Menkin: If your principle is correct, then, contrary to what you claim, employee strikes should almost never be legally permitted.
Speaker 1 Summary
Hendry concludes that strikes by university faculty should not be permitted. This is because strikes by employees shouldn’t be permitted if they harm the employer’s customers, faculty strikes harm a university’s students. Hendry also acknowledges that most employee strikes should be legally permitted.
Speaker 2 Summary
Menkin says that if Hendry’s principle (strikes aren’t permitted if they harm the employer’s customers) is true, employee strikes should almost never be legally permitted.
Objective
We’re looking for a point of disagreement. They disagree about whether most employee strikes harm the employer’s customers. We can infer that Hendry believes most do not, because he believes most strikes should be permitted. Menkin believes most strikes do hurt the customers, because he believes most strikes shouldn’t be permitted if we accept Hendry’s principle.
A
a university’s students should be considered customers of the university
Menkin doesn’t express an opinion. He doesn’t say anything concerning strikes by university faculty.
B
most employee strikes would harm the employer’s customers
This is a point of disagreement. Hendry believes most employee strikes would harm the employer’s customers. Menkin believes most would not.
C
strikes by university faculty should be legally permitted
Menkin doesn’t express an opinion. He doesn’t say anything concerning strikes by university faculty.
D
most employee strikes should be legally permitted
Menkin doesn’t express an opinion. His comment about how employee strikes should almost never be permitted is conditioned on Hendry’s principle being correct. But if Hendry’s principle is not correct, Menkin doesn’t necessarily have a view about what should be permitted.
E
faculty strikes harm a university’s students
Menkin doesn’t express an opinion. He doesn’t say anything concerning strikes by university faculty.
Summarize Argument: Causal Explanation
The author concludes that newspapers are making a bad decision by cutting back on book reviews. The move will decrease readership by annoying regular readers while appealing to an audience who are more likely to watch TV than read newspapers.
Identify Conclusion
The conclusion is about whether newspapers’ decision to cut back on book reviews is wise: “Such a move is ill-advised.”
A
The newspapers should not have cut back on book reviews.
Newspapers are trying to increase readership by cutting back on book reviews, but the move will actually decrease readership. So, newspapers shouldn’t have cut back on book reviews.
B
Many newspapers have cut back on book reviews, replacing them with other features.
This is context about what newspapers have done. The author takes an opinion on whether or not this was a wise decision.
C
Focus group research concluded that features other than book reviews were of greater interest to potential readers.
The author takes no stance on whether or not this is true. Instead, she simply states that the decision to cut back on book reviews won’t have the desired effect.
D
The move to replace book reviews with other features was meant to increase readership, but it actually decreases it.
This is support for the conclusion. The move to cut back on book reviews was ill-advised because it will decrease rather than increase readership.
E
The move to replace book reviews with other features alienates loyal readers and caters to casual readers.
This supports the conclusion that the move to cut back on book reviews was ill-advised. By annoying loyal readers and catering to casual ones who’d rather watch TV, newspapers decrease their readership.