The following appeared in a local newspaper.
"People should not be misled by the advertising competition between Coldex and Cold-Away, both popular over-the-counter cold medications that anyone can purchase without a doctor's prescription. Each brand is accusing the other of causing some well-known, unwanted side effect: Coldex is known to contribute to existing high blood pressure and Cold-Away is known to cause drowsiness. But the choice should be clear for most health-conscious people: Cold-Away has been on the market for much longer and is used by more hospitals than is Coldex. Clearly, Cold-Away is more effective." - GRE Argument 54
This argument concludes that Cold-Away is a more effective non-prescription cold medication than Coldex. The argument points out that each one has a distinct unwanted side effect: Cold-Away causes drowsiness, while Coldex contributes to existing high blood pressure. To support its conclusion, the argument points out that Cold-Away has been on the market considerably longer, and that it is used by more hospitals than Coldex. I find the argument unconvincing for three reasons.
First, the mere fact that Cold-Away has been on the market longer than Coldex is scant evidence of their comparative...
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-08-17 | jinx | 60 | view |
| 2012-07-24 | nowonder164 | 90 | view |
Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 5.0 out of 6
Category: Very Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 340 350
No. of Characters: 1860 1500
No. of Different Words: 170 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.294 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.471 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.983 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 153 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 115 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 94 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 55 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 18.889 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.286 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.5 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.383 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.612 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.111 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5