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 s

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.

Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.

The argument with conclusion that the scent of lavender flowers is an effective remedy for insomnia is rather weak. It is based on the study in the statement. However, there is still many missed evidence needed to be explained, as stated in the following paragraphs.

First, the evidence that volunteers really have chronic insomnia. The volunteers have to prove, through some demonstration from the doctors or something, that they really suffer from this disease, so as to make the experiment reasonable. On the contrary, if they are fake, just longing to sleep on fancy, lavender-scented pillows, the whole study will fail. As a result, the evidence have to be explained, for the sake of the strength of the result.

Moreover, even if they all suffer form the sickness, the evidence that the deviation of the result in the study is rather low should be mentioned. The variation from all the volunteers ought to be rare in order to fortify the result. It is the number of volunteers that is crucial, that is, just 30. In almost all the study, the number of tests is very low, and the deviation, as a consequence, may rise to be huge, overshadowing the reliability of the study. In order to overcome all the suspicions, the evidence should be provided.

In addition, with certification of the above two evidence, there is still one needed to be testified, that is, the evidence that the control in the study is so firm that no volunteers took their medicine secretly. The discontinuity of taking drugs is vary essential, to such an extent that if such a restrict is flawed, all the study will be indecisive. The confirmation of a strict control should be stated, in order to make the argument meaningful.

In the end, although many is provided, there is still a plenty of evidence needed to be explained, leaving the conclusion even weaker. However, if the above three is justified in the argument, it will be greatly reinforced. Therefore, there is no way to simply take the claimed remedy to be true. More tests needed to be conducted.

Votes
Average: 6.5 (4 votes)
This essay topic by users
Post date Users Rates Link to Content
2013-08-03 sh_shashi1 61 view
2013-04-19 zoom 62 view
2012-09-27 yjc1989 65 view
Essay Categories
Essays by user yjc1989 :

Comments

Sentence: However, if the above three is justified in the argument, it will be greatly reinforced.
Description: The fragment the above three is rare
Suggestion: Possible agreement error: Replace above with adjective

flaws:
No. of Different Words: 153 200

Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 5 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 2 2
No. of Sentences: 19 15
No. of Words: 351 350
No. of Characters: 1629 1500
No. of Different Words: 153 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.328 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.641 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.711 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 112 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 80 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 64 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 38 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18.474 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.618 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.632 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.329 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.548 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.064 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5