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.
On the basis of the study conducted on headaches suffered by residents of Mentia, it is suggested by health experts that the consumptions of salicylates helps reduce the number of headaches and their commercial use will further reduce the number of headaches in future. This has been concluded based on the correlation found between the decline in number of reported headaches and the increase in the commerical use of salicylates. The argument seems valid at first, but as we delve deeper into it, we find many flaws. To decide the validity of the prediction, three questions should be answered.
Were the residents of Metia consuming any other medicines? It is possible that due to the increased headaches, the residents of Mentia visited doctors who prescribed them different medicines. These medicines helped reduce the headaches. It is also possible that the food that food-processing companies started adding some other chemicals to the food as well, which is known to reduce headaches. The consumption of such food would have reduced the headaches suffered by the residents. If either of the above scenario stands true, the conclusion of the argument is weakened.
Was consumption of food containing preservatives the casue of reduced headaches? It might be posisble that the headaches were being caused by a chemical been released by the industry nearby. After it was shut down, the number of headaches reduced drastically. It might be have been at the same time that the food companies started adding salicylates. Beacuse of the increased headaches, it is also possible that the residents started shifting to other places. This would have led to less people being studied and hence a commensurate decline in the number of reported headaches. If the above sceanrios are true, the argument is considerably weakened.
Will the increased amount of salicylates in flavored food help reduce headaches? It could be possible that the increased amount of salicylates in the food items lead to an overdose, having adverse effects. It might also cause more headaches. The residents of Mentia might not prefer buying flavored food. If the residents do not consume an increased amount of salicylates, there will be no effect on the number of headaches suffered by them. In these cases, the argument does not hold water.
The argument as it stands, is considerably flawed due to its reliance on several unwarranted assumptions. The argument can be strengthened if the author is able to answer these three questions and provide more information of the possible cause of headaches, the safe amount of consumption of salicylates and the number of people studied throughout the years.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 6 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 6 2
No. of Sentences: 25 15
No. of Words: 433 350
No. of Characters: 2199 1500
No. of Different Words: 188 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.562 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.079 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.822 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 166 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 124 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 103 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 72 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 17.32 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 9.259 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.36 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.329 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.491 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.108 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 260, Rule ID: IN_PAST[1]
Message: Did you mean: 'in the future'?
Suggestion: in the future
... further reduce the number of headaches in future. This has been concluded based on the c...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 484, Rule ID: FEWER_LESS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'fewer'? The noun people is countable.
Suggestion: fewer
...to other places. This would have led to less people being studied and hence a commen...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, hence, if, so, then, well
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 25.0 19.6327345309 127% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 11.1786427146 54% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 30.0 28.8173652695 104% => OK
Preposition: 64.0 55.5748502994 115% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 16.3942115768 79% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2255.0 2260.96107784 100% => OK
No of words: 433.0 441.139720559 98% => OK
Chars per words: 5.207852194 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.56165014514 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.90947061871 2.78398813304 105% => OK
Unique words: 191.0 204.123752495 94% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.441108545035 0.468620217663 94% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 710.1 705.55239521 101% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 12.0 4.96107784431 242% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 11.0 8.76447105788 126% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 25.0 19.7664670659 126% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 22.8473053892 74% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 55.8958459995 57.8364921388 97% => OK
Chars per sentence: 90.2 119.503703932 75% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.32 23.324526521 74% => OK
Discourse Markers: 1.72 5.70786347227 30% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 6.88822355289 116% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.67664670659 192% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.22466813462 0.218282227539 103% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0642873311729 0.0743258471296 86% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0610119514889 0.0701772020484 87% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.135513226382 0.128457276422 105% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.045301588362 0.0628817314937 72% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.8 14.3799401198 82% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 54.22 48.3550499002 112% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 12.197005988 81% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.64 12.5979740519 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.73 8.32208582834 93% => OK
difficult_words: 89.0 98.500998004 90% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 12.3882235529 113% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 11.1389221557 79% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.9071856287 84% => 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.