欢迎拍文修改小组7.18作业 argu

迷失的鱼UID: 2850922

TOPIC: ARGUMENT35 - The following appeared in the summary of a study on headaches suffered by the residents of Mentia.

"Salicylates are members of the same chemical family as aspirin, a medicine used to treat headaches. Although many foods are naturally rich in salicylates, for the past several decades food-processing companies have also been adding salicylates to foods as preservatives. This rise in the commercial use of salicylates has been found to correlate with a steady decline in the average number of headaches reported by participants in our twenty-year study. Recently, food-processing companies have found that salicylates can also be used as flavor additives for foods. With this new use for salicylates, we can expect a continued steady decline in the number of headaches suffered by the average citizen of Mentia."
WORDS: 478
TIME: 00:32:00
DATE: 2010/7/18 20:45:12

In the memo, the author expect a continued decline in the number of headaches. To support his claim, the author offers the following evidences: 1) Salicylates shares same chemical family as aspirin; 2) in past several decades foods began to contain salicylates as preservatives, which cause the decline of headache; 3) salicylates are found to be used as flavor additives. Supportive at first glance, a closer look at these evidences find they actually do little do bolster his claim.

First of all, the author unfairly assumes that salicylates are a medicine used to treated headaches based on the same chemical family as aspirin. Without any information to maintain the casual relationship, we can also suppose that although the share the same chemical family, they actually have different functions. For instance, carbon oxides share the same chemical family, however, they have various functions. Falling to take these possibilities into account, the author renders his precondition unconvincing.

Secondly, even admitting that salicylates can treat headache, the author hastily generalizes more salicylates to decline in the number of headaches. However, other explains may respond to the tendency. For example, citizens became more cautious about their health, keeping away from unhealthy behavior and circumstances, and that situation makes them suffer few illness include headache. In addition, the author just offer the statistics in the past years which may not represent the situation in the future, or if citizens like to buy food with less preservative which are considered more healthy. Without offering a reasonable prediction for the future situation and more information about how is the selling of those food added salicylates, the author unfortunately makes his claim groundless.

Thirdly, the author just make a assumption that more company will add salicylates as flavor additives for food based on it is able to do so. However, on information offered to show the inclination of those companies. It is also likely that although salicylates can be used as food flavor additives, they actually have a bad taste which of course will not added to food by those companies. What's more, if salicylates are more important than other flavor additives with same taste or function, I suppose those companies will choose other flavor additives to decrease the cost. In that case, not ruling out these likelihoods, the author cannot makes his assumption that more salicylates will be used.

To sum up, the author claims that there will be a steady decline in the number of headaches suffered by average citizen, but he commits several logical fallacies. To better support his claim, the author should make a convey about the selling of the food added salicylates and offer more information to show that salicylates can treat headache. To further evaluate his argument, the author should make a prediction on the future consumption of food with salicylates and whether companies will use them as flavor additives