Argument53 新手习作第二篇 求狠拍

大公主殿下UID: 2686137

53              53.   Thirteen years ago, researchers studied a group of 25 infants who showed signs of mild distress when exposed to unfamiliar stimuli such as an unusual odor or a tape recording of an unknown voice. They discovered that these infants were more likely than other infants to have been conceived in early autumn, a time when their mothers' production of melatonin—a hormone known to affect some brain functions—would naturally increase in response to decreased daylight. In a follow-up study conducted earlier this year, more than half of these children—now teenagers—who had shown signs of distress identified themselves as shy. Clearly, increased levels of melatonin before birth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continues into later life.


In this argument, the author draw a conclusion based on a study that increase levels of melatonin before birth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continues into later life. In order to maintain this conclusion, the arguer cited the result of the study which indicates that the level of melatonin have a great relation with shyness during infancy and even later life. It may be reasonable at first glance, however, when take all the factors into deeply account, several logical flaws make these argument can not bear further consideration.

To start with, the quantity of specimen is too small to make this study to be representative. Unless the surveyor sampled a sufficient number of infants and did so randomly across the entire spectrum, the study results are not reliable to gauge the influence caused by melatonin on the shyness. For example, if the 25 infants would account for only a little percentage, which would render the result of the survey meaningless.

The second flaw is that the author makes an unwarranted assumption that the infants who showed signs of mild distress when exposed to unfamiliar stimuli such as an unusual odor or a tape recording of an unknown voice are shy. Actually, there exists another possibility, that is, this is the common phenomena that will happen to almost every infant, thanks to the new-born babies usually have fears or strangeness toward this world which they are unfamiliar with. This probability obviously weakens author’s view, that is, it substantiates the infants who looks like shy may not be truly shy.

What’s more, the melatonin known to affect some brain function may effects other part of brain instead of shyness part. Since the arguer did not give the convincible evidences to illustrate this hormone indeed affect the brain function that may result in people’s shyness level while not the other parts, it is unwise to make a rash decision by ignoring this unanswered problem. Even if the infants’ shyness were affected by their mother’s melatonin levels, it can be too far to infer that the infants grow up into shy persons, because the only fact author can rely on is that these teenagers identified themselves as shy, which is too subjective to be the basis whether the conclusion is logically.

Additionally, even though the teenagers are shy now because of the shyness caused by their mother’s hormone when infancy, no further testimony can say that this shyness continues into later life. As we all know, one person’s characteristic is decided by not only the congenital but also the acquired environment, such as the family phenomenon, the education level, one’s friends——to just a few possibility. Without ruling out scenarios like these, the editor cannot justifiably conclude this continues situation.

In summary, the arguer falsely establishes the cause and effect relationship which is actually non sequitur, eliminating the other existed cases. Thus the cited evidence does not lend strong support to what the arguer stand for. To perfect the logical process and make this conclusion more convincible, the arguer is suggested to take a formal study whose spectrum is large enough to cover all possibility and sampled randomly. Furthermore, more proofs are needed to support the mild distress is the appearance of infants’ shyness and mild distress dues to their mother’s increased hormone. Besides, more studies should be taken to test whether the teenagers became shy person and whether the trend of this shyness will continues. Therefore, if the given factors above are involved into author’s mind, this argument have been more thorough and logically acceptable.

剑圣UID: 2734168

我也是新手，拜读一下，互相学习

angeyasusieUID: 2696799

谁修改？ 1# 大公主殿下

porpoise803UID: 2539384

内容跟文句也不错，就是不怎么明白什么是 sequitur