The following appeared in a memo from the director of a large group of hospitals.
"In a laboratory study of liquid antibacterial hand soaps, a concentrated solution of UltraClean produced a 40 percent greater reduction in the bacteria population than did the liquid hand soaps currently used in our hospitals. During a subsequent test of UltraClean at our hospital in Workby, that hospital reported significantly fewer cases of patient infection than did any of the other hospitals in our group. Therefore, to prevent serious patient infections, we should supply UltraClean at all hand-washing stations throughout our hospital system."
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 concludes that to prevent serious patient infection, UltraClean should be supplied to all hand-washing stations in all hospital system. The conclusion was reached based on a number of evidence. One, in a laboratory test, UltraClean produced a 40% greater reduction in the bacteria population than any other liquid hand soaps currently used in the hospital. Two, in a field test, the hospital that used UltraClean reported fewer cases of patient infection than the other hospitals that did not. However, to properly evalute this argument, two specific evidence are needed.
First, we need to consider the evidence that the reported fewer cases of patient infections was actually caused by the use of UltraClean and not just a mere correlation. For example, it was found recently found that there is a correlation between the presence of a particular breed of bird (and their numbers) and the number of pregnant women in a part of Germany. While this correlation exists, it would be silly to imply that the birds caused the increase in the number of pregnant women. If the reported fewer cases are due to simple correlation not causation like in the example cited, then the conclusion that UltraClean should be deployed to all hospitals does not hold water. Thus, we need specific evidence to show that this is not the case.
Second, we need to also consider the evidence to ascertain that serious patient infections are actually caused by bacteria and not some other form of pathogen. For instance, aome years back in Lagos, Nigeria, it was assumed that the increasingly worrying traffic situation was as a result of narrow roads. The government then spent billions of dollars to widen the roads. It turned out that the increase in traffic was as a result of poor drainage instead and the widening of the road did not improve the traffic sitaution. if evidence suggests that the majority of serious infections that occurs in the hospitals are as a result of viruses, then even if UltraClean has the effect on bacteria as it claims it does, it would do little to prevent the cases of serious infections that occur in the hospitals when deployed.
In conlusion, the argument for the deployment of UltraClean in all hospitals to prevent serious patient infections as it is currently made, does not hold much water. Much more evidence has to be gathered, perhaps in the form of a proper blind control study, to properly evaluate the current argument.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 2.5 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: 453 350
No. of Characters: 2201 1500
No. of Different Words: 199 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.613 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.859 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.666 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 162 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 136 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 99 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 46 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.167 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 15.042 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.611 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.308 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.552 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.111 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 7, column 184, Rule ID: MANY_NN_U[5]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun evidence seems to be uncountable; consider using: 'much evidence', 'a good deal of evidence'.
Suggestion: much evidence; a good deal of evidence
...em. The conclusion was reached based on a number of evidence. One, in a laboratory test, UltraClean ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 11, column 211, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...For example, it was found recently found that there is a correlation between the ...
^^
Line 15, column 525, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: If
... did not improve the traffic sitaution. if evidence suggests that the majority of ...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, first, however, if, second, so, then, thus, while, as to, for example, for instance, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 19.0 19.6327345309 97% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.9520958084 54% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 31.0 28.8173652695 108% => OK
Preposition: 60.0 55.5748502994 108% => OK
Nominalization: 28.0 16.3942115768 171% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2271.0 2260.96107784 100% => OK
No of words: 452.0 441.139720559 102% => OK
Chars per words: 5.02433628319 5.12650576532 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.61088837703 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.72542666479 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 203.0 204.123752495 99% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.449115044248 0.468620217663 96% => OK
syllable_count: 702.0 705.55239521 99% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 4.96107784431 161% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 54.5010610077 57.8364921388 94% => OK
Chars per sentence: 119.526315789 119.503703932 100% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.7894736842 23.324526521 102% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.89473684211 5.70786347227 103% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 11.0 6.88822355289 160% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.0849595581092 0.218282227539 39% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0288463185711 0.0743258471296 39% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0718216807185 0.0701772020484 102% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0479243406623 0.128457276422 37% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0665107292995 0.0628817314937 106% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.1 14.3799401198 98% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.3550499002 100% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.13 12.5979740519 96% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.34 8.32208582834 100% => OK
difficult_words: 102.0 98.500998004 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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It is not exactly right on the topic in the view of e-grader. Maybe there is a wrong essay topic.
Rates: 16.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 1.0 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.