Self-study
Career consultant: The most popular career advice suggests emphasizing one's strengths to employers and downplaying one's weaknesses. ████████ █████ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ██████████ █ █████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ███ ████████████████ █████ ██ █████ ██ █████ █████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ ████████████ ███████████ ███ █████████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that emphasizing one’s strengths to employers and downplaying one’s weaknesses is not good career advice. This is based on research showing that managers who used self-deprecating humor in front of their employees were more likely to be seen as having certain positive qualities than managers who did not use self-deprecating humor.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author’s evidence concerns how managers are perceived by employees. But the author’s conclusion concerns how employees will be perceived by their employers. The author hasn’t shown that how managers are perceived by their employees is relevant to how employees will be perceived by their managers/employers.
11.
The career consultant's reasoning is ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ██
a
bases a conclusion █████ ███ ███ █████ ████ ███████ ██ ████████████████ ██ ███████████ █████ ███ █ █████████ █████ ████████ ██ ██
The author’s conclusion is about how one group will respond to self-deprecation (how employers will respond to employees). But the evidence is based on how a different group responds (how employees respond to managers).
b
ignores the possibility ████ ████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████████████ █████ ███ ███ ████████████████ ███ ███ ███ █████
This possibility wouldn’t hurt the argument, because the author is assuming that the self-deprecation caused managers to be viewed positively.
c
ignores the possibility ████ ████████████████████ █████ █████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ██████████ ████ ████████████████ █████
The author never assumes that self-deprecating humor is more effective than non-self-deprecating humor. As long as self-deprecation can help one be perceived more positively, the author’s argument can still work.
d
infers from the ████ ████ ████████████████ █████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ████ ███████████ ████████████████ █████ ███ ██ ██████ ██████████
The author never assumes that nonhumorous self-deprecation wouldn’t be viewed positively. In fact, the author assumes that the self-deprecatory aspect of the managers’ behavior helps contribute to positive responses.
e
bases a conclusion █████ ███████ ███████ ██████ ██████ ██ █ ████████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ██ ████ ██████
There’s nothing wrong with critiquing one part of advice, even if there are multiple parts. In addition, we can reasonably read the author’s critique as applying to both the “emphasizing one’s strengths” part and the “downplaying one’s weaknesses” part.