The following appeared in a health newsletter.
"Nosinia is an herb that many users report to be as effective as prescription medications at fighting allergy symptoms. Researchers recently compared Nosinia to a placebo in 95 men and women with seasonal allergies to ragweed pollen. Participants in the study reported that neither Nosinia nor the placebo offered significant relief. However, for the most severe allergy symptoms, the researchers reported that Nosinia was more effective than the placebo in providing relief. Furthermore, at the end of the study, participants given Nosinia were more likely than participants given a placebo to report feeling healthier.We therefore recommend using Nosinia to help with your severe allergy symptoms.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
The argument states a news that appeared in anhealth newsletter which recommends Nosinia, a herb, to help people with severe allergy symptoms. There are many assumptions, for which the author has not provided any evidence. I would strongly disagrre with argument as it is flawed in numerous ways.
First of all, the experiment has been done with only 95 men and women which may not be the entire representative for the whole of the population. The sample population is very limited to conclude that the resukts obtained will be also be valid for the rest of the population. If the people who went through the experiment are healthy and immune enough, the results will not be accurate to describe others. If either of the cases were true, the argument does not hold water.
Secondly, the news has not provided any supporting evidence to prove the researchers statement that Nosinia was more effective than placebo in providing relief for the most severe allergy symptoms. Whether this has been experimented or not? Are the results accurate enough to be applied to the whole of the population? Only if answers to these questions is provided, the researchers statement can be interpreted.
Moreover, there is a lack of evidence to recommend using Nosinia for severe allergy symptoms and also the severity of the symptoms has not been well explained. If Nosinia is suited for a particular symptom and not suitable for the other, it cannot be recommended to all of the severe symptoms as a whole. Additionally, the argument fails to explain how severe is highly severe. Only if the symptom causes harmful effects to the body such as skin deterioration it is very severe? The question to the above is not stated for further analysis.
In conclusion, the argument, as stated, rests on several unstated assumptions. Only when the author could provide more information and supporting evidences to the above assumptions, it is possible for the argument to be valid.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 327 350
No. of Characters: 1592 1500
No. of Different Words: 158 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.252 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.869 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.692 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 119 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 92 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 67 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 32 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18.167 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.89 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.556 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.311 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.546 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.05 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 21, Rule ID: A_UNCOUNTABLE[1]
Message: Uncountable nouns are usually not used with an indefinite article. Use simply 'news'.
Suggestion: news
The argument states a news that appeared in anhealth newsletter wh...
^^^^^^
Line 3, column 74, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'researchers'' or 'researcher's'?
Suggestion: researchers'; researcher's
...ed any supporting evidence to prove the researchers statement that Nosinia was more effecti...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 371, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'researchers'' or 'researcher's'?
Suggestion: researchers'; researcher's
...ers to these questions is provided, the researchers statement can be interpreted. Moreover...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 266, Rule ID: ALL_OF_THE[1]
Message: Simply use 'all the'.
Suggestion: all the
... the other, it cannot be recommended to all of the severe symptoms as a whole. Additionall...
^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, if, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, well, in conclusion, such as, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.6327345309 127% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.9520958084 54% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 11.1786427146 54% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 8.0 13.6137724551 59% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 10.0 28.8173652695 35% => OK
Preposition: 33.0 55.5748502994 59% => More preposition wanted.
Nominalization: 20.0 16.3942115768 122% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1635.0 2260.96107784 72% => OK
No of words: 327.0 441.139720559 74% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.0 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.25242769721 4.56307096286 93% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.80109971283 2.78398813304 101% => OK
Unique words: 168.0 204.123752495 82% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.51376146789 0.468620217663 110% => OK
syllable_count: 528.3 705.55239521 75% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 22.8473053892 79% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 41.162580394 57.8364921388 71% => OK
Chars per sentence: 90.8333333333 119.503703932 76% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.1666666667 23.324526521 78% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.33333333333 5.70786347227 93% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.16291763046 0.218282227539 75% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0489451728331 0.0743258471296 66% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0528866752368 0.0701772020484 75% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0960594748924 0.128457276422 75% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0516835451248 0.0628817314937 82% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.2 14.3799401198 78% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 53.21 48.3550499002 110% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 12.197005988 84% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.42 12.5979740519 91% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.68 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 86.0 98.500998004 87% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.1389221557 83% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.