The following appeared in the summary of a study on headaches suffered by the residents of Mentia.
"Salicylates are members of the same chemical family as aspirin, a medicine used to treat headaches. Although many foods are naturally rich in salicylates, for the past several decades, food-processing companies have also been adding salicylates to foods as preservatives. This rise in the commercial use of salicylates has been found to correlate with a steady decline in the average number of headaches reported by participants in our twenty-year study. Recently, food-processing companies have found that salicylates can also be used as flavor additives for foods. With this new use for salicylates, we can expect a continued steady decline in the number of headaches suffered by the average citizen of Mentia."
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.
The main conclusion of the argument states that headaches are going to decline in future due to the increase in commercial use of Salicylates such as food preservatives or food additives on the basis of the twenty year study that summarises that increase in commercial use of Salicylates is negatively correlated to average number of headaches reported by the residents. The conclusion of the study does not make a cogent case since it is rife with holes and unwarranted assumption. However, before the conclusion can be properly evaluated, following three assumptions must be tested.
Firstly of all, it assumed that Salicylates has the same desired effect as that of aspirin on the basis of it is from the same chemical family of aspirin. It assumed that if aspirin can help the citizen to cure headaches, so does Salicylates. Though, it is likely that Salicylates may have side-effects on other health issues which may not have been found in aspirin since all drugs are different in its denouement though they are from same chemical family. For instance, the drug Crocin help curing the fever and it does so by generating sweat from the body. Drug from the same chemical family of Crocin, i.e., Paracetamol does the opposite. It does not cure fever but cures mild body aches. Further, the drug must be tested on the basis of its salt composition since it is the salt that determine the desired result on patient. For instance, the salt in Calcijoint is different from that of Calciferol, though both are from same chemical family. The former is advised for children ages from 0-2 years while the latter is recommended for the childred above 2 years of age. Here, the former is considered to be strong for the neonates, therefore, may lead to side-effects. Therefore, though the drugs are from same chemical family may lead to different outcome. If any of the above instances were true, the conclusion of the main argument does not hold water.
Second, it assumed that increase in commercial use of Salicylates in terms of food preservatives has led to decline in average number of headaches. This assumption may be flawed on the grounds that people who were studied in the last twenty years might have not consumed food containing Salicylates. For instance, the study may have covered the particular groups as sample but that sample population may consumed other things which might have contained anything but Salicylates and study may have concluded that people are reporting decline in headaches because of consuming Salicylate food. Further, the study was being conducted for the last twenty years, therefore, its results may not have demonstrated consistent results. For instance, the food habit of people in the initial 2 or 3 year may be different in the later years and in these later years people may have started consuming something else to cure headaches but study may continue to assume the desired result of Salicylates. Moreover, in the last 20 years, it is likely that age may influence the results of the study. For instance, people who were in teen age may be tensed or anxious due to the focus on career but as time went by or by the time they were settled, their headaches got cured and study might have counted on these later years. Therefore, the longer time period may have severely impacted the results of a study. If any of the above examples hold merit, conclusion drawn in the main argument is significantly weakened.
Third, the study assumed the perfect correlation between commercial use of Salicylates and decline in headaches. The conclusion, here, may be flawed on statistical grounds stating the measure of correlation. The study did not enumerate the degree of relation between these two factors, therefore, conclusively cannot be confirmed. For instance, if may happen that the degree of correlation between these two is only 0.20, which means increase in its commercial use may lead to only 20 per cent reduction in headaches ignoring the other 80 per cent. Thus, the correlation figures are significant in concluding this. Further, the correlation cannot be used to conclude the statistical results as it is required to be tested further by other statistical methods such as hypothesis testing, regression etc. For instance, it may possible that correlation between these two is on the higher side but there are other food preservatives which are being used and therefore, leading to reduced headaches. Therefore, other food preservatives presented in the diet must be considered. Unless the study is fully representative, verified and reliable, it cannot be used effectively to support the argument.
In conclusion, the argument, as it stands now, is considerably flawed due to its reliance on several unwarranted assumptions. If the study is able to test the above three assumptions and offer more evidence, perhaps the other food preservatives in the diet, age group of people studied etc. then it will be possible to fully evaluated the reliability of the proposed conclusion.
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Comments
Essay evaluation report
flaws:
No. of Words: 832 350
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argument 1 -- not OK. need to argue this:
Recently, food-processing companies have found that salicylates can also be used as flavor additives for foods.
//The argument fails to investigate the possible over use of salicylates and its side-effects, if any.
argument 2 -- OK
argument 3 -- OK
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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: 33 15
No. of Words: 832 350
No. of Characters: 4101 1500
No. of Different Words: 293 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.371 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.929 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.75 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 283 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 220 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 161 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 114 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.212 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 13.878 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.879 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.291 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.463 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.102 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 494, Rule ID: ADVISE_VBG[5]
Message: The verb 'help' is used with infinitive: 'to cure' or 'cure'.
Suggestion: to cure; cure
...ily. For instance, the drug Crocin help curing the fever and it does so by generating ...
^^^^^^
Line 3, column 1191, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... lead to side-effects. Therefore, though the drugs are from same chemical family ...
^^
Line 5, column 1117, Rule ID: EN_COMPOUNDS
Message: This word is normally spelled as one.
Suggestion: teenage
...study. For instance, people who were in teen age may be tensed or anxious due to the foc...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, firstly, however, if, may, moreover, second, so, then, therefore, third, thus, while, for instance, in conclusion, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 48.0 19.6327345309 244% => Less to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 31.0 12.9520958084 239% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 19.0 11.1786427146 170% => OK
Relative clauses : 22.0 13.6137724551 162% => OK
Pronoun: 46.0 28.8173652695 160% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 112.0 55.5748502994 202% => Less preposition wanted.
Nominalization: 28.0 16.3942115768 171% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 4203.0 2260.96107784 186% => OK
No of words: 831.0 441.139720559 188% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.05776173285 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.36908470885 4.56307096286 118% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.84389627975 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 311.0 204.123752495 152% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.374247894103 0.468620217663 80% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1352.7 705.55239521 192% => 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: 18.0 8.76447105788 205% => Less articles wanted as sentence beginning.
Subordination: 9.0 2.70958083832 332% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 36.0 19.7664670659 182% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 67.2223312671 57.8364921388 116% => OK
Chars per sentence: 116.75 119.503703932 98% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.0833333333 23.324526521 99% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.72222222222 5.70786347227 65% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 8.20758483034 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 17.0 4.67664670659 364% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.154537476134 0.218282227539 71% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0464122454728 0.0743258471296 62% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0518480556258 0.0701772020484 74% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0956044071628 0.128457276422 74% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0310946726334 0.0628817314937 49% => 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: 13.9 14.3799401198 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.3550499002 100% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.36 12.5979740519 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.8 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 159.0 98.500998004 161% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 15.0 12.3882235529 121% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 62.5 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.75 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.