ARGUMENT167 第八篇A by coalaxixi

coalaxixiUID：2353397

----Topic----
A folk remedy* for insomnia, the scent in lavender flowers, has now been proved effective. In a recent study, 30 volunteers with chronic insomnia slept each night for three weeks on lavender-scented pillows in a controlled room where their sleep was monitored. During the first week, volunteers continued to take their usual sleeping medication. They slept soundly but wakened feeling tired. During the second week, the volunteers discontinued their medication. As a result, they slept less soundly than the previous week and felt even more tired. During the third week, the volunteers slept longer and more soundly than in the previous two weeks. This shows that over a short period of time lavender cures insomnia.

*A folk remedy is usually a plant-based form of treatment common to traditional forms of medicine, ones that developed before the advent of modern medical services and technology.

----Syllabus----
1.       对失眠的定义不明确。
2.       推论以研究为基础，但这还是初步的研究，并不足以得出医学上的结论。30和 3个星期并不足以说明问题。
3.       治疗失眠结果如何这种主观性很强的回应，如果不采取特定方法（如单盲实验）来保证回答的客观性，失眠患者很可能会猜测实验者目的而给出有倾向性的回答。
4.       第三周的情况并非是薰衣草的结果。
5.       此外，实验前患者的睡眠状况和第三周醒来后的感觉没有提供。

----Text---- 474 words
Giving some postulations and the result of a recent study, the arguer concludes that lavender can cure insomnia in short period of time. It really sounds reasonable at first glance, however, closed scrutiny of it I find this report unconvincing for several reasons.

A threshold problem involves the definition of insomnia, which is a crucial term that the arguer fails to define. If insomnia is defined as inability to fall asleep, then how soundly or long a person sleeps, or how tired a person feels after sleep, is irrelevant to whether the person suffers from insomnia. In brief, without a clear definition of insomnia it is impossible to assess the strength of the argument.

Another fundamental problem is that this conclusion is based on a study which is just a primary one and not persuasive enough to draw a medicinal conclusion. The figure of 3 weeks and 30 volunteers would not suffice to support the conclusion. Without evidence of the experiment’s methodological and statistical reliability, the arguer’s conclusion is unjustifiable.

The next problem involves the response of the volunteers to result of cure using lavender, which is with a great subjectivity. They might guess the purpose of the experiment and accordingly give out responses with some inclination. Not taking some special measure, for example, leaving these volunteers unknown about the purpose of the experiment, to ensure the objectivity of their response, the result of this experiment is open to doubt.

Yet even if the author can substantiate the foregoing problems, the lavender flower does not necessarily attributable to the seemingly better situation of the third week. There might be a lot of causes of such situation which the lavender cure is not the only reason. Perhaps sleeping medication’s effectiveness of the first week has not been eradicated and it is the sleeping medication other than lavender cure that bring about the result in the third week. Or perhaps those volunteers were too tired in the previous two weeks and according to the theory of “regression to the mean”, the sleeping situation would better off naturally in the third week. Or perhaps those volunteers got used to the sleeping environment in the third week which was strange to them two weeks before thus could relax themselves to enjoy a good sleep. Any scenario would provide an alternative explanation for situation of the third week but not necessarily the lavender cure.

Besides, the arguer does not provide any information about how was those volunteers’ sleeping condition prior the experiment and how did they feel after they awoke in the third week. Lacking such evidences remains the arguer’s conclusion rather dubious.

To sum up, the arguer’s recommendation is ill-founded. To strengthen it the arguer must provide concrete evidence to demonstrate the credibility and reliability of the experiment. Finally to better evaluate it I would need a clear definition of insomnia.

taibairenUID：2310396

改过的作文

coalaxixiUID：2353397

thanks~