How to Strengthen Arguments

Jul 24

[This is a lesson excerpt from our online course, for which we invite you to enroll.]

TO STRENGTHEN ARGUMENTS, STRENGTHEN THE SUPPORT RELATIONSHIP.

That means you make the beam thicker. (Remember Goku’s Kamehameha from the lesson on Weakening Arguments?) You can do that by either adding additional premises – the analogy there would be to appeal to Goku’s friends to also fire up some beams. Or you can add information that makes the existing premises more relevant to the conclusion – the analogy there would be to feed Goku some magical beans that make him stronger.

Weaken questions and Strengthening questions are exactly the same. For any Weakening question on the LSAT, you can turn it into a strengthening question by changing around a few words and vice versa. It’s all about the assumptions. Whereas for Weaken questions, your task is to expose and deny any assumptions made, thereby weakening the support structure between the premises and the conclusion, here, in Strengthen questions, your task is to expose and affirm any assumptions made, thereby strengthening the support structure between the premises and the conclusion. The two question types are entirely interchangeable.

SOME SAMPLE STRENGTHEN QUESTION STEMS

  • Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?
  • Which one of the following, if true, would most strengthen the archaeologist’s reasoning?
  • Which one of the following, if true, lends the most support to the psychologist’s conclusion?
  • Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the economist’s reasoning?

LET’S REVIEW
That relationship is the support relationship. That means you are to make the premises more supportive of the conclusion.

About

J.Y. has been teaching the LSAT since 2006 and has taught thousands of students. He is the founder of 7Sage and PreProBono, two organizations dedicated to making legal education more accessible. He graduated from Columbia University in 2007 where he studied Economics, Political Science, and Philosophy and holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

J.Y. highly encourages all LSAT students to review their logic games using 7Sage's Fool Proof Method and to sign up for 7Sage's free trial LSAT course.

Topic: Lesson Excerpt