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 concludes that, employees paid with less sick leave are less likely to be involved in work related accident than employees who do not
receive any payment for sick leave. Although the evidences cited by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention seem logical and probable, but the assumption on which the conclusion relies does not lend credible support to the overall argument. Thus, the argument seems unconvincing in several aspects.
Firstly, percentage is a relative term. Therefore, small sample sizes could deter the conclusion from being appropriate. But what if there is not much discrepancy between the number of employees with paid sick leaves and the ones who do not get paid sick leaves? In that case the conclusion seems irrelevant. For example, if the number of employees with paid sick leave is 1000 and the ones who do not receive any payment for their sick leaves is 1005 then, there is no significant difference between the two and hence one cannot assure that the paid sick leaves are the the primary factor for
work accidents. This argument could have been strengthened if the author would have provided detailed information about the survey conducted for the number of paid and unpaid employees taking sick leave
In addition to this, the author assumes that paid sick leaves is the primary factor for work accidents. But, can the excessive amount of work imposed on the employees, or the peer pressure involved in a highly competitive work environment also account for the high number of work related accidents? Also are only sick employees involved in such accidents or do healthy people also fall a prey to it? Only if the author had provided answer to these question, would the argument prove to be more convincing. Even if it is assumed that sick people are more susceptible to such work related accidents ,then how can the author be so sure that it is fear of lack of pay that makes the employees feel pressured to work and hence fall ill? It may happen that even though the employee is ill, he wants to work because he feels that he would be overburdened later if he does not complete the existing work on time or maybe he wants to get himself promoted the next year and hence is determined to work extra even if he is not have the physical capacity to do so. Therefore, the author should at least acknowledge these questions as the answers to them would provide a more definitive opinion to bolster the author's claim.
To sum up, the argument consists of certain obvious loopholes and fallacies. The given argument would have bolstered if the author would have provided additional information of the number of people with sick paid leaves or probably find out other factors which caused these work-related accidents. But in absence of this data the conclusion is based on certain doubtful assumption that render it unconvincing as it stands.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 14 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 3 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 493 350
No. of Characters: 2356 1500
No. of Different Words: 224 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.712 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.779 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.512 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 161 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 120 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 84 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 53 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.947 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 20.338 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.895 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.316 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.479 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.087 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 49, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...any payment for sick leave. Although the evidences cited by the Center of Disease...
^^
Line 4, column 568, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: the
...ot assure that the paid sick leaves are the the primary factor for work accidents. Th...
^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 568, Rule ID: DT_DT[1]
Message: Maybe you need to remove one determiner so that only 'the' or 'the' is left.
Suggestion: the; the
...ot assure that the paid sick leaves are the the primary factor for work accidents. Th...
^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 590, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...d sick leaves are the the primary factor for work accidents. This argument could...
^^
Line 7, column 265, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...rk environment also account for the high number of work related accidents? Also a...
^^
Line 7, column 306, Rule ID: MASS_AGREEMENT[1]
Message: Consider using third-person verb forms for singular and mass nouns: 'is'.
Suggestion: is
... number of work related accidents? Also are only sick employees involved in such ac...
^^^
Line 7, column 598, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma, but not before the comma
Suggestion: ,
...sceptible to such work related accidents ,then how can the author be so sure that ...
^^
Line 7, column 974, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...self promoted the next year and hence is determined to work extra even if he is n...
^^
Line 7, column 1019, Rule ID: BEEN_PART_AGREEMENT[2]
Message: Consider using a past participle here: 'had'.
Suggestion: had
...ermined to work extra even if he is not have the physical capacity to do so. Therefo...
^^^^
Line 9, column 132, Rule ID: IF_WOULD_HAVE_VBN[1]
Message: Did you mean 'had provided'?
Suggestion: had provided
...ment would have bolstered if the author would have provided additional information of the number of...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, hence, if, may, so, then, therefore, thus, at least, for example, in addition, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 22.0 19.6327345309 112% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.9520958084 100% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 31.0 28.8173652695 108% => OK
Preposition: 49.0 55.5748502994 88% => OK
Nominalization: 18.0 16.3942115768 110% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2410.0 2260.96107784 107% => OK
No of words: 493.0 441.139720559 112% => OK
Chars per words: 4.88843813387 5.12650576532 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.71206996034 4.56307096286 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.56318673312 2.78398813304 92% => OK
Unique words: 227.0 204.123752495 111% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.460446247465 0.468620217663 98% => OK
syllable_count: 738.0 705.55239521 105% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => 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: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 27.0 22.8473053892 118% => OK
Sentence length SD: 86.9158099812 57.8364921388 150% => OK
Chars per sentence: 133.888888889 119.503703932 112% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.3888888889 23.324526521 117% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.38888888889 5.70786347227 112% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 10.0 5.25449101796 190% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 8.20758483034 24% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 12.0 6.88822355289 174% => 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: 0.449469288663 0.218282227539 206% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.134469396846 0.0743258471296 181% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.165552177507 0.0701772020484 236% => The coherence between sentences is low.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.264828143246 0.128457276422 206% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.154466626889 0.0628817314937 246% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.3 14.3799401198 106% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 52.53 48.3550499002 109% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.6 12.197005988 103% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.38 12.5979740519 90% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.18 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 100.0 98.500998004 102% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.8 11.1389221557 115% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => 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.