Self-study
Support In a small town, every complaint filed about a plumber's work was filed against Moore, who has a relatively small business. ██ █████ ██ ████ ████████ ████ █████ ██ █ ████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ██ ██ █ ████ ████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that Moore is not a good plumber and cannot be relied upon to do good work because every complaint about a plumber in this small town was aimed at Moore’s business.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author neglects to rule out any alternative explanations for these complaints. What if there were very few complaints from anyone in the town about any plumbing services, and they just happened to be towards Moore? What if these few complaints comprised just a small percentage of Moore’s services, and a vast majority of the time, his customers were satisfied with his work? What if Moore is the only plumber in this small town, so any possible complaint must be directed at his business? Without ruling out any of these alternatives, the author’s argument is very weak.
21.
The argument is questionable because ██ █████ ██ ████████
a
the interests of ███████ █████████ ███ ████ ███ █████ ██████████
Customers who have not filed complaints are not relevant to the author’s argument. He is focused on those who have complained about Moore and the implications for the quality of his plumbing services, not what Moore’s satisfied customers have to say.
b
that there may ██ ███ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ████
If Moore were the only plumber, it would make sense that all complaints would be directed at him. This would not imply that Moore was a bad plumber, only that he sometimes had dissatisfied customers. The author never ruled this out, so his conclusion is unsupported.
c
whether Moore's business ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ██████████████ █████
The size of Moore’s business is not relevant to whether or not he is a good plumber. Any plumber could be bad at his job, regardless of how many clients he serves. Instead, the author’s argument focuses on how all complaints are directed at Moore.
d
the number of ██████████ █████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ████████████ █████ ████ ████████
Tradespeople other than plumbers are not relevant to this argument at all. The author is solely focused on Moore and his plumbing business, and only comparisons to other plumbers would be helpful in evaluating the author’s argument.
e
whether each person ███ ███ ████████████ ████ ███████ ████ █████ █ █████████ ███████ █████
The author’s argument isn’t weak because it didn’t include a fully representative look at all of Moore’s dissatisfied customers. Instead, it’s weak because the author didn’t rule out any alternative explanations as to why the only plumbing-related complaints in this town concern Moore.