Argument51 0806G加速度作文小组第一次作业

nun318UID: 2205752

51.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."

医生长期以来怀疑严重肌肉扭伤后的二次感染妨碍了一些患者迅速康复。这一假说现在被一项对两组患者的研究的初步结果所证实。第一组患者全部由专攻运动医学的Dr. Newland治疗肌肉损伤，他们在疗程中经常服用抗生素。他们的康复期平均比通常预期的快40％。第二组患者由综合医师Dr. Alton治疗，他们被给予糖丸，而患者相信他们在服用抗生素。他们的平均康复时间没有明显缩短。因此，任何被确诊为肌肉损伤的患者应被建议服用抗生素作为辅助治疗


In this newsletter, the arguer claims that all patients who are diagnosed with muscle strain should take antibiotics during their treatment. To support this conclusion, the arguer provides a survey to prove the secondary infections can keep some patients from healing quickly after severe muscle strain. At the first glance, the argument appears to be somehow convincing, however, a close security reveals that it suffers from several critical flaws.

To begin with, the arguer provides a suspect that secondary infections may keep some patients from healing quickly after severe muscle strain. However, the arguer fails to provide evidence to prove that there is casual relationship between secondary infections and muscle strain. Even I admit the secondary infections is one of the factors which could effect on healing from the muscle strain, there are many other important contributing factors such as the degree of the muscle strain, the medical care and the doctor’s level. Without this basic assumption, the arguer cannot establish a causal relationship between antibiotics and muscle strain. Even assuming the secondary infection do indeed increase the recuperation time, the arguer provides no evidence that the causal relationship between the antibiotics and the secondary infection. After all, the antibiotics just is one kind of medicine to cure the infection, apparently, it cannot completely protect people from infection.

After some unconvincing assumption, the argument depends on a study that the average recuperation time of the group whose patients took antibiotics regularly throughout their treatment was 40% faster than the other group without antibiotics. However, the arguer cannot provide any evidence that the study’s two groups were otherwise at similar medicine conditions. Conversely, their doctors are totally different. One specializes in sports medicine, and the other is a general physician. Common sense and experience inform us that a doctor specializes in sports medicine would be better at healing muscle strain than a general physician, so the recuperation time is not simply based on the antibiotics. Lacking such evidence, it is entirely possible that the difference of doctors or other important factors such as the health condition of patients is attributable to the difference of two groups’ recuperation time.

In addition, common sense and experience inform us that some antibiotic have serious negative effect on people, so it cannot be the part of treatment for every patient. The arguer cannot advise people to take antibiotics as a treatment just depends on such unrepresentative study.

To sum up, the assumption of this argument is not convincing, at the same time, the conclusion lacks credibility in that the evidence cited in the survey does not lead strong support to what the arguer claims. To strengthen this argument the arguer should provide more information of the survey such as the health condition of patients. The arguer also needs to rule out other factors relevant to prevent patients whoare diagnosed with muscle strain from healing quickly.



[ 本帖最后由 nun318 于 2008-1-17 19:05 编辑 ]