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.
In the above argument the author stated that increasing use of salycilates was the reason of decreasing trend in the average number of headaches that are reported by the participants in a research, because salicylate is from the same chemical family as aspirin which is used to treat headache. However, this explanation seems to be logical at the first glance but, getting accurate on the argument, reveals that the author’s logic is ripe of fallacious assupmtions that he/she based the argument on them.
First, it is assumed that because salicylate and aspirin are from the same family, so they would have same effects, too. This assumption is not reasonable, because the same chemical family, could refer to their chemical factors that construct them but does not necessarily, mean that they have same outcomes in human body. Their various molecular structures can creat various results. If it was a false assumption that due to their same chemical family,they will have same remedial effects so it could not be concluded that salycilate will relieve headache as aspirin and so additive amounts of it reduce headache in mantia.
The other point is that, the author assumed that all of the participants, consumed foods that contains salycilates as preservative material. If there are some people among participants that have not used such foods or have received lower amounts of salycilate, then it can negates the author’s conclusion that salicylate decrease headache rate among participants.
The next falacy is the presumption that the participant in research was the correct indicators of all the mentia residents, if it was a sample with small number of people relative to mentia’s total population, or researchers have made mistakes in selective factors that based on which participants have been chosen , researches result can not be valid to rely on them in order to assert salycilate can decrease headache.
To summerize, it can be seen that there are various assuptions, that authors fails to consider them exactly in order to have a cogent argument.
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Comments
Is it possible to explain the
Is it possible to explain the fallacies in my argument? I can not recognize the logical flaws in my argument, completely. I've read other essay samples like
http://www.testbig.com/gmatgre-argument-task-essays/following-appeared-…, Although my essay is not as well as such samples, in my opinion there are common points and trends in their logic and the based ideas are close. So, I think I need more description.
That is not a good sample.
That is not a good sample. Follow this explanation:
condition 1:
The twenty-year study found a correlation between the rise in the commercial use of salicylates and a steady decline in the average number of headaches reported by study participants.
condition 2:
At the time when the study concluded, food-processing companies had just discovered that salicylates can also be used as flavor additives for foods, and, as a result, many companies plan to do so.
conclusion:
Based on these study results, some health experts predict that residents of Mentia will suffer even fewer headaches in the future.
then here goes the argument:
argument 1:
Maybe there are other reasons for the the decline of headaches.
argument 2:
It is not 'the more, the better', maybe it is getting harmful with more salicylates in food.
argument 3:
Supposes salicylates can cure headaches, it doesn't mean it can prevent headaches.
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In GRE, we have to accept all data or evidence are true. So we accept salicylates are like aspirins which can cure headaches.
It is important to find out loopholes behind surveys or studies. Loopholes mean that we accept all surveys told are true, but there are some conditions applied, for example:
It works for time A (10 years ago), but it doesn't mean it works for time B (nowadays).
It works for location A (a city, community, nation), but it doesn't mean it works for location B (another city, community, nation).
It works for people A (a manager), but it doesn't mean it works for people B (a worker).
It works for event A (one event, project... ), but it doesn't mean it works for event B (another event, project...).
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for example, in this essay, we accept the decline of headaches, but it is not due to the salicylates, maybe there are other reasons.
Sentence: However, this explanation seems to be logical at the first glance but, getting accurate on the argument, reveals that the author's logic is ripe of fallacious assupmtions that he/she based the argument on them.
Error: assupmtions Suggestion: assumptions
Sentence: Their various molecular structures can creat various results.
Error: creat Suggestion: No alternate word
Sentence: The next falacy is the presumption that the participant in research was the correct indicators of all the mentia residents, if it was a sample with small number of people relative to mentia's total population, or researchers have made mistakes in selective factors that based on which participants have been chosen , researches result can not be valid to rely on them in order to assert salycilate can decrease headache.
Error: falacy Suggestion: fallacy
Sentence: To summerize, it can be seen that there are various assuptions, that authors fails to consider them exactly in order to have a cogent argument.
Error: assuptions Suggestion: assumptions
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argument 1 -- not OK
argument 2 -- not OK
argument 3 -- not OK
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read explanations:
http://www.testbig.com/gmatgre-argument-task-essays/recently-issued-twe…
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Attribute Value Ideal
Score: ? out of 6
Category: Poor Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 4 2
No. of Sentences: 10 15
No. of Words: 336 350
No. of Characters: 1694 1500
No. of Different Words: 165 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.281 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.042 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.708 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 121 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 99 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 71 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 39 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 33.6 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 16.163 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.6 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.402 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.718 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.176 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5