TOPIC: ARGUMENT51 - The following appeared in a medical newsletter.
"Doctors have long suspected that secondary infections may keep some patients from healing quickly after severe muscle strain. This hypothesis has now been proved by preliminary results of a study of two groups of patients. The first group of patients, all being treated for muscle injuries by Dr. Newland, a doctor who specializes in sports medicine, took antibiotics regularly throughout their treatment. Their recuperation time was, on average, 40 percent quicker than typically expected. Patients in the second group, all being treated by Dr. Alton, a general physician, were given sugar pills, although the patients believed they were taking antibiotics. Their average recuperation time was not significantly reduced. Therefore, all patients who are diagnosed with muscle strain would be well advised to take antibiotics as part of their treatment."
WORDS: 470
TIME: 00:59:53
DATE: 2010/2/10 19:02:08
The author's conclusion that all patients diagnosed with muscle strain would be well advised to take antibiotics, which based on the hypothesis, is not persuasive, for the hypothesis only has been proved by preliminary results of a unconvincing study.
Firstly, the study of two groups of patients is problematic, even the basic statistic has not been given. Are all the people in the study in the same gender, and their health conditions? We don't know. What's more, are they all being treaded(treated) for muscle injuries? Although the patients of first group are all treated for muscle injuries, how should we know the second group? Maybe the patients of second group suffer from other injuries. And what does the "typically expected" and "significantly" mean in the argument? I must say that these two words are too vague to reflect the truth. It must be quantified for the author to gain a reasonable conclusion. And the doctor in each group has different professions. If the fact that the doctor in first group who specializes in sports medicine is known to the patients, they maybe have a psychological suggestion that they will be cured very soon, While in the other group, the patients may doubt the doctor's skill, who is a general physician. So the psychological states of the patients may influence the medicine's effect. If the author doesn't give more information about the details of the study, I'm sorry to say(这个句式用在文章里不太好吧)that the study cannot prove the hypothesis. 问号出现在argument中有时是很漂亮的,但是如果一个自然段里问号过多容易影响全篇的逻辑观赏性
Even if the study is perfect and convincing, the author still fails to prove the hypothesis. In the study, there is no evidence showing that the patients are secondary infections who have severe muscle strain before. What if the patients' muscle is just slightly strained? What if the infection is the first not the second? What's more, the study just gives the preliminary results, which is not enough to prove the hypothesis. The author must provide more evidence to persuade me.
Finally, even if the hypothesis is correct, the author's advice that all patients who are diagnosed with muscle strain would be well advised to take antibiotics as part of their treatment is misleading. Every medicine has its own scope, it may be applied one person but it may not in another patient in different conditions. If the medicine has some side effect to special people, it won't be wise to advice them to take this kind of antibiotics. And whether the muscle strain is severe or slight must be taken into account, or the hypothesis can not(cannot) deduce the advice.
To sum up, the author makes several mistakes that make the conclusion unsupportable as it stands. To strengthen it, the author must present more detailed information about the study, and do follow-up studies to gain a insightful conclusion. |