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 provides with two pieces of evidence to support the research that workers with unpaid sick leaves, tend to go to work during illness and are more likely to be involved in work-related accidents. The results of study cannot be disputed – we must accept it as true, that those with paid sick leaves are significantly less likely to have work related accidents than those without sick leaves. We might, however question, whether the study was large enough to draw such a broad conclusion. Further, the study does not demonstrate causation: it does not tie incidence of work-related accidents to illness. While researcher’s study hypothesis one of the possibilities, more research should be performed so that other possibilities are eliminated and thus bolster the strength of the argument.
The largest leap in the argument is the assumption that those without paid sick leaves feel pressurized to work when ill. No evidence is provided to support this statement. In order to strengthen this part of the argument, the research should have made study of participants that they actual come to work when ill and why did they come to work if they were ill.
The researcher could have strengthened their argument by performing more same study on alternate data. For instance, are there difference between the two groups based on industry? For example: are hourly workers more likely to get unpaid sick leaves as compared to salaried workers? Are hourly workers more likely to engage in blue collar job or other manual occupations, where on job accident are more likely to happen? Which geographical location was considered while performing the study? Because geographical location can also make the study bias. Researcher’s hypothesis can be test if some more question can be answered.
While the argument presents an interesting hypothesis, but it lacks in providing evidence in support of it. First, at a basic level, whether existing data is statistically significant and sufficient. Finally, researcher need alternate data sources to examine all the possible cases and strengthen the claim. These steps might not be sufficient to establish the validity of the hypothesis. But it will help researchers in deteremining whether this research is worth the time, attention and funds.
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: 19 15
No. of Words: 367 350
No. of Characters: 1878 1500
No. of Different Words: 191 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.377 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.117 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.794 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 133 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 105 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 79 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 48 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 19.316 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.423 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.632 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.299 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.496 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.117 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 270, Rule ID: IT_VBZ[1]
Message: Did you mean 'trues'?
Suggestion: trues
...nnot be disputed – we must accept it as true, that those with paid sick leaves are s...
^^^^
Line 5, column 494, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “Because” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
... considered while performing the study? Because geographical location can also make the...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 498, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...is worth the time, attention and funds.
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, however, if, so, then, thus, while, for example, for instance
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 11.1786427146 81% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 13.6137724551 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 23.0 28.8173652695 80% => OK
Preposition: 46.0 55.5748502994 83% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1946.0 2260.96107784 86% => OK
No of words: 368.0 441.139720559 83% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.28804347826 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.37987740619 4.56307096286 96% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.95456172043 2.78398813304 106% => OK
Unique words: 202.0 204.123752495 99% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.548913043478 0.468620217663 117% => OK
syllable_count: 604.8 705.55239521 86% => 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: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 22.8473053892 79% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 45.3076980214 57.8364921388 78% => OK
Chars per sentence: 97.3 119.503703932 81% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.4 23.324526521 79% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.4 5.70786347227 77% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 8.20758483034 85% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.247172137573 0.218282227539 113% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0670980794347 0.0743258471296 90% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0653774222175 0.0701772020484 93% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.138634744138 0.128457276422 108% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0916956666922 0.0628817314937 146% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.7 14.3799401198 88% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 53.21 48.3550499002 110% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 12.197005988 84% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.4 12.5979740519 106% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.39 8.32208582834 101% => OK
difficult_words: 90.0 98.500998004 91% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.1389221557 83% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.