Self-study
Forty to 60 percent of students report, in anonymous surveys, that they plagiarized at least once as undergraduates, and evidence indicates that plagiarism also occurs in our medical and business schools. ███████████ ████ █████ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████████████ ██████████ ████ ██ █████████ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ██████████ █████ █ █████████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ████ ████ ██ █ █████████ ██ ████████████ ███████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that reducing academic plagiarism will reduce professional misconduct. As support, the author cites research that says that students who plagiarize are more likely to engage in professional misconduct.
Identify and Describe Flaw
This argument assumes a causal relationship from correlational evidence. The premise describes a correlation between those who plagiarize as students and those who engage in professional misconduct. From this correlation, the author assumes that there is a causal connection, and from the assumption of a causal relationship, the author concludes that reducing plagiarism will reduce professional misconduct. However, there is no indication in the stimulus that there is a causal relationship between student plagiarism and professional misconduct.
14.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ █ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ █████████
a
The argument relies ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██████████
The accuracy of the survey data about plagiarism isn’t relevant to the argument. The support for the argument actually comes from the correlation found by the researchers, and there is no reason to doubt the researchers’ findings.
b
The argument introduces ███ ███████ ███ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ████████ ████████ ██ █ █████████ ████████
This is descriptively inaccurate. The subject of the premises aligns with the subject of the conclusion.
c
The argument presumes, ███████ █████████ ██████████████ ████ █ ███████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ████████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ █ ███████ █████ ███████████
The argument doesn’t assume that student plagiarism is the only factor that contributes to subsequent professional misconduct. The argument doesn’t say that there is no other cause for professional misconduct.
d
The argument takes ███ ███████ ████ █ ███████ ████████ ██ ████ █████████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ██ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ████████
This isn’t an assumption made by the argument. The only behavior discussed is plagiarism. The argument does not make any comparisons about the prevalence of such behavior across populations. The prevalence of plagiarism is identified for only one population: undergraduates.
e
The argument infers ███ █████████ ██ █ ██████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ██ ████████████
From the premises, we only know that plagiarism is correlated with later professional misconduct; the argument assumes a causal relationship from this correlation, then uses this assumed causal relationship to conclude that a reduction in plagiarism will reduce professional misconduct.