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 study proposed by the author about the residents of Mentia he or she avers that, Salicylates are the main reason for the decrease of heachaches of the population and as it can now be used as flavoring for food the decline of the illness will continue. The authors in his argument assumes several unwarranted data and to evaluate it further he would have to answer following four questions.
First of all, is the population of Mentia the same as it was for the past 20 years? The study does not show how many the samples were selcted for the analysis of data. It is possible that the whole population of Mentia was selected as the study subject and as the population grew the number of headaches also grew. Also we can assume that people also took newer and better medicines for their headaches as the years went on. In addition to this, better treatments should be available to the people of Mentia than it was available 20 years ago. The author assumes that, the population of Mentia is static and there have not been any changes to their food and medicine intake. In conclusion, to make his argument credible the author must provide the demographic change data and also cite the sampling method and the size of the study.
Furthermore, Salicylates is a aspirin like substance, but do we actually have any proof that it works as aspirin?. Maybe it is its own chemical and eating it only causes harm to the human body. As it is more likely that this is the case than Salicylates actually solving headaches if taken in regular intervals. Many if not all medicines are toxic if taken regularly and without prescription need. Salicylates may still help with headaches but the atuhor does not show how effective it is for humans. Maybe Salicylates is good for rats and dogs but not for humans. The author needs to cite proper scientific data before claiming that regular and more and mor intake of Salicylates will reduce all types of headaches.
The atuhor tells us in his report that, many food companies are adding Salicylates in their food which has reduced the headaches of many people. But this does not seem lopgical. Why would the food-companies deliberately add headache medicine in their foods? One such example could be that, Salicylates is actually a very cheap chemical which adds certain flavors to the food while also making the food more healthy. But another alternative example can be, Salicylates is actually a placebo which in excess can hurt the human body and the food companies knows it and only using it to advertise their product as healthy. If any of these assumptions are true than the authors should evaluate his claims as it stands on flawed grounds.
A healthy person does not need headache medicine in their food. But the author desperately claims that adding in the food is not enough it should also be ubiquitous in the means of flavoring. Although it might seem positive at first, if we look deeper science does not agree to the notion of constant medicine intake without need. Further, consuming medicine and chemical which the body does not need may be extremely harmful in many sense of the word and may even be fatal. The authors argument is not only ridiculous it is also dangerous. He or she should revise their work and should abstain from such claims without proper analysis.
So, as the argument stands now, is severely flawed and rife with holes. The author depends on several unwarranted data and should conduct another study to reduce speculation.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 10 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 11 2
No. of Sentences: 30 15
No. of Words: 608 350
No. of Characters: 2838 1500
No. of Different Words: 254 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.966 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.668 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.465 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 195 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 134 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 92 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 56 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.267 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.033 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.633 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.266 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.483 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.096 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 316, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Also,
...grew the number of headaches also grew. Also we can assume that people also took new...
^^^^
Line 5, column 29, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
...e study. Furthermore, Salicylates is a aspirin like substance, but do we actua...
^
Line 9, column 430, Rule ID: MANY_NN_U[1]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun sense seems to be uncountable; consider using: 'much sense', 'a good deal of sense'.
Suggestion: much sense; a good deal of sense
...es not need may be extremely harmful in many sense of the word and may even be fatal. The ...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 480, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
... of the word and may even be fatal. The authors argument is not only ridiculous it is a...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, furthermore, if, look, may, so, still, while, as for, in addition, in conclusion, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 31.0 19.6327345309 158% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 24.0 12.9520958084 185% => OK
Conjunction : 28.0 11.1786427146 250% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 14.0 13.6137724551 103% => OK
Pronoun: 51.0 28.8173652695 177% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 58.0 55.5748502994 104% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2903.0 2260.96107784 128% => OK
No of words: 608.0 441.139720559 138% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.77467105263 5.12650576532 93% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.9656475924 4.56307096286 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.51588992364 2.78398813304 90% => OK
Unique words: 264.0 204.123752495 129% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.434210526316 0.468620217663 93% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 930.6 705.55239521 132% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 4.96107784431 40% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 30.0 19.7664670659 152% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 44.7023365037 57.8364921388 77% => OK
Chars per sentence: 96.7666666667 119.503703932 81% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.2666666667 23.324526521 87% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.06666666667 5.70786347227 71% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 10.0 4.67664670659 214% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.285287666283 0.218282227539 131% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0750333118042 0.0743258471296 101% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0595871691444 0.0701772020484 85% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.139846663591 0.128457276422 109% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0661738483795 0.0628817314937 105% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.2 14.3799401198 78% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 59.64 48.3550499002 123% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 12.197005988 81% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.39 12.5979740519 82% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.49 8.32208582834 90% => OK
difficult_words: 110.0 98.500998004 112% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.9071856287 84% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 30 minutes.
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.