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 discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
The argument presented by graduate students is that an interview-based approach for an anthropological study is a better approach than an observation-centered approach. It seems logical to follow Dr. Karp’s train of thought that parents raise their children versus the village as determined by Dr. Field. However, in order to validate Dr. Karp’s argument as the correct conclusion, there are many pieces of information missing. The determination will be made once analysis is done upon the gathering of the evidence.
The first piece of information needed for evaluating Dr. Karp’s claims is whether or not Tertia is receiving more external influences for parenting. In the 20 years between Dr. Field’s study and Dr. Karp’s study, there is a possibility that Tertia may have been exposed to practices of a nuclear family. For example, if there was evidence of people with more nuclear families settling in and integrating into the island’s population, it can weaken Dr. Karp’s argument that Dr. Field’s argument is incorrect. Perhaps both Dr. Field and Dr. Karp are correct. However, it can not be conclusively proven that Dr. Field is incorrect in using an observation-based study.
Another piece of evidence is that the exact location of the interviews on the island were never established. According to the article, Dr. Karp and his graduate students did interviews of “children living in the group of island that includes Tertia.” It is not sure that any Tertian child was interviewed. It could turn out that children were interviewed from every island but Tertia. It could be that Tertian children are raised communally while other children are not. Therefore, once again, we cannot conclusively prove that Dr. Field is incorrect in either his conclusion or his use of ab observation based study.
Another issue is the content of the interviews has never been established. If Dr. Karp asked questions about the children’s parents’ contributions, the children would answer questions about the parents instead of about the communal environment they were raised in. The fact that they speak more about their parents versus the adults who raised them does not invalidate Dr. Field’s conclusion or his methods.
Finally, Dr. Karp concluded that Dr. Field’s use of an observation-based method was incorrect based on one study. More studies need to be examined in order to ascertain that using observation is less valid than using interview-based studies. We would need to look at more anthropological studies and design of the these studies. Perhaps Dr. Field did not conduct an effective observational study and drew incomplete conclusions, but to make such grandiose claims, there needs to be additional evidence.
We need more evidence for a better understanding of both Tertia and the strengths and weaknesses of Dr. Karp’s conclusion and article. We need to know about Tertia and its surrounding islands, the changes over the past years, and the way the studies were conducted. We also need to more information if we are to extend the results of a study about one island culture to all anthropological studies.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-12-29 | maxwells_daemon | 82 | view |
- 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 82
- The best way to teach is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones. Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and 50
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 25 15
No. of Words: 503 350
No. of Characters: 2564 1500
No. of Different Words: 219 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.736 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.097 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.978 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 181 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 141 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 96 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 64 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.12 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 5.806 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.52 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.318 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.547 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.147 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 80, 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
...or evaluating Dr. Karp's claims is whether or not Tertia is receiving more external influ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 176, Rule ID: DID_BASEFORM[1]
Message: The verb 'did' requires the base form of the verb: 'interview'
Suggestion: interview
... Dr. Karp and his graduate students did interviews of 'children living in the group o...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 262, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...up of island that includes Tertia.' It is not sure that any Tertian child wa...
^^
Line 11, column 273, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...and the way the studies were conducted. We also need to more information if we are...
^^
Line 11, column 406, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...culture to all anthropological studies.
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, however, if, look, may, so, therefore, while, for example
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 32.0 19.6327345309 163% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 37.0 28.8173652695 128% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 58.0 55.5748502994 104% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2704.0 2260.96107784 120% => OK
No of words: 503.0 441.139720559 114% => OK
Chars per words: 5.37574552684 5.12650576532 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.73578520332 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.2599609311 2.78398813304 117% => OK
Unique words: 231.0 204.123752495 113% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.459244532803 0.468620217663 98% => OK
syllable_count: 818.1 705.55239521 116% => 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: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 42.5893668263 57.8364921388 74% => OK
Chars per sentence: 112.666666667 119.503703932 94% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.9583333333 23.324526521 90% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.5 5.70786347227 61% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 14.0 4.67664670659 299% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.35598116479 0.218282227539 163% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.114345584911 0.0743258471296 154% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0752705415413 0.0701772020484 107% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.198176982678 0.128457276422 154% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0711526223523 0.0628817314937 113% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.4 14.3799401198 100% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.92 12.5979740519 110% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.14 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 112.0 98.500998004 114% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 12.3882235529 97% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.9071856287 118% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.