Self-study
Ruth: To become a politician, a person should be required to have a diversity of experience. ███ ████ ███████ █████ ███████████ ███ ████ ███ ████ ██████████ ███ ████ ███ ███████████
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Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
Ruth concludes that to become a politician, someone should be required to have diverse experiences. This is because the more diverse one’s experiences, the more one understands the need for compromise.
Stephanie concludes that to be worthy of public trust, it is not enough (as she believes Ruth suggests), to have varied experience. This is because a person with diverse experiences is not necessarily worthy of public trust.
Identify and Describe Flaw
Stephanie misinterprets Ruth’s claim. Ruth said that to become a politician, one should be required to have diverse experiences. Ruth did not say that diverse experiences are sufficient to make one worthy of public trust.
15.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ █ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███████████ ████████ ██ ██████ ███████████
a
The response simply ███████ █ █████ ██ ████ ████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██████ ███████ ███ ███
Stephanie’s point is not “opposite” to Ruth’s. Ruth’s claim is that diverse experiences should be necessary for becoming a politician. Stephanie’s point is not that diverse experiences shouldn’t be necessary; her point relates to a claim Ruth never made.
b
The response fails ██ ███████ ████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ █████████
Stephanie’s response does not assume that experience is not beneficial to politics. It might be beneficial; Stephanie simply believes diverse experiences are not sufficient to be worthy of public trust.
c
The response attributes ██ ████ █ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████ ███ ███ ████████ ██████████
Ruth never said that diverse experiences are sufficient to be worthy of public trust. But Stephanie appears to think this is what Ruth said, and counters this misinterpreted version of Ruth’s claim. This version is easier to criticize than what Ruth actually said.
d
The response fails ██ ████ █ ██████ ███████████ ███████ ████████ ██████████ ███ ████████ ████████████ ███████████
We have no reason to think a distinction between personal and professional experience is “needed.” Both Ruth and Stephanie refer to diverse experiences. Whether such experiences need to involve personal and professional or just one of the two kinds is unknown.
e
The response fails ██ ███████ ████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████ ███████████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ █████████
Stephanie never assumes that flexibility is unimportant in politics. She simply says that diverse experiences are not sufficient to be worthy of public trust.