A recent study shows that people living on the continent of North America suffer 9 times more
chronic fatigue and 31 times more chronic depression than do people living on the continent of
Asia. Interestingly, Asians, on average, eat 20 grams of soy per day, whereas North Americans
eat virtually none. It turns out that soy contains phytochemicals called isoflavones, which have
been found to possess disease-preventing properties. Thus, North Americans should consider
eating soy on a regular basis as a way of preventing fatigue and depression.
The argument claims that North American people should eat soy on a regular basis to combat and prevent diseases such as chronic fatigue and chronic depression. To justify this claim, a study has been cited which states that North Americans suffer from these diseases at a much higher rate than Asians do and that Asians eat an average of 20 grams of soy every day which is known to possess disease-preventing properties that North Americans don’t consume. This claim is based on assumptions and fails to mention several key factors on the basis of which it could be evaluated. The scope and validity of the study is also not clear. For these reason, I find the argument unconvincing.
First, there is not much detail provided on the factors that were considered while carrying out the study. Whether the North Americans considered for the study all belonged to the same age group of were following a similar diet and lifestyle. If this was not the case then the numbers mentioned in the study that North Americans suffer 9 times more chronic fatigue and 31 times more chronic depression than people living in Asia is a bit exaggerated and not backed by any evidence. Without considering these points and providing elaborate details of the study, the claim is unsubstantiated by evidence.
Second, the argument readily claims that eating soy is the only reason because of which Asians do not encounter diseases while North Americans do. There are several factors that can be attributed to causing diseases such as genetics, environmental factors, and personal hygiene and so on. Had these factors been ruled out, the argument would have been considerably strengthened.
Finally, the argument unfairly infers that if North Americans add soy only to their daily diet it will help them in preventing these diseases. Maybe the North Americans consume something that is much healthier than soy. Furthermore, even if soy is considered to be helpful in preventing the diseases, there is no evidence that bolsters the claim that by eating it the diseases will be prevented. Without providing any case or example from the past that soy is beneficial to a person to avoid the diseases, one is left with the impression that the claim is more of a wishful thinking rather than substantive evidence.
The conclusion of the argument is flawed for the above mentioned reasons and is therefore unconvincing. Had proper evidence and details been provided the argument and its claims would have been better reasoned.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 417 350
No. of Characters: 2047 1500
No. of Different Words: 194 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.519 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.909 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.658 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 142 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 113 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 76 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 44 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 23.167 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 11.29 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.5 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.332 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.558 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.085 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, furthermore, if, may, second, so, then, therefore, while, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 7.0 12.9520958084 54% => OK
Conjunction : 15.0 11.1786427146 134% => OK
Relative clauses : 18.0 13.6137724551 132% => OK
Pronoun: 29.0 28.8173652695 101% => OK
Preposition: 42.0 55.5748502994 76% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 16.3942115768 79% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2101.0 2260.96107784 93% => OK
No of words: 416.0 441.139720559 94% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.05048076923 5.12650576532 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.51620172871 4.56307096286 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.73728633052 2.78398813304 98% => OK
Unique words: 201.0 204.123752495 98% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.483173076923 0.468620217663 103% => OK
syllable_count: 658.8 705.55239521 93% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 4.96107784431 40% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.76447105788 91% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 62.2122263796 57.8364921388 108% => OK
Chars per sentence: 116.722222222 119.503703932 98% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.1111111111 23.324526521 99% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.11111111111 5.70786347227 90% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => 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: 0.202235263726 0.218282227539 93% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0597528588622 0.0743258471296 80% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0895528266923 0.0701772020484 128% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.105370404045 0.128457276422 82% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0772369279159 0.0628817314937 123% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.9 14.3799401198 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 48.13 48.3550499002 100% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 12.197005988 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.31 12.5979740519 98% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.23 8.32208582834 99% => OK
difficult_words: 91.0 98.500998004 92% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 18.5 12.3882235529 149% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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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.