Self-study
George: Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, hardly anyone learned ballroom dancing. ███ ██ ██ ████ █ █████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ████████ ███████ ████████
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Summarize Argument
George asks why a large number of people are now taking ballroom dancing lessons, even though in the 1980s and 1990s, almost nobody took ballroom dancing lessons.
Boris’s answer is that in 1995, lots of people learned some ballroom dances, and this lead to other ballroom dances becoming popular.
Identify and Describe Flaw
George isn’t just asking “Why are lots of people taking ballroom dancing lessons?” He’s asking why so many people are taking ballroom dancing in light of the fact that it was unpopular in the past. In other words, George sees a discrepancy that needs to be explained.
Boris’s answer doesn’t help resolve the discrepancy. Pointing out that ballroom dancing started to become popular in 1995 doesn’t explain WHY it became more popular after a period of being unpopular.
21.
Boris's response to George is ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ███████ ██ █████ ██
a
show that the ██████ ███ ███████ ███ ████████ ███ ███ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████
Boris didn’t need to show that the exact same people are now interested in other dances. Perhaps one person is inspired to dance because of a different person’s dancing. What Boris needed to explain was why ballroom dancing became popular, even though it was unpopular before.
b
explain why ballroom ███████ ███ ██ █████████ ██████ ████
Boris didn’t need to explain why ballroom dancing was unpopular before 1995. He needed to explain how it became popular after 1995. There’s a difference between explaining why something used to unpopular and explaining why something became popular.
c
relate the merengue ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ████ █████████ ██████ ████
Boris didn’t need to relate the merengue to other kinds of dancing. The merengue is simply one kind of ballroom dance. What matters is why the merengue and other ballroom dances became popular in 1995.
d
account for the █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ██ ████████ ███████
Boris failed to explain why ballroom dancing started to become popular in 1995. George wasn’t just asking, “Why are lots of people interested in ballroom dance?” He asked what explains the unexpected new interest, given the lack of interest in the 80s and early 90s.
e
demonstrate that all █████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ █████████ ███████
Boris didn’t need to show that all ballroom dancing types are popular. He just needed to explain why ballroom dancing in general became popular, despite its unpopularity in the 80s and early 90s.