argument167 同主题写作第三期 by寂寞樱花

寂寞樱花UID：2306511

TOPIC: ARGUMENT167 - 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.
WORDS: 470          TIME: 上午 12:31:00          DATE: 2007-8-14

In this argument, the author concludes that lavender can cure insomnia in a short period. To support his/her conclusion, the author cites a result of a folk remedy for insomnia which shows that in the third week of the remedy the volunteers slept more longer and soundly than the first two weeks on a lavender-scented pillows in a controlled room. I find this argument is logically unconvincing in several respects.

First of all, the result of the remedy given by the author is not reliable for we do not know the methods using in the remedy. What's more, the sample in this remedy is 30 volunteers which is a little smaller in common research, and the time cited by the author in the remedy is three week which is inadequate either. And how does the researcher knows that the volunteers slept longer and more soundly in the third week? Do they use the method of interview? If they use this kind of method, the volunteers may guess the doctor's purpose and give the inclined answers. For lacking this key information, we could not judge whether the results of this folk remedy is acceptable or not.

Secondly, even assuming that the methods used in the remedy have no problem, the author's claim is not convincing as well. For the author does not give the feelings of these volunteers wakened in the third week. How about their feelings? Do they feel more tired than two weeks before or not? If we do not have this criterion for judging the quality of sleeping, we also can say that the reason that these volunteers sleep longer and more soundly may the less and tired sleep in the second week. Then the author would not claim that lavender has a function in cure insomnia if he/she could not rule out these possibilities.

Last but not least, suppose that the longer and soundly sleep of these volunteers is not caused by the tired sleep in the second week, there is also some problems in the argument. As we all known that the environment has some influences of people's sleep, it is very possible that why they sleep longer and soundly is that they have been familiar with the environment of sleeping rather than the function of lavender flowers. And in this argument, we could not find any information about the direct function of lavender flowers in curing insomnia. So for these reasons, the argument is not based on a confirm basement.

In sum, this argument is not as persuasive as it seems. To make it more acceptable, the author should provide more concrete evidence to show the reliability of the result of the remedy. Besides, the author also should point out the direct function of lavender flowers in curing insomnia and rule out the other possibilities.