Self-study
In 1992, a major newspaper circulated throughout North America paid its reporters an average salary that was much lower than the average salary paid by its principal competitors to their reporters. ██ █████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████ ████ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████ █████ ███ █████████ ████ █████ █████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ ██ █████ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ████ ███████ ███████ █████ ████████████
Summarize Argument
The newspaper executive concludes that the newspaper is justified in paying its reporters a far-below-average salary. Why? Because the lower pay is compensated by the training the reporters get on the job.
Notable Assumptions
The executive assumes that the training reporters receive while working for the newspaper in question is substantially higher in quality than the training they would receive at a higher-paying competitor. Otherwise, the training couldn’t justify the low salary.
The executive also assumes that the newspaper’s reporters are generally inexperienced enough to benefit from additional training, or that their pay increases after they gain experience.
17.
Which one of the following, ██ ████ █████ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ████ █████████ ██████████ ███ █████████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████
a
Senior reporters at ███ █████████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ███ ██████ ███ ███ ███████████ █████████ ████████████
This does not weaken the argument. If anything, it strengthens by affirming the executive’s assumption that the pay shortfall is limited to reporters who benefit from additional training.
b
Most of the ███████████ █████████ ███ ██████ █████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ██████
This weakens the argument by indicating that most of the newspaper’s reporters do not benefit from additional training. That would mean they just get paid less without receiving any benefit in return—in other words, the pay gap would not be justified.
c
The circulation of ███ █████████ ███ ████████ ███████ █ ████████ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████ ██████████ ███ ██████
This does not weaken the argument. The circulation of the newspaper has nothing to do with whether or not the newspaper is justified in paying reporters less. Like (E), this claim is just irrelevant.
d
The union that ███████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████████ ███ █████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ███████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████████████
This does not weaken the argument. Having a different union has no bearing on whether the pay difference is justified: maybe the union is weak and failed to negotiate a good deal, or maybe getting more training is actually a great bargain for reporters. We just don’t know.
e
The newspaper was ██████ ████ ██████████ ███████████ ██████ ███ █████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ████████
This does not weaken the argument—like (C), it’s just irrelevant. Where the newspapers readers are located has nothing to do with the executive’s argument about lower pay for reporters being justified.