Arguments

Question 1

Evaluate

Answer 1

evaluate; answer to which question would allow you to judge the validity of the argument

Act: read for reasoning; look for flaws (language shifts, common flaws) and missing information

Answer: Identify information that definitively decide the argument’s validity; reveals a flaw or poses a question

POE: look for answers that are not relevant to the conclusion

Question 2

Reason/Explain

Answer 2

resolve; explain; paradox; discrepancy; puzzling situation; explanation

Act: Read for information and identify the conflict

Answer: allows both facts to be true; clears up the paradox

POE: look for answers that are not relevant to the conclusion

Question 3

Inference

Answer 3

must be true; strongly supported; is compatible; what can be concluded

Act: read for information: quantity statements, conditional statements, strength of language chain of facts; paraphrase the information

Answer: be supported by the passage; preferably be softly worded; sound like a simple paraphrase

POE: new information; unknown information; too strong; unsupported value judgements or unsupported predictions; direct contradictions

Question 4

Point at Issue

Answer 4

point at issue; disagree about

Act: read for reasoning and information: understand the main point and nuances of each argument; look for quantity statements, strength of language

Answer: have an answer that one speaker explicitly agrees with; the other speaker would agree with the negation of the answer

POE: new ideas not clearly related to both arguments; points of agreement; relevant to only one of the two arguments

Question 5

Reasoning

Answer 5

proceeds by, method of reasoning, argumentative technique, claim plays what role; x responds to y

Act: read for reasoning: identify conclusion and premises; paraphrase the structure

Answer: match piece-by-piece

POE: partly right answers; wrong direction (reverses conclusion and premises)

Question 6

Main point

Answer 6

main point; main conclusion; structured to lead to which conclusion

Act: read for reasoning: identify conclusion and premises; paraphrase conclusion; confirm with Why Test

Answer: articulate your paraphrase; match tone and scope

POE: verbatim premises; too strong; takes a step beyond the argument’s conclusion

Question 7

Principle-Match

Answer 7

conforms most closely; principle; proposition; correct application

Act: read for information: paraphrase the passage or principle; diagram if conditional

Answer: match piece-by-piece

POE: wrong direction (especially with conditionals); too strong to match; supports a conclusion by different means

Question 8

Parallel

Answer 8

pattern of reasoning; logical features; most similar; most parallel

Act: read for reasoning: identify conclusion and premises; look for recurring flaw (if question requires); diagram conditional and quantity statements; paraphrase structure; analyze answer choice structures by aligning conclusion first

Answer: match the structure, but not necessarily the order, of the original argument; contain a relationship between premises most similar to original

POE: similar in content but not in structure; dissimilar conclusions; different number of key features than the original; contain a different flaw than the original