An ancient traditional remedy for insomnia the scent of lavender flowers has now been proved effective In a recent study 30 volunteers with chronic insomnia slept each night for three weeks on lavender scented pillows in a controlled room where their slee | TOEFL IELTS GMAT GRE SAT ACT PTE ESL

Essay topics:

An ancient, traditional remedy for insomnia — the scent of lavender flowers — has now been proved effective. In a recent study, 30 volunteers with chronic insomnia slept each night for three weeks on lavender-scented pillows in a controlled room where their sleep was monitored electronically. During the first week, volunteers continued to take their usual sleeping medication. They slept soundly but wakened feeling tired. At the beginning of the second week, the volunteers discontinued their sleeping medication. During that week, they slept less soundly than the previous week and felt even more tired. During the third week, the volunteers slept longer and more soundly than in the previous two weeks. Therefore, the study proves that lavender cures insomnia within a short period of time.

The article argues that the recent study concerning about lavender flowers can cure insomnia in a short time. The article introduces the study, in which 30 volunteers with chronic insomnia slept with lavender-scented pillows in a controlled room. Although in the second week these volunteers felt tired and slept with a worse quality, in the third week, they slept longer and better than the two previous weeks, and therefore the result proves the effect of lavender. Although the argument seems reasonable, it is actually unconvincing on several grounds.

To begin with, the article fails to prove the significance of the study with such a small sample size. It is noteworthy that the sample size of this study is only 30. What is more, how these people were selected is not clear. We do not know any detailed information about these people, such as their gender, age, and body condition. The result of this study can just prove the effect of lavender flowers on these 30 volunteers, but may not represent a larger population. It is also possible that lavender flowers may not be useful for curing insomnia of other people. In short, identifying the fact that this study is effective does not necessarily support the argument that lavender flowers are effective for everyone.

In addition, the article provides no convincing evidence about the effect of lavender flowers in the normal environment. After all, the study was conducted in a controlled room, and it means there was no other noise in that room. However, in real life, when people want to sleep, they may be disturbed by all kinds of sounds, such as the music coming from their roommates. If the volunteers were put into a more noisy environment, the effect of lavender pillows would probably not be so effective. Hence, without ruling out the possibility that lavender pillows are also effective in other circumstances, the article may not justify the argument.

Furthermore, the fact that volunteers got better in the third week lends little support to the argument that lavender can help cure insomnia. It is noteworthy that in the second week when volunteers stopped their sleeping medication, they felt worse when they woke up. Subsequently, in the third week, they slept longer and more soundly. However, a possible explanation is that they slept longer and more soundly in the third week because they were extremely exhausted and tired after the second week. In other words, even without lavender pillows, these volunteers would probably sleep better in the third week. Therefore, the article concludes too hastily that lavender-scented pillows successfully cured volunteers’ insomnia.

In conclusion, what the article argues is unpersuasive as it stands. To strengthen the argument, the article must expand the sample size which is large enough to be really significant. Also, information about the effect of lavender-scented pillows in other circumstances will be useful to better assessing the argument. The article also needs to prove that the better quality of sleep in the third week is only related to lavender-scented pillows, but unrelated to the bad quality of sleep in the second week.

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Essay Categories

GMAT/GRE Argument Task

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Essay evaluations by e-grader

Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, furthermore, hence, however, if, may, really, second, so, then, therefore, third, after all, in addition, in conclusion, in short, such as, in other words, to begin with, what is more

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 10.0 11.1786427146 89% => OK
Relative clauses : 18.0 13.6137724551 132% => OK
Pronoun: 38.0 28.8173652695 132% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 65.0 55.5748502994 117% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2668.0 2260.96107784 118% => OK
No of words: 514.0 441.139720559 117% => OK
Chars per words: 5.1906614786 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.76146701107 4.56307096286 104% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.9360626007 2.78398813304 105% => OK
Unique words: 220.0 204.123752495 108% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.428015564202 0.468620217663 91% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 816.3 705.55239521 116% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 4.96107784431 202% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 13.0 8.76447105788 148% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 5.0 1.67365269461 299% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 12.0 4.22255489022 284% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 25.0 19.7664670659 126% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 47.2278561868 57.8364921388 82% => OK
Chars per sentence: 106.72 119.503703932 89% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.56 23.324526521 88% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.16 5.70786347227 143% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 5.25449101796 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 11.0 6.88822355289 160% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.353160528514 0.218282227539 162% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.106419169038 0.0743258471296 143% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0868322969663 0.0701772020484 124% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.213016139801 0.128457276422 166% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.07720683515 0.0628817314937 123% => OK

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.3 14.3799401198 92% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.82 12.5979740519 102% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.55 8.32208582834 91% => OK
difficult_words: 95.0 98.500998004 96% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => 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.

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments