【Flyer杀G作文组】8月01日Argument167-By 但我

但我UID: 2763822

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: 461
TIME:
DATE: 2010/8/1 22:02:29

In this argument, the author states that lavender could cure insomnia in a short time. To justify his assertion, he notifies the result of a recent study. In the study, 30 volunteers with chronic insomnia slept each night for three weeks on lavender-scented pillows in a controlled room for three weeks where their sleep was monitored. During the first week volunteers continued to take their usual sleeping medication and slept soundly but wakened feeling tired. During the second week, the volunteers discontinued their medicine and slept less soundly than the previous week and felt even more tired. Yet during the third week, they slept longer and more soundly than the previous two weeks. Carefully examination of this supporting evidence, however, reveals that it lends little credible support to the applicant's claim.

To begin with, the conclusion relies on a study which lasted for only three weeks, yet actual medical discoveries require hundreds of trials, a long period of observation and further investigation. Such conclusion could not be drawn simply from this fundamental study.

Even if the the author can draw a conclusion from this study, there are some flaws in the process of reasoning. First, the author does not offer how the volunteers felt after sleep in the third week. Whether they felt better than the previous two weeks is still not known. Lacking such evidence it is entirely possible that the volunteers felt tired or more tired than before. Second, the argument unfairly assumes that it is the lavender-pillows that lead to longer and sounder sleep rather than some other factors. The arguer provides no evidence to substantiate these assumptions. Perhaps the volunteers' longer and more sound sleep in the third week was due to their over tiredness in the prior weeks, for the author already stated that the insomnia suffers felt more tired in the second week. Lacking the description of the volunteers' feelings in the third week, we could not evaluate the quality of their sleep, so we in no way could we know the function of lavender. Third, the study does not exclude the influence of time scales. Maybe in the tired week, the volunteers' better sleep was the result of their familiarity with the room, and the familiarity took two weeks. Without ruling out all these possibilities, the author could not convince me that lavender cure insomnia.

In sum, the conclusion that lavender can cure insomnia is not well supported. To better justify the conclusion, the author must do a longer and further research rather than relying solely on a study. Also the author must account for all other possible factors that may affect one's sleep and should provide the description of the feelings of the volunteers after they woke up in the third week.

madpianoUID: 2257605

我作文不好也就提一点小建议。我觉得第一段可能照抄的优点多了，不知道人家看了会不会觉得有些冗余。第二段似乎又有点少了，跟第三段相比的话。

我自己也写了一篇，看很多几经都报这个argument，自己正好拿来练练。请lz也给评评哈，多谢~

In this argument the arguer comes to the conclusion that the scent in lavender flowers is proved effective in curing insomnia. To justify this conclusion, the author cites a recent study that 30 volunteers suffering from chronic insomnia were chosen to sleep on a lavender-scented pillows in consecutive nights in three weeks. The author points out that after volunteers stopped using their usual medication, they slept more soundly and longer. However, close scrunity of this argument reveals that it is unconvincing in several aspects.

To begin with, the author shows no information about how the volunteers were chosen. Is the sample significant for this experiment? According to the author, these 30 volunteers have been suffering from chronic insomnia, which substantially undermines the conclusion that lavender scent cures all kinds of insomnia. In order to prove that lavender scent is indeed effective for all kinds of insomnia, more volunteers with different kinds of insomnia must be studied before any conclusion can be drawn.

In addition, results from the first week of this study shows no evidence that lavender-scented pillows actually improve sleeping, but rather exacerbate chronic sleeping disorder by making volunteers sleep less soundly and waken tired. The true relation between lavender scent and insomnia needs to be strengthened by more concrete data.

Furthermore, during the second week, it is reported that without usual medication, insomnia was aggravating on volunteers, leading much worse sleeping quality that the first week. It is entirely possible that lavender scent did not help improve sleeping quality at all, while usual medication is the only factor which does improve sleeping. If the author cannot disprove that medication no longer has efficacy on these volunteer, we are not able to say that lavender scent is the only positive factor that improves sleeping quality.

Finally, the author fails to show any positively correlation between lavender scent and sleeping quality improvement. From the study, the volunteers experienced longer sleeping period and better sleeping quality during the third week. The author tends to ascribe lavender scent was effective, however, other possibilities are totally ignored. It is very likely that they slept more soundly just because they slept longer. Common sense tells us that sleeping time directly influences sleeping quality in that appropriately longer sleeping time leads to better sleeping quality. Another possibility is that usual medication may have lasting efficacy. Without ruling out these possibilities, the conclusion simply cannot convince me.

In sum, the conclusion reached in the argument is invalid and misleading. To make it logically acceptable, the author ought to demonstrate that the sample is statistically significant and suitable for this study; lavender-scented pillows indeed cure insomnia. A sound medical study on a certain medicine should include a control group. In this case a group of people having similar insomnia syndromes must be experimented on the same conditions as the experiment group, except that control group does not use lavender scent pillows at all. Otherwise, I would have to suspend my judgment about the credibility of this argument until the arguer can provide me sufficient information on whether or not lavender scent improves sleeping quality. If I was a potential customer suffering insomnia, I would highly doubt such folk remedy, and continuing my medication until more convincing study is conducted.