Self-study
Concert promoter: Some critics claim that our concert series lacks popular appeal. ███ ███ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ███ █████ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ █████████
Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The author concludes that our concert series has popular appeal. This is based on the fact that our income from sales of t-shirts and other memorabilia at concerts is at least as great as that from similar sales at comparable concert series.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author assumes that sales from t-shirts and other memorabilia is an indicator of the popularity of a concert series. The author also assumes that the comparable series mentioned in the premise have popular appeal. This overlooks the possibility that those comparable series are not popular and that the sales levels do not indicate the presence of popular appeal.
10.
The concert promoter's argument is ██████ ██ ████ ██
a
attacks the critics ██ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ██████████████ ██████ ████ ███████ ████
The author does not cite to emotional considerations in the premise supporting the conclusion.
b
takes for granted ████ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ███████ ██████
The author doesn’t assume that income from memorabilia sales is the “sole” indicator of popular appeal. She assumes that it is one indicator, but that doesn’t mean she thinks it’s the only one. Maybe other indicators include social media virality; this doesn’t hurt the argument.
c
takes for granted ████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ███████ ███████ ██████
If this assumption were not true, then the author cannot prove that our series has popular appeal based on its similar sales to a series that isn’t popular. So, the author must take for granted that the comparable series does have popularity.
d
draws a conclusion █████ ███ ██████████ ██ █ ██████ █████ ██ █ ██████████ ████ ██████ ██████████ ██████
The author cites to “comparable series.” There’s no indication that these series are dissimilar to our concert series.
e
fails to adequately ███████████ ███ ██████ ██ █ █████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ██ ██
The argument cites to sales at “the concerts,” which refers to the concert series. Both the premise and the conclusion concern the series as a whole, not individual concerts. So the argument doesn’t need to distinguish between the series and individual concerts.