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, foodprocessing 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 argument that residents of mentia will suffer fewer headaches in future because food processing companies will begin adding salicylates to foods makes a number unwarranted assumptions. These unstated assumptions therefore requires some questions to be answered to determine the argument’s validity.
Firstly, the argument assumes salicylates has the same function with aspirin because they both belong to the same family. Being in the same family does not mean salicylates is suffiicient enough to replace aspirin in treating headaches. Also, the argument stated that many foods are naturally rich in salicylates. Then, if its true that salicylates is effective enough to cure headaches, residents of mentia will not experience headache at all. Thus, the author needs to aske about the function of salicylates. Is salicylates good enough to replace aspirin in the treatment of headache? Unless the questions are answered, assuming salicylates is a better replacement of aspirin is invalid.
Secondly, the argument assumes that the rise in the commercial use of salicylates has led to a steady decline in the average number of headaches reported by study participants. This argument failed to examine the activities these participants partakes in that leads them to having headache. It also ignore other factors that might have led to the decline in headaches during the study duration such as participants using medicines to cure headache, participant having more rest than they used to before the beginning of the study. In other to determine the validity of the argument, the author needs to ask what other factors might have led to the decrease in headache of the participants during the study period. Did the participants had a change in their daily activities or did the participants started using drugs to relieve them of these headaches.
Thirdly, the argument assumes because salicylates will be added to foods by foodprocessing companies, residents of mentia will suffer fewer headaches in future. This author ignores the fact that food naturally contains salicylates. The addition of more salicylates might not yield any changes in the mentia residents rate of experiencing headache. It might even lead to more negative impact in the future. Thus, the author needs to ask if the addition of salicylates to foods will not lead to more harm on mentia residents in the future. The author also need to question the effectiveness of the addition more salicylates in foods since salicylates are naturally abundant in food.
In conclusion, the argument that residents of mentia will suffer fewer headaches in future because food processing companies will begin adding salicylates to foods makes a numerous unwarranted assumptions that needs some questions to be answered to determine its validity. The answers to these questions will therefore determine if the addition of salicylates is salubrious to the health of mentia residents or not.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 4 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 7 2
No. of Sentences: 22 15
No. of Words: 463 350
No. of Characters: 2446 1500
No. of Different Words: 171 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.639 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.283 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.889 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 190 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 145 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 118 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 78 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 21.045 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.434 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.545 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.36 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.559 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.144 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 300, Rule ID: IT_VBZ[1]
Message: Did you mean 'ignores'?
Suggestion: ignores
... leads them to having headache. It also ignore other factors that might have led to th...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 736, Rule ID: DID_PAST[1]
Message: Did you mean 'have'?
Suggestion: have
... the study period. Did the participants had a change in their daily activities or d...
^^^
Line 5, column 799, Rule ID: DID_PAST[1]
Message: Did you mean 'start'?
Suggestion: start
...aily activities or did the participants started using drugs to relieve them of these he...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 151, Rule ID: IN_PAST[1]
Message: Did you mean: 'in the future'?
Suggestion: in the future
...s of mentia will suffer fewer headaches in future. This author ignores the fact that food...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 194, Rule ID: A_PLURAL[2]
Message: Don't use indefinite articles with plural words. Did you mean 'assumption'?
Suggestion: assumption
...s to foods makes a numerous unwarranted assumptions that needs some questions to be answere...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, firstly, if, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, third, thirdly, thus, in conclusion, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 19.6327345309 66% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 2.0 11.1786427146 18% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 9.0 13.6137724551 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 24.0 28.8173652695 83% => OK
Preposition: 78.0 55.5748502994 140% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 16.3942115768 116% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2499.0 2260.96107784 111% => OK
No of words: 463.0 441.139720559 105% => OK
Chars per words: 5.39740820734 5.12650576532 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.63868890866 4.56307096286 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.961612221 2.78398813304 106% => OK
Unique words: 183.0 204.123752495 90% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.39524838013 0.468620217663 84% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 818.1 705.55239521 116% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.8 1.59920159681 113% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 12.0 8.76447105788 137% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 4.22255489022 47% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 22.0 19.7664670659 111% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 53.2010843113 57.8364921388 92% => OK
Chars per sentence: 113.590909091 119.503703932 95% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.0454545455 23.324526521 90% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.95454545455 5.70786347227 87% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 8.20758483034 61% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 11.0 6.88822355289 160% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.274902329774 0.218282227539 126% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0961554154795 0.0743258471296 129% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0718564640961 0.0701772020484 102% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.16655322061 0.128457276422 130% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0552506522443 0.0628817314937 88% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.5 14.3799401198 101% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 33.24 48.3550499002 69% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.8 12.197005988 113% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.04 12.5979740519 111% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.75 8.32208582834 93% => OK
difficult_words: 90.0 98.500998004 91% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 12.3882235529 69% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => 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.