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 passage makes a prediction that the pervasive use of salicylates will lessen the number of headaches experienced by residents of Mentia, based on the longitudinal study that discovered a correlation between the rise of commercial use of salicylates and the gradual decline of headaches reported by the subjects. However, it is difficult to evaluate the prediction due to the loose connection between the two central variables and the vague descriptions of the study and dosage of salicylates.
In order to assess the prediction, one must first question whether salicylates truly have a therapeutic effect on headaches. In the presented passage, the only statement that supports the connection between salicylates and headaches is that of salicylates being in the same chemical family as aspirin. However, not all chemicals of the same family have the same characteristics. For example, methanol and ethanol are of the alcohol family, but methanol is toxic, while ethanol is drinkable. Therefore, additional information, such as results from experimental research, which proves that salicylates and aspirin share the same properties and supposedly the same treatment effect, can help evaluate the validity of the study on which the prediction is based.
Second, since the study has been conducted for an extensive period, one should have a suspicion about other variables that could have affected the decline of reported headaches other than salicylates. This is related to the design of the study, whether it has been rigid and effective in controlling spurious variables. Headaches are often related to various factors, such as stress, mental or physical illness, weather and many more. Therefore, to consider the research conclusion reasonable and thorough, more information about the study design and process must be presented.
Third, it seems that necessary details, such as proper dosage and diet, required to predict the outcome of increased use of salicylate on residents of Mentia with headaches, are absent. Even for ingesting aspirin, there is a proper dosage for the optimal effect of pain relief; sometimes, overdose may have side-effects, while underdose may be ineffective. Also, in order to assume that all residents of Mentia will benefit from the increased consumption of salicylates, information on which companies use them in their food products must be presented. Without these details, the prediction cannot be held true as residents may take the improper amount or consume products without salicylates to begin with.
Although based on a study with twenty years of data, the conclusion and prediction lack certain information crucial to its evaluation. In order to enhance the validity and plausibility, the aspects regarding the relation between the two variables and details on the specifics of the study must be delineated.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 7 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 9 2
No. of Sentences: 17 15
No. of Words: 442 350
No. of Characters: 2358 1500
No. of Different Words: 204 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.585 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.335 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.889 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 184 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 153 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 110 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 84 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 26 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.582 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.765 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.337 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.337 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.088 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, may, regarding, second, so, therefore, third, while, for example, such as, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 19.6327345309 92% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 12.9520958084 100% => OK
Conjunction : 18.0 11.1786427146 161% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 16.0 28.8173652695 56% => OK
Preposition: 64.0 55.5748502994 115% => OK
Nominalization: 20.0 16.3942115768 122% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2418.0 2260.96107784 107% => OK
No of words: 442.0 441.139720559 100% => OK
Chars per words: 5.47058823529 5.12650576532 107% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.58517132086 4.56307096286 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.99822842391 2.78398813304 108% => OK
Unique words: 219.0 204.123752495 107% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.495475113122 0.468620217663 106% => OK
syllable_count: 781.2 705.55239521 111% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.8 1.59920159681 113% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 17.0 19.7664670659 86% => OK
Sentence length: 26.0 22.8473053892 114% => OK
Sentence length SD: 56.6484942705 57.8364921388 98% => OK
Chars per sentence: 142.235294118 119.503703932 119% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.0 23.324526521 111% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.0 5.70786347227 123% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 5.0 6.88822355289 73% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.67664670659 86% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.297049776679 0.218282227539 136% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0900325330421 0.0743258471296 121% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0791725130426 0.0701772020484 113% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.153130812381 0.128457276422 119% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0793163160864 0.0628817314937 126% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.3 14.3799401198 120% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 28.17 48.3550499002 58% => Flesch_reading_ease is low.
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.8 12.197005988 130% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.74 12.5979740519 117% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.68 8.32208582834 116% => OK
difficult_words: 133.0 98.500998004 135% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 15.0 12.3882235529 121% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 11.1389221557 111% => OK
text_standard: 15.0 11.9071856287 126% => 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.