Self-paced
Journalist: Support A manufacturers' trade group that has long kept its membership list secret inadvertently sent me a document listing hundreds of manufacturing companies. █ ██████████████ ██ ███ █████ █████ █████ █████████ ████ █████ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ███████ █████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ██ █████████ ███ █ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that Bruch Industries isn’t a member of the trade group. This is based on the fact that every company listed in a particular document belongs to the trade group, and Bruch Industries isn’t listed in that document.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author confuses a sufficient condition for being in the trade group with a necessary condition. Being on the list is sufficient to know that a company is in the trade group, because every company listed is a member of the trade group. But that doesn’t mean being on the list is required to be a member. It’s possible for a company to be a member even if it’s not on the list. In other words, “Every company on the list is in the group” does not imply “every company in the group is on the list.”
4.
The journalist's reasoning in the ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ██████████
a
gives no reason ██ █████ ████ █████ ██████████ █████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ █████ █████
Bruch’s desires are irrelevant to the argument. The argument concerns whether the company is a member of the trade group, not whether it wants to be.
b
does not present ███ ████████ ████ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ █████
The author fails to show that the document lists all of the members of the group. That’s why not being listed in the document doesn’t imply lack of membership in the group.
c
does not explain ███ ██ ██ ████ ███ █████ █████ █████ ████ █████████████ ████ ███ █ ██████ ████████
It doesn’t matter how the author got the secret document. We know the document exists and the trade group confirmed that everyone on the list is a member of the group.
d
presents no reason ███ █████ ██████████ █████ ███ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ██ ██ █████
Brush’s desires are irrelevant to the argument. The argument concerns whether Brush is a member of the group, not whether it would want its membership to be known.
e
takes for granted ███ ████████ ██ █ █████████ ██ █ ██████████████ ███ ███ █ ██████ ██ ████████ ███████████
The representative confirmed that every company listed in the document is a member of the group. The reasoning isn’t flawed because the author accepts the representative’s confirmation. We have no reason to think this confirmation is inaccurate.