Self-study
Store owner: Support My customers are not worried about crime in this neighborhood; Support every day I talk to people who shop at my store, and they tell me that they are not worried. ██ █████ ██ ███ █████████ █████████ ██ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ██ ██████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that crime isn’t adversely affecting his business by reducing the number of people willing to shop at his store. He supports this main conclusion with the subsidiary conclusion that his customers aren’t worried about crime in the neighborhood. This sub-conclusion is supported by the fact that people he talks to in his store say that they’re not worried about crime.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author overlooks the fact that the people in his store who aren’t worried about crime might not be representative of the people who might want to shop at the store. Other people who aren’t shopping at the store might be worried about crime.
19.
The reasoning in the store ███████ ████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████
a
infers that something ██ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ████ █ █████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ███ █████ ███ ████
The conclusion is not based on a claim that there’s only a small amount of evidence that crime is reducing the number of people willing to shop at the store. The conclusion is based on the conversations the author has had with people who say they aren’t worried about crime.
b
appeals to personal ███████ ██ █████████ █ ███████ █████
There’s nothing flawed about relying on what people say about their fear of crime to establish whether those people are afraid of crime. This isn’t a case of using personal opinion inappropriately to establish a factual matter.
c
generalizes about the █████ ████████████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████
The conclusion is just about the author’s store. It’s not about the whole neighborhood.
d
draws a conclusion ██ ███ █████ ██ █ ██████ ██████
The conclusion is based on the sample of people who shop at his store. They are not necessarily representative of people generally. People who aren’t shopping at the store might be too afraid to shop there, whereas the people who do shop there are the ones who aren’t afraid.
e
fails to consider ████ █████ █████ ██████ ███ ████████████ ██████████ ███████ █████████ ██████████ ██████████
The conclusion is just about whether crime is reducing the number of people shopping at the store. Whether the neighborhood is affected in other weighs is irrelevant.