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 given argument does not subsume appropriate evidences to bolster the prediction. Before making a decision on whether to incorporate salicylates as flavour additives and increasing the commercial use of salicylates, it is imperative to consider the various ramifications this decision might lead to.
The 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. This leads to several questions - what if the participants of the study have another reason for their reduction in headaches over twenty years? Maybe their lifestyles improved, or they were less stressed out than before. Maybe they are active physically and have a better diet. We cannot be sure of these results unless the study has separate treatment and control groups which only differs in consumption of salicylates. Only then, we can ascertain that the increased consumption of salicylates lead to reduction in headache. Moreover, the study also needs to be conducted in different environments. The study was only conducted for participants in Mentia. What if there was an environmental reason such as reduced noise pollution in Mentia that caused the reduction in headaches over the twenty years in which the study takes place?
The food processing companies have decided to start using salicylates as flavour additives for food. In order to do so, there are so many things these companies need to keep in mind. Will the addition of such flavour have any side effects for the people who consume it? Is the level of additives they plan to add approved by FDA (or similar) standards? Will the compound salicylate show a negative reaction with some other compound found in everyday food that people consume? A detailed study needs to be done on the effects of adding this new compound as a flavour before starting to incorporate this change.
The prediction building upon the implication that more salicylate equals less headache is thus, not very reasonable. We cannot be sure that in the future, residents of Mentia will suffer even fewer headaches. Although, it would be good for people if the amount of headaches reduces in the future. The different causes of headache can be noted, people can be encouraged to be less sedentary, increase their intakes of food substances which are natural and help with decreasing headaches, as it is better to rely on natural remedies than artificial ones.
In a nutshell, the passage is rife with holes and assumptions. The claim made by the health experts is baseless unless further evidence can be provided. Thus, we cannot say for sure that an increase in consumption of salicylates can help to decrease headaches.
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Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, if, may, moreover, so, then, thus, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 26.0 28.8173652695 90% => OK
Preposition: 65.0 55.5748502994 117% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 16.3942115768 98% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2300.0 2260.96107784 102% => OK
No of words: 447.0 441.139720559 101% => OK
Chars per words: 5.14541387025 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.59808378696 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.86515339102 2.78398813304 103% => OK
Unique words: 227.0 204.123752495 111% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.507829977629 0.468620217663 108% => OK
syllable_count: 741.6 705.55239521 105% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 22.8473053892 79% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 49.318409905 57.8364921388 85% => OK
Chars per sentence: 95.8333333333 119.503703932 80% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.625 23.324526521 80% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.0 5.70786347227 35% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
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 : 4.0 6.88822355289 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 12.0 4.67664670659 257% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.199555455562 0.218282227539 91% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0547903775012 0.0743258471296 74% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0499658105098 0.0701772020484 71% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0959563852638 0.128457276422 75% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0536665987192 0.0628817314937 85% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.1 14.3799401198 84% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 44.75 48.3550499002 93% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.59 12.5979740519 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.34 8.32208582834 100% => OK
difficult_words: 108.0 98.500998004 110% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.5 12.3882235529 101% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.1389221557 83% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, if, may, moreover, so, then, thus, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 19.6327345309 107% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 11.1786427146 72% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 26.0 28.8173652695 90% => OK
Preposition: 65.0 55.5748502994 117% => OK
Nominalization: 16.0 16.3942115768 98% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2300.0 2260.96107784 102% => OK
No of words: 447.0 441.139720559 101% => OK
Chars per words: 5.14541387025 5.12650576532 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.59808378696 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.86515339102 2.78398813304 103% => OK
Unique words: 227.0 204.123752495 111% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.507829977629 0.468620217663 108% => OK
syllable_count: 741.6 705.55239521 105% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.70958083832 74% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 22.8473053892 79% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 49.318409905 57.8364921388 85% => OK
Chars per sentence: 95.8333333333 119.503703932 80% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.625 23.324526521 80% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.0 5.70786347227 35% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
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 : 4.0 6.88822355289 58% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 12.0 4.67664670659 257% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.199555455562 0.218282227539 91% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0547903775012 0.0743258471296 74% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0499658105098 0.0701772020484 71% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0959563852638 0.128457276422 75% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0536665987192 0.0628817314937 85% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.1 14.3799401198 84% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 44.75 48.3550499002 93% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.59 12.5979740519 100% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.34 8.32208582834 100% => OK
difficult_words: 108.0 98.500998004 110% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.5 12.3882235529 101% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 11.1389221557 83% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 83.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 5.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.