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 conducted in Mentia, the author avers that it is expedient to have a prolonged steady decline in the amount of headache occurrences by the average citizen of Mentia due to the incipient use of Salicylates as flavor additives. However, the author supports his conclusion with three assumptions, that if not substantiated, dramatically weaken the persuasiveness of the argument.
Firstly, the writer presumes, without evidence, that the addition of salicylates as a food preservative by food-processing ventures has been the sole reason for a decline in the average number of headaches reported during the span of the study. However, this may not be the case. Perhaps there was another factor also at play that led to reduction of reported cases. It is possible that as years passed, the populace generally found more effective means of working that reduce their stress levels and thus leading to a reduction in the rate of headaches. This could be an increase in the amount of break from monotonous tasks such as repetitive filling of data on a spreadsheet or an additional break interval to reduce the time spent for a chunk of work at a single stretch. If either of these scenarios were true, then the authors contention that a rise in usage of salicylates as an additive can plummet the number of reported headaches does not hold water.
Also, the writer assumes that the usage of salicylates as a flavor additive by food- processing companies will be appealing to consumers, but this may not necessarily be true. Perhaps, salicylates as an additive might not be as palatable to consumers in comparison with other flavor additives. For example, … as a tomato powder additive can be more enriching to consumers than salicylates, leaving consumers to opt for tomato powders with … as a flavor additive rather than the latter. In addition, even if salicylates is appealing as a flavor additive, it is possible that majority of consumers prefer their processed foods without flavor additives, and will choose the variety that do not contain flavor additives so as to retain part of its natural taste. If either case is the true, then the authors claim is not warranted, and his suggestion that there will be elongated downfall of headache cases reported due to the use of salicylates as a flavor additive is not overly persuasive.
Finally, the writers claim remains tenuous as he assumes that salicylates additional role as flavor additive will increase the quantity of salicylates added by those companies. That might not be the case as the salicylates could play a dual role as a preservative and flavor additive thereby causing no change to the quantity added per product. As this can also prove to be cost effective, it is likely that there will be no changes to the ratio of salicylates in processed food over the years. If this were the case, then the authors claim for a decline in headaches based on the new role of salicylates is significantly weakened.
In conclusion, as it stands now, the argument relies on three unfounded assumptions that render its conclusion unpersuasive at best and specious at worst. Thus, the author needs to provide three pieces of evidence as stated above for the authors claim that the development of salicylates as an additive will continue to reduce the number of reported cases for headache to be substantial.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 562 350
No. of Characters: 2748 1500
No. of Different Words: 233 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.869 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.89 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.831 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 207 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 155 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 115 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 75 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 29.579 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.794 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.842 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.341 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.341 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.101 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 825, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
... of these scenarios were true, then the authors contention that a rise in usage of sali...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 716, Rule ID: SO_AS_TO[1]
Message: Use simply 'to'
Suggestion: to
...ty that do not contain flavor additives so as to retain part of its natural taste. If ei...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, firstly, however, if, may, so, then, thus, as to, for example, in addition, in conclusion, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.9520958084 116% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 11.1786427146 63% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 35.0 28.8173652695 121% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 76.0 55.5748502994 137% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 16.3942115768 67% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2810.0 2260.96107784 124% => OK
No of words: 564.0 441.139720559 128% => OK
Chars per words: 4.98226950355 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.87326216964 4.56307096286 107% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.90368156509 2.78398813304 104% => OK
Unique words: 248.0 204.123752495 121% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.439716312057 0.468620217663 94% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 925.2 705.55239521 131% => 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: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 3.0 1.67365269461 179% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 19.0 19.7664670659 96% => OK
Sentence length: 29.0 22.8473053892 127% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 56.8594515443 57.8364921388 98% => OK
Chars per sentence: 147.894736842 119.503703932 124% => OK
Words per sentence: 29.6842105263 23.324526521 127% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.57894736842 5.70786347227 115% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 8.20758483034 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 6.88822355289 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.175432788439 0.218282227539 80% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0646216123997 0.0743258471296 87% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0553665002382 0.0701772020484 79% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.115639604541 0.128457276422 90% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0198274493761 0.0628817314937 32% => 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: 16.9 14.3799401198 118% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 42.04 48.3550499002 87% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.6 12.197005988 120% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.2 12.5979740519 97% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.66 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 128.0 98.500998004 130% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 20.0 12.3882235529 161% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.6 11.1389221557 122% => OK
text_standard: 20.0 11.9071856287 168% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.