The following appeared in a memo from the director of a large group of hospitals.
"In a controlled laboratory study of liquid hand soaps, a concentrated solution of extra strength UltraClean hand soap produced a 40 percent greater reduction in harmful bacteria than did the liquid hand soaps currently used in our hospitals. During our recent test of regular-strength UltraClean with doctors, nurses, and visitors at our hospital in Worktown, the hospital reported significantly fewer cases of patient infection (a 20 percent reduction) than did any of the other hospitals in our group. The explanation for the 20 percent reduction in patient infections is the use of UltraClean soap."
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument.
The director argues that the twenty percent reduction in patient infections was caused by the use of UltraClean soap as shown by both laboratory and field tests of the soap. To critically judge the director's claim, two alternative explanations must be thoroughly considered.
First, , the proportion of reduction may just be entirely random. The director assumes that the reduction in the reported patient infections of twenty percent is significant. There is no evidence to suggest this. For example, a reduction from five infections to four infections, which can happen randomly, is a reduction of twenty percent but can hardly be termed significant while a reduction from hundred infection cases to eighty five cases is far more significant and unlikely to happen randomly but just amounts to a fifteen percent reduction. Thus, for the director's argument to be valid, we have to know the absolute numbers and determine if the said reduction in infections is not random.
Second, the apparent drop in proportion may be due to the fact that the Worktown hospital is not comparable or similar to the other hospitals in the group. The director assumes that all the hospitals in the group are comparable. However this may not be true. The apparent twenty percent reduction in patient infections could be normal in the Worktown hospital where cases of reported patients infections vary significantly normally. This huge variance may not be the case for the other hospitals in the group. To critically judge the director's claim, we have to understand how the patients infections normally vary in these hospitals and if the twenty percent reduction is something that could be expected. If it could, then the director claim is not valid.
The author's argument as it stands currently flawed. We need extra evidence such as the normal variation of patients infection in the hospital, the absolute values of the drop in patients infection and so on to properly examine the director's conclusion.
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Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 2.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 16 15
No. of Words: 323 350
No. of Characters: 1636 1500
No. of Different Words: 140 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.239 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.065 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.808 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 124 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 104 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 84 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 51 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20.188 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 12.561 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.562 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.351 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.529 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.092 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 120, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... caused by the use of UltraClean soap as shown by both laboratory and field tests...
^^
Line 3, column 7, Rule ID: COMMA_PARENTHESIS_WHITESPACE
Message: Put a space after the comma, but not before the comma
Suggestion: ,
... must be thoroughly considered. First, , the proportion of reduction may just be...
^^
Line 3, column 400, Rule ID: NODT_DOZEN[1]
Message: Use simply: 'a hundred'.
Suggestion: a hundred
...rmed significant while a reduction from hundred infection cases to eighty five cases is...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 564, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'directors'' or 'director's'?
Suggestion: directors'; director's
...ifteen percent reduction. Thus, for the directors argument to be valid, we have to know t...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 230, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: However,
... hospitals in the group are comparable. However this may not be true. The apparent twen...
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 5, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'authors'' or 'author's'?
Suggestion: authors'; author's
... the director claim is not valid. The authors argument as it stands currently flawed....
^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 232, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'directors'' or 'director's'?
Suggestion: directors'; director's
...ction and so on to properly examine the directors conclusion.
^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, if, may, second, so, then, thus, while, for example, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 19.0 19.6327345309 97% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 12.9520958084 85% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 7.0 13.6137724551 51% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 14.0 28.8173652695 49% => OK
Preposition: 38.0 55.5748502994 68% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1674.0 2260.96107784 74% => OK
No of words: 323.0 441.139720559 73% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.1826625387 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.23936324884 4.56307096286 93% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.85141591185 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 148.0 204.123752495 73% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.458204334365 0.468620217663 98% => OK
syllable_count: 519.3 705.55239521 74% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 4.96107784431 81% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.70958083832 37% => 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: 20.0 22.8473053892 88% => OK
Sentence length SD: 78.4920378128 57.8364921388 136% => OK
Chars per sentence: 104.625 119.503703932 88% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.1875 23.324526521 87% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.0625 5.70786347227 89% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 7.0 5.25449101796 133% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 8.20758483034 49% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => 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: 0.125333394053 0.218282227539 57% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0485186620449 0.0743258471296 65% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0421913422442 0.0701772020484 60% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0883509867697 0.128457276422 69% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0408977709859 0.0628817314937 65% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.1 14.3799401198 91% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 48.3550499002 106% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.76 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.81 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 65.0 98.500998004 66% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 8.5 12.3882235529 69% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 11.1389221557 90% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
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.