【Flyer杀G作文组】1.23-Argument53-By 师大菜菜

师大菜菜UID: 2838404

TOPIC: ARGUMENT53 - 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.
WORDS: 399
TIME: 00:40:53
DATE: 2011/1/23 7:25:15

The speaker asserts that increased levels of melatonin before birth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continues into later life. In order to support the assertion, a research in thirteen years ago and follow-up study were sited. However, the argument suffers for several flaws which render it unconvincing.

To begin with, the sample of mentioned study is too limited which let's worry about that whether the study only researching 25 infants can give a general conclusion for all children. The common sense tells us that in order to get a scientific result on all children, the objects of study must cover as more as possible cases, such different genders, areas, the ages of pregnant and so on.
Obviously, only 25 infants cannot meet this requirement. In this point, the author fails to give any further explanation, so any conclusion inferred from the study is unconvincing.

What's more, the author hasn't given a clear definition about the shyness. As a emotional description, different individuals may define the term shy in various way. However, in the entire argument, the definition about shyness has never been given. In the study, the author just mentions some infants showed signs of mild distress. But does the distress equal shyness? What's the relationship between them? We don't know. The argument even cannot give a clear definition about the key term 'shyness' in the conclusion. Therefore, the conclusion is not reasonable.

Last but not least, no direct evidence is provided to show that it is the high levels of mothers' production of Melatonin that resulted in the distress showed by the infants studied. Even the signs of mild distress equal shyness, the author still fail to prove that the shyness was caused by the level of mothers' production of Melatonin. There are many other factors can impact the infants' emotion. It is possible that those infants are shy just due to their mother were shy but not the level of their mother's production of melatonin. Without accounting for and ruling out these and other alternative explanations the arguer cannot bolster his conclusion.

To sum up, the arguer's argument mentioned above is not based on scientific study or gave a clear definition about the key term, neither of which is dispensable for a conclusive argument. In order to draw a better conclusion, the arguer should define the shy clearly and act a more reasonable study.