Self-study
A proposed amendment would allow the city council to decide that certain city elections be conducted solely by mail. ███ ██████ ██ █ ██████ █████ ██ ████████████ ███ ████ ███ ██████ ████ █████████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ██ █████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████ ███ ██ ████████ ███ ███ ████████ █████████ ██████ ██ █████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that voting by mail shouldn’t be allowed and the proposed amendment should be rejected. As support, the author says that voting has always been done in person.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author is just making an appeal to tradition––he doesn’t provide any support for his conclusion besides “we’ve always done it this way.”
9.
The reasoning in the argument ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████
a
presumes, without providing ██████████████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████ █████████ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ ████
The argument does not assume that, if voting rights are violated, then voting was conducted by mail. This is descriptively inaccurate.
b
presumes, without providing ██████████████ ████ ██ ████████ ████ ██████ ███ █ ███████ █████ ██████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ██████
The argument is about what should happen, not about what will happen.
c
presents an appeal ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ███ █████████ ███ ████████
This is the flaw. The only support for the author’s conclusion is “we’ve always done it this way.” The only reason provided to reject the proposal is the appeal to tradition.
d
fails to consider ███ ███████████ █████ ████ ██ ██ █████ ███ █████ ██ ██ ███ ███ ████ ███████ █████ █████ ███████ ██████ ██ ████
The argument does fail to consider this possibility, but this possibility isn’t relevant to the argument. The author’s argument is that voting by mail should not even be allowed; it is irrelevant to consider that it might never be required.
e
has a premise ████ ██ █████████ ████████████ ████ ███ ████ ██████████
This is descriptively inaccurate. The premises do not contradict the conclusion.