A recently issued twenty-year study on headaches suffered by the residents of Mentia investigated the possible therapeutic effect of consuming salicylates. Salicylates are members of the same chemical family as aspirin, a medicine used to treat headaches.

Essay topics:

A recently issued twenty-year study on headaches suffered by the residents of Mentia investigated the possible therapeutic effect of consuming salicylates. Salicylates are members of the same chemical family as aspirin, a medicine used to treat headaches. Although many foods are naturally rich in salicylates, food-processing companies also add salicylates to foods as preservatives. The twenty-year study found a correlation between the rise in the commercial use of salicylates and a steady decline in the average number of headaches reported by study participants. At the time when the study concluded, food-processing companies had just discovered that salicylates can also be used as flavor additives for foods, and, as a result, many companies plan to do so. Based on these study results, some health experts predict that residents of Mentia will suffer even fewer headaches in the future.

Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the prediction and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the prediction.

The author of this article makes a spruious proposition regarding projected development of salicylates. In stating that a decline in headaches will follow the new use of salicylates, the author makes several unsound assumptions which will require additional concrete evidence to support.

First and foremost, the author assumes that salicylates have a causal effect on the decrease in headaches. By introducing salicylates as members of the same chmical family as aspirin, a treatment for headaches, the author attempts to bias the audience into believing that salicylates have a similar effect. However, it is not stated in the article whether or not this substance actually possesses the chemical structure imperative to headache treatment, nor is it stated that salicylates have a direct causal impact on the decline in headaches in the population. The mentioned study simply concluded that a correlation exists between salicylates and headache decline, but correlation does not imply causation. In other words, there are a multitude of factors such as increased quality of life, sanitation, and nutrition that could have resulted in a decrease in headaches among the study participants. In order for the author's argument to be valid, there must be valid and reliable experimental evidence demontrating that the ingestion of salicylates can decrease headaches. On the other hand, if causal evidence is not present, it is not possible to conclude that the use of salicylates will result in the decrease of headaches among the citizens of Mentia. With this in mind, it is also important to evaluate the commercial success of this substance in order for this remedial effect to be applicable.

The author makes another assumption that the commerical use of salicylates will increase in the near future. As stated in the article, food-processing companies have found that salicylates can be used as flavour additives for foods. What was not mentioned is that companies will continue to use salicylates at an increasing rate. In following with the previous assumption of causality, if this was to be true, then it may be plausible that the amount headaches will decrease in Mentia. Because this was not explicitly stated in the article however, this proposal should be approached with caution; it is likely that the use of salicylates will not increase due to financial limitations, resource availability, political sanctions, and many other reasons. It is possible that the use of salicylates will be halted due to health concerns.

The last assumption that the author makes is that salicylates are beneficial to health. It may be that salicylates have a similar chemical structure to aspirin, can remove headaches, and are commercially profitable, but as with any substance, there may a multitude of effects on the human body. The article does not mention other side effects of salicylates, whether beneficial or harmful. This suggests that salicylates may be a relatively new substance, and not yet subject to clinical trials and rigorous experimentation in controlled and natural environments. Thus, further research into salicylates may actually raise concern and doubt. Should it uncover its dangers, there will be a decrease in its use and conversely, no decrease in the head

Votes
Average: 6.6 (1 vote)
Essay Categories

Comments

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 258, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ssumptions which will require additional concrete evidence to support. First ...
^^
Line 4, column 349, Rule ID: WHETHER[7]
Message: Perhaps you can shorten this phrase to just 'whether'. It is correct though if you mean 'regardless of whether'.
Suggestion: whether
...owever, it is not stated in the article whether or not this substance actually possesses the c...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 4, column 920, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
...he study participants. In order for the authors argument to be valid, there must be val...
^^^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, conversely, first, however, if, may, regarding, so, then, thus, as to, such as, in other words, on the other hand

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.6327345309 132% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 21.0 12.9520958084 162% => OK
Conjunction : 17.0 11.1786427146 152% => OK
Relative clauses : 19.0 13.6137724551 140% => OK
Pronoun: 38.0 28.8173652695 132% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 69.0 55.5748502994 124% => OK
Nominalization: 25.0 16.3942115768 152% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2774.0 2260.96107784 123% => OK
No of words: 518.0 441.139720559 117% => OK
Chars per words: 5.35521235521 5.12650576532 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.77070365392 4.56307096286 105% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.0875914612 2.78398813304 111% => OK
Unique words: 223.0 204.123752495 109% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.430501930502 0.468620217663 92% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 906.3 705.55239521 128% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 8.0 4.96107784431 161% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 7.0 1.67365269461 418% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 22.0 19.7664670659 111% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 53.9793540269 57.8364921388 93% => OK
Chars per sentence: 126.090909091 119.503703932 106% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.5454545455 23.324526521 101% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.09090909091 5.70786347227 107% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.202298538769 0.218282227539 93% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0700939044368 0.0743258471296 94% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0449312914214 0.0701772020484 64% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.125730722496 0.128457276422 98% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0521139150301 0.0628817314937 83% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.6 14.3799401198 108% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 39.67 48.3550499002 82% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 12.197005988 110% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.1 12.5979740519 112% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.83 8.32208582834 106% => OK
difficult_words: 133.0 98.500998004 135% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 12.3882235529 97% => 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.