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.
It might seem logical, at a first glance, that the argument made by the author is true: residents of Mentia will suffer even fewer headaches in the future based on the recently issued twenty year-study on headaches suffered by the residents of Mentia. However, in order to fully evaluate the argument, few questions need to be answered. The answers to these questions helps in deciding whether the prediction and the argument on which it is based are reasonable.
Firstly, Can the correlation between the rise in the commercial use of salicylates and a steady decline in the average number of headaches reported by study participants provide strong support for the argument. The author has to provide the evidence that the steady decline in the average number of headaches is mostly due to the use of salicylates and not due to any other factors. The author has to show that study participants use salicylates and not any other medicine to treat their headaches. If the author answers the first question, then it helps in strengthening the argument.
Secondly, Is the twenty-year study fully representative of people who mostly suffer headaches, valid and reliable. If the people who participated in the study use some other medicine to treat their headache or if they do not use salicylates at all to treat their headaches, then it would weaken the argument. The study has to reveal how much rise has been observed in the use of salicylates and how much decline has been observed in the average number of headaches. If there is only 5% rise in the use of salicylates and 3% decline in the average number of headaches, then it will weaken the argument. The author has to answer the above questions in order to support the argument.
Thirdly, the author must tell if many companies will definitely use salicylates as flavor additives for food because the author said that many companies planned to do so but it is still not implemented. The author must also tell how much quantity of salicylates will be used by food-processing companies because the author did not mention how much quantity of salicylates must be consumed by people to reduce their headache. The answer to these above questions helps in providing support to the argument.
The author has to answer the above questions in order to evaluate the prediction that the residents of Mentia will suffer even fewer headaches in the future.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 2 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 3 2
No. of Sentences: 16 15
No. of Words: 406 350
No. of Characters: 1957 1500
No. of Different Words: 145 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.489 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.82 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.703 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 143 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 102 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 76 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 47 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.375 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.347 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.562 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.417 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.613 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.159 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 9, column 1, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
... providing support to the argument. The author has to answer the above question...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, firstly, however, if, second, secondly, so, still, then, third, thirdly, as to
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 12.0 19.6327345309 61% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 11.1786427146 81% => OK
Relative clauses : 8.0 13.6137724551 59% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 18.0 28.8173652695 62% => OK
Preposition: 63.0 55.5748502994 113% => OK
Nominalization: 15.0 16.3942115768 91% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2005.0 2260.96107784 89% => OK
No of words: 406.0 441.139720559 92% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.93842364532 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.48881294772 4.56307096286 98% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.78385821011 2.78398813304 100% => OK
Unique words: 148.0 204.123752495 73% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.364532019704 0.468620217663 78% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 650.7 705.55239521 92% => 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: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 2.70958083832 111% => 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: 16.0 19.7664670659 81% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 25.0 22.8473053892 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 53.5816768471 57.8364921388 93% => OK
Chars per sentence: 125.3125 119.503703932 105% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.375 23.324526521 109% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.0 5.70786347227 105% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => 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: 1.0 4.67664670659 21% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.267177381377 0.218282227539 122% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.095997006302 0.0743258471296 129% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0863040899194 0.0701772020484 123% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.164081652524 0.128457276422 128% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0464515554906 0.0628817314937 74% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.5 14.3799401198 101% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 46.1 48.3550499002 95% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.67 12.5979740519 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.37 8.32208582834 89% => OK
difficult_words: 64.0 98.500998004 65% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 12.3882235529 109% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.1389221557 108% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 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.