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.
Although Palean baskets may not be unique to a Palean village as claimed by the given article, the presented argument does not provide sufficient evidence by itself to conclude as much. Instead, numerous assumptions are made and require further information for verification.
To begin with, the author asserts that the Brim was not traversable since it is deep and wide at the moment. However, at prehistoric times, geographical properties of the landscape might have differed fundamentally, making the river crossable given the significant time gap. It is also not clear, in how far the Brim was unpassable in relevant traveling distance up and downstream, especially if the weather conditions at the time could have caused the river to freeze over for some period of a certain season. Unless the Brim can be proven as insurmountable without boats for the period in question, the whole argument is substantially weakened. Therefore, specific data about the river’s development and meteorological conditions might corroborate the authors’ case and render it largely irrelevant.
Furthermore, the argument assumes that Paleans did not have the means to cross the river and that this inevitably leads to the conclusion of Palean basket’s exclusiveness. However, considering that baskets are not heavy cargo and did not need to be moved in bulks, it is of little significance that larger ships for groups of people and cargo were not produced until much later. Despite the fact that Palean boats have not been unearthed so far, it is possible that primitive boats might have existed. It is possible that the discovery will occur in the near or distant future or iit is entirely possible, too, that boats may have been lost or destroyed forever. Moreover, Paleans might have entertained close relations to neighboring villages in proximity where boats have already been found. This concerns Lithos in particular, which might have been able to initiate contact and transported one or more baskets over the river due to their advanced seafaring capabilities. In addition, it is not clear how far this is relevant for the argument. Without specific evidence that the basket was produced and transported at the relevant time, the possibility cannot be ignored that the basket was transported over the river at a later point in time, when boats had become a widespread mode of transportation. Accordingly, the argument largely hinges on the question whether further evidence can prove or disprove the Paleans’ access to boats in a direct or indirect manner.
Even if the above points were proven in the author’s favor, the argument still critically hinges on the claim that Paleans had no motivation to travel beyond the Brim river. However, supporting evidence in the form of abundant food sources is sorely lacking. Abundant food sources today do not constitute plausible evidence that Paleans were always well supplied with food in prehistoric times. Instead, the area might have been rather inhospitable in general or extreme temporary weather conditions might have been responsible for scarcity in food at relevant time frames. Moreover, other factors could have resulted in migration efforts, including conflicts with rivaling settlements and raiders who threatened the Paleans or sheer curiosity to explore the areas beyond the river. In these cases, it is plausible that Paleans might have developed an urge to migrate in spite of a natural barrier of river. Thus, further evidence pertaining to a lack of motivation among Paleans to travel or migrate could support or strengthen the argument significantly.
In sum, further evidence pertaining to the Brim’s characteristics, no trace of boats and possibility of alternative means to cross the river, and motivation to migrate and travel can support or undermine numerous critical assumptions that the author’s making leaving the argument in its current form mainly unconvincing.
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Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 3 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 8 2
No. of Sentences: 24 15
No. of Words: 623 350
No. of Characters: 3244 1500
No. of Different Words: 295 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.996 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.207 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.817 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 243 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 197 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 135 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 80 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.958 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.081 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.833 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.302 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.486 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.085 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 1351, Rule ID: WHETHER[5]
Message: Can you shorten this phrase to just 'whether', or rephrase the sentence to avoid "the question"?
Suggestion: whether
...rdingly, the argument largely hinges on the question whether further evidence can prove or disprove ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
accordingly, also, furthermore, however, if, may, moreover, so, still, then, therefore, thus, well, in addition, in general, in particular, in spite of, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 30.0 19.6327345309 153% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 19.0 12.9520958084 147% => OK
Conjunction : 25.0 11.1786427146 224% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 19.0 13.6137724551 140% => OK
Pronoun: 30.0 28.8173652695 104% => OK
Preposition: 79.0 55.5748502994 142% => OK
Nominalization: 28.0 16.3942115768 171% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3326.0 2260.96107784 147% => OK
No of words: 623.0 441.139720559 141% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.33868378812 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.99599519102 4.56307096286 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.92335228393 2.78398813304 105% => OK
Unique words: 302.0 204.123752495 148% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.484751203852 0.468620217663 103% => OK
syllable_count: 1044.0 705.55239521 148% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 4.96107784431 161% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 9.0 4.22255489022 213% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 22.8473053892 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 55.7892705485 57.8364921388 96% => OK
Chars per sentence: 138.583333333 119.503703932 116% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.9583333333 23.324526521 111% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.91666666667 5.70786347227 121% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.20758483034 134% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.190002352534 0.218282227539 87% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0602470773415 0.0743258471296 81% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0587770405917 0.0701772020484 84% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0952841949834 0.128457276422 74% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0743551507139 0.0628817314937 118% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.7 14.3799401198 116% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 37.64 48.3550499002 78% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.197005988 116% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.99 12.5979740519 111% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.16 8.32208582834 110% => OK
difficult_words: 169.0 98.500998004 172% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 12.3882235529 93% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.1389221557 108% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
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.