An ancient, traditional remedy for insomnia — the scent of lavender flowers — has now been proved effective. In a recent study, 30 volunteers with chronic insomnia slept each night for three weeks on lavender-scented pillows in a controlled room where their sleep was monitored electronically. During the first week, volunteers continued to take their usual sleeping medication. They slept soundly but wakened feeling tired. At the beginning of the second week, the volunteers discontinued their sleeping medication. During that week, they slept less soundly than the previous week and felt even more tired. During the third week, the volunteers slept longer and more soundly than in the previous two weeks. Therefore, the study proves that lavender cures insomnia within a short period of time.
The argument states that the scent of lavender flowers helps cure insomnia. However, the argument makes such assumptions that are not entirely logically convincing.
First, The argument is concluded based on just one experiment on 30 volunteers. the argument disregards the fact that those 30 volunteers are very sensitive to sleep hygiene and have changed their sleeping environment abruptly. Observation of first week concludes that they slept soundly but woke up tired, the author doesn’t provide the information what was the cause of tiredness, Maybe the bed wasn’t comfortable enough that made the sleepers tired when they woke up? The total hours of sleep is also not mentioned, because excessive hours of sleeping can cause the tiredness in the individuals.
Second, the observation of second week states that the volunteers’ medication was discontinued and they weren’t able to sleep properly. Sleeping pills are addictive and their precipitated withdrawals can cause adverse effects. There is no mention in the experiment that the restlessness was not caused by the sudden withdrawal of the medication which would’ve taken doubts away from the medication. And if the lavender scent was effective it should have been started working by now.
Thirdly, by the third week the volunteers are observed sleeping peacefully and longer, here the authors haven’t mentioned how much longer did the volunteers sleep? As the sleeping period wasn’t even mention before so we have no clue if they are getting enough sleep for their bodies to feel less tired the next day.
Ultimately, there are many flaws in the conducted experiment, there is some more information that the author is required to add in order to strengthen his conclusion. If author provides the sleeping period of the volunteers or states more experimental studies like the one he has provided, it can strengthen his conclusion that scent of lavender flowers cures insomnia.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 13 15
No. of Words: 314 350
No. of Characters: 1595 1500
No. of Different Words: 169 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.21 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.08 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.722 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 107 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 87 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 69 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 46 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24.154 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.256 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.692 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.343 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.632 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.081 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 164, Rule ID: DOUBLE_PUNCTUATION
Message: Two consecutive dots
Suggestion: .
...at are not entirely logically convincing.. First, The argument is concluded based...
^^
Line 2, column 80, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: The
...n just one experiment on 30 volunteers. the argument disregards the fact that those...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, may, second, so, then, third, thirdly, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 19.6327345309 81% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 12.9520958084 39% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 23.0 28.8173652695 80% => OK
Preposition: 28.0 55.5748502994 50% => More preposition wanted.
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1671.0 2260.96107784 74% => OK
No of words: 308.0 441.139720559 70% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.42532467532 5.12650576532 106% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.18926351222 4.56307096286 92% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.98016401411 2.78398813304 107% => OK
Unique words: 173.0 204.123752495 85% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.561688311688 0.468620217663 120% => OK
syllable_count: 507.6 705.55239521 72% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 4.96107784431 20% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 14.0 19.7664670659 71% => 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: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 50.6650163086 57.8364921388 88% => OK
Chars per sentence: 119.357142857 119.503703932 100% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.0 23.324526521 94% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.5 5.70786347227 96% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.67664670659 43% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.136177300369 0.218282227539 62% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0573792570656 0.0743258471296 77% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0766199720977 0.0701772020484 109% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0869255289179 0.128457276422 68% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0398164131215 0.0628817314937 63% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.1 14.3799401198 105% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 49.15 48.3550499002 102% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 12.197005988 98% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.21 12.5979740519 113% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.93 8.32208582834 107% => OK
difficult_words: 82.0 98.500998004 83% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 12.3882235529 93% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.