"point at issue" questions

Question 1

“point at issue”
stimuli

Answer 1

stimuli – comprises two speakers who disagree about an issue that is generally ethical or decision-oriented, rather than factual

Question 2

“point at issue”
question family

Answer 2

“point at issue” questions are part of the first family question type, so you can only use the information in the stimulus to evaluate the answer choices

“point at issue” questions are also a variant of “must be true” questions, so you can also use the fact test (with a modification allowing for the two speaker construction)

Question 3

“point at issue”
question stem

Answer 3

question stem – directs you to choose the answer that describes the point of disagreement between the two speakers, or to identify a statement that the two speakers would disagree is true

“what is the point at issue between…”
“what is at issue between…”
“the speakers will disagree about which of the following…”
“the speakers are committed to disagreeing over…”

Question 4

“point at issue”
incorrect answer types

Answer 4

1. ethical vs. factual situations
   when a stimulus addresses an issue that is ethical in nature, answer choices that are factual in nature cannot be true (and vice versa–but disagreements over facts are uncommon)
2. dual agreement or dual disagreement
   answer choices that both speakers would either agree or disagree with are incorrect
3. the view of one speaker is unknown
   a point cannot be the point at issue if it is left unsaid

Question 5

“point at issue”
agree/disagree test

Answer 5

the correct answer must produce responses where one speaker would say “I agree, the statement is correct” and the other speaker would say “I disagree, the statement is incorrect”
if those two responses are not produced, then the answer is incorrect

the agree/disagree test crystallizes the essence of “point at issue” questions by forcing you to concretely identify the elements that determine the correct answer