Any advice on Strengthens and Weaknesses of an argument?

Legallyblack-2

Hi everyone I have been struggling with finding the strengthens but mostly the weakness of an argument? Any tips on how to master it? Because I been practicing and practicing and still struggling with the section.

Andrew Estrella

Hi Briana,

Without more detail I can't speak to your specific situation, but here are some things that helped me. Generally speaking the strategy is first to identify unstated assumptions in the argument presented in the stimulus. Then, if the task is to weaken the argument, the correct answer choice will deny one of those assumptions. If the task is to strengthen the argument, the correct answer choice will grant one of those assumptions.

How do you practice? I recommend writing up an analysis of the argument in the stimulus, writing out the assumptions in the argument that you identify, writing out possible ways to strengthen/weaken the argument based on those assumptions, writing out an analysis of each answer choice, and then viewing the solution.

Kind of unrelated, but when starting out it can take a while to get comfortable with the idea that we are to assume the answer choices are true within the world of the question stimulus, no matter how outlandish or unreasonable they may seem in real life. All that matters is their logical consequences. Here's a dumb, but hopefully illustrative example:

Beatrice: Bertrand says that two times three is seven. However, two times three is not seven.

Which of the following if true, most supports Beatrice's argument?

(A) Yoda is pink. (B) Zero plus zero is zero (C) Shellfish are selfish (D) Two times three is 52,301

The answer is (D). It's an absurd statement in real life, but it's the only answer choice that supports Bertrand's argument if we pretend it's true in the world of the stimulus.