Self-study
Support Last year the Lalolah River was ranked by the Sunvale Water Commission as the most polluted of the fifteen rivers in the Sunvale Water District. ████████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██ ████████ ███████ █████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ███ █████ ████ ████████ █████ ██ ███ █████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that the efforts to clean the Lalolah River are working. He supports this by saying that the river was ranked the third most polluted this year, while it was ranked the most polluted last year.
Identify and Describe Flaw
This is the flaw of confusing relative and absolute change. The author shows that the Lalolah River is less polluted this year than the top two most polluted rivers, and then assumes that it’s cleaner than it was last year. But just because the Lalolah River is less polluted than other rivers doesn’t mean that it’s actually gotten less polluted.
The other rivers might have just gotten much dirtier, while the Lalolah River stayed the same. If so, the author can’t conclude that the cleanup efforts are working.
11.
The reasoning in the argument ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████
a
interprets lack of ████████ ███ █ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ██ ████████ █████
This is the cookie-cutter flaw of assuming that an opponent’s conclusion is false, simply because their argument lacks evidence. The author doesn’t make this mistake; he isn’t countering someone else’s position or supporting an opposing claim at all.
b
relies on an █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████ █████████
This is the cookie-cutter flaw of equivocation, where the argument uses the same term in different ways. The author doesn’t make this mistake. He may not explain the exact meaning of “most polluted,” but he does use the term clearly and consistently throughout his argument.
c
does not disclose ███ █████ ███ ███ ███████ ████
The author doesn’t need to explain how the pollution rankings are determined. Even if he did, his argument would still be flawed because he confuses the river being cleaner than other rivers with it being cleaner overall.
d
confuses the state ██ ███ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ██ █ █████
The author never makes any claims about the state of the water district as a whole. Instead, he confuses the state of the Lalolah River compared to other rivers with the state of the Lalolah River this year compared to last year.
e
equates a decrease ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ██████ ████ ██ ████████ ████████
Just because the Lalolah River is less polluted than two other rivers does not mean that it’s less polluted than it was last year. Maybe the other rivers just got dirtier.