Self-study
Support The people most likely to watch a televised debate between political candidates are the most committed members of the electorate and thus the most likely to have already made up their minds about whom to support. ████████████ █████████ █ ███████ ███████████ ███████ ███ █████████ █████████ █████ ███ ███ ███ ███████ ██████ ███████ █ █████████ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ █████ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ █████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that winning a televised debate doesn’t significantly boost a politician’s chances of winning an election. He supports this by saying that the viewers most likely to watch a debate are the most committed voters who have likely already decided who to support. Additionally, undecided viewers are usually unsure about who won the debate.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author suggests that because a televised debate is unlikely to influence viewers, it’s unlikely to influence the election outcome at all. He fails to consider how televised debates might impact non-viewers, perhaps through hearing about the debate from friends or reading about it in the news.
20.
The reasoning in the argument ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ███████ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████████ ████
a
watching an exciting ██████ █████ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ██ ████████
We don't know if the debate is exciting. Also, the people most likely to watch it are already committed voters. But even if it is exciting and causes more people to vote, (A) doesn't address the conclusion that winning it doesn't improve one’s chances of winning the election.
b
the voting behavior ██ ██████ ███ ██ ███ █████ █ █████████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ █████ ███ ██████
The author only addresses how televised debates affect viewers, saying that many are already committed to one candidate and the rest are unsure who won. But he fails to address how televised debates affect non-viewers. Their votes might be influenced by reports about the debate.
c
there are differences ██ ███████ █████ ████ ███████████ ███████ ██ ██████ █ ██████
The premises state that many viewers are already committed to one candidate or another; it makes sense that they’d be likely to disagree about who won the debate. But this doesn’t affect the conclusion that winning doesn’t impact one’s chance of winning the election.
d
people's voting behavior ███ ██ ██████████ ██ █████████████ ████ ██ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██ █ █████████ ██████
Whether voting behavior is influenced in “unpredictable ways” by a debate doesn’t affect the conclusion that winning a debate doesn’t impact one’s chances of winning the election. Are these “unpredictable ways” positive or negative for the winner? We just don’t know.
e
people who are █████████ ██ █ ██████████ █████████ ████ ████ ████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ █████████ ██ ██████ ████ █ █████████ ██████
The author doesn’t fail to consider this. He explicitly says that, because many viewers are committed to a particular candidate, winning or not winning a debate doesn’t affect one’s chance of winning an election.