Self-study
Despite the efforts of a small minority of graduate students at one university to unionize, Support the majority of graduate students there remain unaware of the attempt. ████ ██ █████ ███ ███ █████ ███████ ████ █ █████ █████ ███ █████████ █████ █████████ ██ █████ ██ ██ ████ ██ █████ ███ ███████████ ██████ █████ █████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██████ ███ █████████ █████ ███ ████████ ██ ████ █████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that the students shouldn’t unionize. He supports this with the following premises:
(1) A small group tried to unionize, but the majority of the students are unaware of this attempt.
(2) Of those who are aware, most believe that a union would not represent or pursue their interests well.
(3) So, the majority of the students disapprove of the union effort.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author concludes that most students disapprove of the union effort but his premises state that most students are unaware of it. So, he confuses a lack of awareness with active disapproval. Most students who are aware of the effort do seem to disapprove of it, but these students are not the majority.
In other words, it’s possible that only 10% are aware of the effort and disapprove, while 90% (the majority) are simply unaware and may or may not approve.
18.
The reasoning in the argument ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████
a
tries to establish █ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ████ █ █████████████ ████████
The author’s conclusion is based on the mistaken assumption that the majority of the students disapprove of the union effort. It’s not based on the premise that unionization agrees with a long-standing practice.
b
fails to exclude ███████████ ████████████ ███ ███ ████ ████████ ████████ ██████████ ██ ██████████
The author is just arguing that because students disapprove of unionizing, they shouldn’t unionize. He doesn’t need to address all possible explanations for why the students might disapprove of unionizing.
c
presumes that simply ███████ █ ████████ ██ █ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████ ███ ██ █ ████ ████
Instead, the author assumes that simply because a majority of the students are unaware of the unionizing attempt, those students must also disapprove of the attempt.
d
ignores the possibility ████ ████████ █ █████ █████ ███ ███████████ ██████ ████████ ███████ ██████████ █████ ███ █████ ███████ ███ ██████████
The author concludes that the students shouldn’t unionize because most students disapprove of unionizing. It doesn’t matter whether there are other reasons for unionizing.
e
blurs the distinction ███████ ██████ ███████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ████████
The author assumes that the majority of students actively disapprove of the union effort simply because the majority of students are unaware of it. But just because these students merely lack approval for the effort doesn’t mean that they disapprove.