Self-study
Hana said she was not going to invite her brothers to her birthday party. ████████ █████ ███ █████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ███ █ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ █████████ █████ ███ ████████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ██████ ████████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ████████ █████ █████ ████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that some of Hana’s brothers must have been at her birthday party. The author reaches this conclusion based on the fact Hana received a gift that the brothers had planned to give her.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The problem with this argument is that it ignores the possibility that someone other than her brothers could have gifted her the recording. It establishes that her brothers had planned to get her this gift, but there’s no reason to believe that other people could not have also planned on giving her the same thing. In other words, there are other potential explanations for how Hana could have received the gift besides her brothers being in attendance at the party.
6.
A reasoning error in the ████████ ██ ████ ███ ████████
a
disregards the possibility ████ █ ██████ ██ ████ █████ ██ █████████ ██ █ ██████ ██ █████████████
This is irrelevant. Whether or not anyone was justified in changing their mind has no bearing on the question of whether Hana’s brothers were at the party or not.
b
treats the fact ██ █████████ ████████ ██ █ █████ █████ ██ █ █████████ ████ ████ ██████ ███ █ ██████████ ██████ ██ ██ ██ ████ █████
The argument doesn’t claim that the brothers had a legitimate reason to be at the party. The conclusion is simply that they were there.
c
uses a term ████ ██ █████████████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████████
This describes a different kind of flaw. An evaluative term would be something like “great” or “awful” or some other subjective term reflecting an opinion—the argument doesn’t use any such term.
d
fails to establish ████ █████████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ████ █████ ██████
This describes how the argument doesn’t consider that someone else could have given her the same gift that her brothers had planned to give her. What was true of her brothers could have also been true of other guests.
e
overlooks the possibility ████ █ ████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ █████ ██ ██████████ ████ ████ ████████ ████████ ██ █ █████████ ████ ██ █████
This is irrelevant. Whether or not Hana was also interested in other gifts has nothing to do with establishing whether or not her brothers were at the party or whether someone else could have given her the gift.