Self-study
Ornithologist: This bird species is widely thought to subsist primarily on vegetation, but my research shows that Conclusion this belief is erroneous. █████ █████████ ██ █ ████████████████ ██████ █ ████ ████████ ████████ ██ █████ █████ █████ ███████ ████ █ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ █ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ ███ █████ ██████ ████ ████████
Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The author concludes that this bird species does not subsist primarily on vegetation. This is based on the ornithologist’s observations of the bird every morning over a period of months. During that time, the ornithologist saw that over half of what the birds ate was not vegetation.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author overlooks the possibility that the food the birds eat in the morning is not representative of the birds’ overall diet. For example, maybe the bird tends to eat more animals in the morning, but far more vegetation in the afternoon and evening.
6.
The reasoning in the ornithologist's ████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████
a
assumes, without providing ██████████████ ████ ███ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████████████ ███ ██ ███████████
The author notes that she was concealed behind a “well-camouflaged blind” — so there is some justification for the assumption that the feeding wasn’t affected. In any case, the author just needs to assume that the birds didn’t change the vegetation/non-veg. makeup of their diet.
b
fails to specify ███ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ████████ █████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ █████
The point of the observation is that the birds ate mainly non-vegetation in the morning. The particular kinds of food don’t matter as long as they’re not vegetation.
c
adopts a widespread ██████ █████ ███ ██████ ███████ ██████ ███████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ██ ███ ██████
The author rejects the widespread belief that that the bird eats primarily vegetation.
d
neglects the possibility ████ ███ █████ ████ █████████ ████████ ██ ████ ███████████ ██████ █████████ █████ ██ ███ ███ ███ █████
If the birds might have different patterns of food consumption at other times of day, that opens the possibility that the bird could eat primarly vegetation at other times of day. So the author’s observations of the birds’ diet might not be representative of the overall diet.
e
fails to consider ███ ███████████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ███████ █████ ███ ███████ ██████ █████ █████ ████ ███ ██████
If the birds’ diet has changed since the earlier belief was formed, that doesn’t undermine the author’s reasoning. The author is simply trying to prove that the bird doesn’t eat primarily vegetation.