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 author of the above text presents a summary on headaches suffered by the residents of City. She claims that, overtime, we can expect a continued, steady decline in the number of headaches suffered by the average citizen. However, the argument makes several assumptions, which, if proven unwarrented, places the entire argument in jeopardy.
In the text, the author claims that a 20-year-long study has shown a correlation between an increase in commercial use of the drug and a decrease in the average number of reported headaches. However, as any competent researcher knows, correlation does not equal causation; and, one must not assume it does! There is a plethura of different plausible reasons that could account for such a correlation. For example, it might be true that many of the participants in this 20-year long study were suffering from headaches, but then started to see an improvement in their health. The partipants could have started taking medicine, such as aspirin, for their headaches. Or, participants might have started to workout or get better sleep. If the medicine, exercise or sleep, helped alleviate the particpants’ headaches, of course one would see an average decline in the number of reported headaches!
Another unstated assumption is that people were reporting consistently. It is very likely that, at first, participants were consistently reporting each and every headache they experienced. However, life happens; and people can get used to and hopeless toward their chronic health issues, and be tempted to not report their headaches at all. This process, overtime, would certainly skew the data.
Finally, the last unstated assumption I’ll mention is that the text merely assumes that the participants in the study are actually representative of the average citizen of City. The author offers no reason to believe that this 20-year-long study is to be seriously considered as factual. Therefore, we cannot assume that anything reported from this study indicates anything helpful in regard to the average citizen of City.
The above summary of the study fails to give adequate reasons to seriously consider it.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-08-21 | ijustinstephens | 50 | view |
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, finally, first, however, if, so, then, therefore, for example, of course, such as, in regard to
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 12.0 19.5258426966 61% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 12.4196629213 81% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 14.8657303371 54% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 10.0 11.3162921348 88% => OK
Pronoun: 27.0 33.0505617978 82% => OK
Preposition: 42.0 58.6224719101 72% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 12.9106741573 77% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1832.0 2235.4752809 82% => OK
No of words: 341.0 442.535393258 77% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.3724340176 5.05705443957 106% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.29722995808 4.55969084622 94% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.93335472866 2.79657885939 105% => OK
Unique words: 182.0 215.323595506 85% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.533724340176 0.4932671777 108% => OK
syllable_count: 576.9 704.065955056 82% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59117977528 107% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 6.24550561798 96% => OK
Article: 7.0 4.99550561798 140% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 3.10617977528 97% => OK
Conjunction: 3.0 1.77640449438 169% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.38483146067 68% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 20.2370786517 79% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 21.0 23.0359550562 91% => OK
Sentence length SD: 51.2882479229 60.3974514979 85% => OK
Chars per sentence: 114.5 118.986275619 96% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.3125 23.4991977007 91% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.875 5.21951772744 132% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.97078651685 101% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 7.80617977528 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 10.2758426966 68% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 5.13820224719 117% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.83258426966 62% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.123352714145 0.243740707755 51% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0440623655519 0.0831039109588 53% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0407693494317 0.0758088955206 54% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0694039457403 0.150359130593 46% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.026911471369 0.0667264976115 40% => 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: 14.5 14.1392134831 103% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 41.7 48.8420337079 85% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.1743820225 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.87 12.1639044944 114% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.38 8.38706741573 100% => OK
difficult_words: 80.0 100.480337079 80% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 11.8971910112 88% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.2143820225 93% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.7820224719 93% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.