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 use correlation between the rise in the commercial 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 results of a recent study indicated that a chemical compound known as salycilates can be beneficial in treating headache cases in Mentia’s residents. Although the line of reasoning might seem cogent in general, there are critical questions to be answered, all of which can affect the conclusion and the integrity of the argument.
Firstly, the main question is that how similar is salycilates to aspirin and other members of this family? While chemical compounds in a family might have similar properties in terms of shape, color, and chemical bonds, it is possible that they act entirely different in human body. Likewise, this specific compound might have serious permanent side effects in the long-term use which means that responsible organizations such as FDA will not permit its commercial use. The answer of this important question can affect the final prediction of the argument. If this compound is different than aspirin, people in Mnetia will not consume it in the future. As a result, a possible reduction in the number of headache cases cannot be imputed to salycilates.
Secondly, this argument is mainly based on a twenty-year study. In order to consider this study as a valid source of information, one question should be answered. Is the results of this study reliable and generalizable to the future? If the number of samples are not large enough, the results can be misleading. In addition, other factors such as age, chronic diseases, and environmental factors can affect the integrity of this study. For example, it is possible that a large proportion of headache cases were related to air pollution and industrial waste in 20 years ago. However, due to eliminating these factors, by imposing modern waste disposal systems and absorbing filters, people nowadays suffer form fewer headache cases. In fact, answering to the aforementioned question can weaken the argument altogether. If the sampling is reliable enough, we can assume that the prediction is valid. On the other hand, if the study is not vigorous enough, we can attribute a possible reduction in headache cases to other external factors.
Thirdly, a question about the mentioned plan can help us to evaluate the argument more effectively. Are those companies planning to add salycilate to their products, will execute this plan? First of all, implementing this plan can be quite costly. Applying for official approval as well as new machines can deter those companies from pursuing this project. Moreover, we should ask that how much popular are these foods among people living in Menatia? It is probable that the residents of this place are more inclined to consume fresh foods. Therefore, adding salycilates to processed food will not affect the health situation of these people.
To conclude, there are several important questions about this argument, all of which can either weaken or strengthen the presented line of reasoning. Until providing comprehensive answers to those questions, the argument is not sufficiently reliable.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- not OK
argument 2 -- better to say: maybe there are other reasons
argument 3 -- not OK
----------------
also need to argue:
Based on these study results, some health experts predict that residents of Mentia will suffer even fewer headaches in the future.
----------------------
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 2.0 out of 6
Category: Poor Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 27 15
No. of Words: 485 350
No. of Characters: 2475 1500
No. of Different Words: 235 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.693 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.103 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.738 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 191 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 153 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 120 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 59 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 17.963 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 5.541 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.704 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.27 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.452 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.081 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 134, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...beneficial in treating headache cases in Mentia's residents. Although the li...
^^
Line 3, column 588, Rule ID: RATHER_THEN[2]
Message: Did you mean 'different 'from''? 'Different than' is often considered colloquial style.
Suggestion: from
...argument. If this compound is different than aspirin, people in Mnetia will not cons...
^^^^
Line 5, column 1038, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...adache cases to other external factors. Thirdly, a question about the mentioned ...
^^^^^
Line 9, column 252, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... argument is not sufficiently reliable.
^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, firstly, however, if, likewise, moreover, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, third, thirdly, well, while, for example, in addition, in fact, in general, such as, as a result, as well as, first of all, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.6327345309 127% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 22.0 12.9520958084 170% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 38.0 28.8173652695 132% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 59.0 55.5748502994 106% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2556.0 2260.96107784 113% => OK
No of words: 485.0 441.139720559 110% => OK
Chars per words: 5.27010309278 5.12650576532 103% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.69283662038 4.56307096286 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.84756078108 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 246.0 204.123752495 121% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.507216494845 0.468620217663 108% => OK
syllable_count: 805.5 705.55239521 114% => 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: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 8.0 2.70958083832 295% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 27.0 19.7664670659 137% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 22.8473053892 74% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 35.6941742316 57.8364921388 62% => OK
Chars per sentence: 94.6666666667 119.503703932 79% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.962962963 23.324526521 77% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.66666666667 5.70786347227 152% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 6.88822355289 145% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.67664670659 171% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.13621033415 0.218282227539 62% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0372799593769 0.0743258471296 50% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0451279081193 0.0701772020484 64% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0734122226551 0.128457276422 57% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0553607612645 0.0628817314937 88% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.4 14.3799401198 86% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 45.76 48.3550499002 95% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.99 12.5979740519 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.17 8.32208582834 110% => OK
difficult_words: 144.0 98.500998004 146% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 11.1389221557 79% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.