Self-study
Support Any course that teaches students how to write is one that will serve them well in later life. ██████████ █████ ████ ██████████ ███████ █████ ████████ ███ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ████████ ███ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████████ ███████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that any student taking any philosophy course will be benefitted later in life, and supports their argument by stating that some philosophy classes teach writing, and all classes that teach writing benefit students later in life.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author makes a mistake with the “some” relationship between the philosophy courses and teaching writing. If only some of the philosophy courses teach writing, then we can only conclude that some of them will serve students well. However, the author concluded that all philosophy courses will serve students well, ignoring the fact that some philosophy courses may not teach writing, and therefore do not fulfill the sufficient condition for serving students well.
2.
A flaw in the reasoning ██ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ███ ████████
a
fails to specify ██████████ ███████ ███ █ ██████ ███ █████ ████████ ███ ██ █████
How a course teaches writing is irrelevant to this argument; instead, the author is focused on whether or not courses teach writing. Different methods of teaching writing are never brought up in this argument.
b
draws a weaker ██████████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ████████
The author actually draws a stronger conclusion than warranted by his premises. His premises set him up to draw the valid conclusion that some philosophy courses serve students well, but he went beyond this and drew the stronger conclusion that all philosophy courses serve students well.
c
presumes, without providing ██████████████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██ █ █████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████
This answer choice refers to part vs. whole flaws. This type of flaw is not applicable to this argument, as the author makes no comparison between something’s parts and its whole.
d
fails to consider ███ ███████████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██████ ███ ██ ████████ ██ ████ █ ██████████ ██████
Whether or not students must take a philosophy class is irrelevant to the argument. The author is focused on courses that teach writing and mistakenly concludes that all philosophy classes benefit students. Whether students took the class by choice has nothing to do with the argument.
e
draws a conclusion █████ ███ █████ ██ █ ███████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ████ █████████ ████ █ ██████████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ██ ████ ████
The author drew the conclusion that all philosophy classes serve students well, even though he only had evidence that some of those classes served students well.