 350
No. of Characters: 2710 1500
No. of Different Words: 252 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.89 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.738 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.475 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 179 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 130 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 85 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 53 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.833 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 11.157 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.625 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.301 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.538 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.129 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...he one that will invalidate this idea. One large hole lies in the statement tha...
^^^
Line 4, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... or were left forgotten and composted. Beyond that point, Paleans may not have ...
^^^
Line 6, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...option to cross that part of the land. This point is more of a stretch, but it ...
^^^
Line 7, column 284, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “Whether” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...thos would have been of Palean descent. Whether the baskets were Palean would then be a...
^^^^^^^
Line 8, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...aleans were the original manufacturer. This leads into my final point regarding...
^^^
Line 10, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...s on its manufacturer or its inventor. Overall, I don't think that argumen...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, if, may, regarding, so, still, then, while, for example, in particular, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 42.0 19.6327345309 214% => Less to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 21.0 12.9520958084 162% => OK
Conjunction : 18.0 11.1786427146 161% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 47.0 28.8173652695 163% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 45.0 55.5748502994 81% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 16.3942115768 61% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2837.0 2260.96107784 125% => OK
No of words: 571.0 441.139720559 129% => OK
Chars per words: 4.96847635727 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.88831323574 4.56307096286 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.71700808279 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 259.0 204.123752495 127% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.453590192644 0.468620217663 97% => OK
syllable_count: 891.0 705.55239521 126% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 11.0 4.96107784431 222% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 4.0 8.76447105788 46% => OK
Subordination: 12.0 2.70958083832 443% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 6.0 1.67365269461 358% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 23.0 19.7664670659 116% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 22.8473053892 105% => OK
Sentence length SD: 63.348557186 57.8364921388 110% => OK
Chars per sentence: 123.347826087 119.503703932 103% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.8260869565 23.324526521 106% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.91304347826 5.70786347227 69% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 6.0 5.25449101796 114% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 8.20758483034 24% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 11.0 4.67664670659 235% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.196544380971 0.218282227539 90% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0691425074353 0.0743258471296 93% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0520811336144 0.0701772020484 74% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.111652553988 0.128457276422 87% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.043909448706 0.0628817314937 70% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.4 14.3799401198 100% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 47.12 48.3550499002 97% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.197005988 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.84 12.5979740519 94% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.23 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 123.0 98.500998004 125% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 11.1389221557 104% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => 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.