A recent study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that employees with paid sick leave are 28 percent less likely to be involved in a work-related accident than employees who do not receive payment for sick leave. Researchers hypothesize that employees with unpaid sick leave feel pressured to work during time of illness for fear of lack of pay. On-the-job accidents are then spurred by impaired judgment or motor skills due to illness or illness-related medications. The highest-risk occupations, such as construction, showed the highest discrepancy between paid and unpaid leave.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to determine whether the researchers’ hypothesis is reasonable. Be sure to explain what effects the answers to these questions would have on the validity of the hypothesis.
The author of this thesis here says that the employees with paid sick leaves are less likely to be involved in a work-related accident than the employees who do not receive payment for sick leave. The figures are astonishing and need immediate attention. But there are a few aspects that need to be discussed before jumping to conclusions. It must be asked, what was the sample size of this study, is the study statistically sufficient to generalize over a larger population. Did the study consider all the different classes of workers or was largely focussed on one particular portion of the working class? These factors will help to determine the severity of the problem.
The study took a big leap by assuming that all the work accidents are the result of the pressured working conditions of the sick employee. The study participants need to be asked whether they actually came to the work sick, if yes why? If the workers were forced to work when ill and met with an accident, it will strongly support the argument of the study.
The study has presented the readers with figures, but it has not mentioned what is the reason for these accidents. There might be cases where the accidents were not due to the sick employee, but due to the negligence of the staff or the company. When we consider construction workers, the workers are naturally at higher risk of accidents and mishappening as compared to the people in desk jobs. We need to ask whether the population considered in the study is just limited to a certain type of occupation or only a class of workers. The study needs to clearly indicate whether the figures calculated take in account the chances of some jobs being more dangerous than others. Attention needs to paid to how many people have been part of this study. If a large number of workers were involved, then 28% is a huge figure and needs immediate attention. If not, then the study needs more work and better analysis.
One more point worth noticing here is whether the study considers the problem of the communal spread of disease. A sick worker can lead to the entire team falling sick and thus hamper the progress of the company. If the study can assert with some figures and examples the case of communal spreading of diseases, it will strongly support the hypothesis.
Work-related accidents are not new and need attention and intervention for employee’s safety. Employees with unpaid sick leave feel pressured to work during times of illness for fear of lack of pay. This will not only put their lives in danger but will also lead to low quality work. The study here has an interesting observation, but the data presented is not strong enough and needs supporting arguments and figures. Further, it needs to be checked if the data is statistically significant and sufficiently representative. If the study can answer all the above-mentioned questions and present a better analysis, not only better conclusion can be drawn but the researchers can also figure out if this hypothesis is worth the time and effort.
Comments
e-rater score 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: 26 15
No. of Words: 524 350
No. of Characters: 2474 1500
No. of Different Words: 244 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.784 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.721 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.633 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 162 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 129 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 85 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 60 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.154 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.556 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.5 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.297 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.297 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.089 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 753, Rule ID: LARGE_NUMBER_OF[1]
Message: Specify a number, remove phrase, or simply use 'many' or 'numerous'
Suggestion: many; numerous
...people have been part of this study. If a large number of workers were involved, then 28% is a hu...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, if, so, then, thus
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 17.0 12.9520958084 131% => OK
Conjunction : 23.0 11.1786427146 206% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 7.0 13.6137724551 51% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 19.0 28.8173652695 66% => OK
Preposition: 61.0 55.5748502994 110% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 16.3942115768 85% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2536.0 2260.96107784 112% => OK
No of words: 524.0 441.139720559 119% => OK
Chars per words: 4.83969465649 5.12650576532 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.7844588288 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.71529410868 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 252.0 204.123752495 123% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.480916030534 0.468620217663 103% => OK
syllable_count: 790.2 705.55239521 112% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 0.0 4.22255489022 0% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 26.0 19.7664670659 132% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 37.1513775259 57.8364921388 64% => OK
Chars per sentence: 97.5384615385 119.503703932 82% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.1538461538 23.324526521 86% => OK
Discourse Markers: 1.5 5.70786347227 26% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 12.0 6.88822355289 174% => 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: 0.310413886139 0.218282227539 142% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0835977382089 0.0743258471296 112% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.120940471939 0.0701772020484 172% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.184016051934 0.128457276422 143% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0901205776278 0.0628817314937 143% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.4 14.3799401198 79% => 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: 10.79 12.5979740519 86% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.09 8.32208582834 97% => OK
difficult_words: 115.0 98.500998004 117% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 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.