Self-study
Letter to the editor: Your newspaper's advertisement claims that you provide coverage of the high school's most popular sports. ███████ ████ ██ █████ ████████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ █████ █████ ████ █ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ███████████ ██████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████ ████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████████ ████ █████████ █████████
Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The author concludes that the newspaper does not provide coverage of the high school’s most popular sports. This is based on the fact that track gets no coverage, while basketball gets full-page coverage. In addition, 15% of the school’s students compete on the track team, while only 5% compete on the basketball team. The author takes this to imply that track is far more popular than basketball.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author interpret’s the newspaper’s claim of providing coverage of the most “popular” sports as a reference to the most-participated in sports. But “popular,” as the newspaper used it, means of high interest to the public or to the school’s students, or to the newspaper’s readers.
6.
The reasoning in the letter ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██
a
infers a cause ████ █ ████ ███████████
The author does not conclude or assume a causal relationship. The argument concerns whether the school covers the most “popular” sports, not about cause and effect.
b
bases its conclusion ██ █ ██████ ████ ██ ███ █████
The argument doesn’t generalize from a sample. The citation to track and basketball statistics are intended to show that basketball is more popular than track. Also, we have no indication that the number of track participants or basketball participants are too small.
c
misinterprets a key ████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████████████
The author misinterprets the word “popular.” The author thinks it refers to the most-participated in sports, but it actually refers to popularity as in the level of interest.
d
employs as a ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████ ██ ████
(D) describes circular reasoning. The conclusion — that the newspapers does not cover the most popular sports — does not restate a premise.
e
criticizes the source ██ █ █████ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ██████
The author doesn’t criticize the newspaper as part of proving that the newspaper’s claim is false.