Self-study
Politicians often advocate increased overall economic productivity while ignoring its drawbacks. ███ ████████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███ ████████████ ██ █ ███████████ █████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████████████ █████ █████████ █████ ██ █ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██ ████ ████████████ █████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ████████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █ █████ ███ ███████ ████████ ███████ ███ ████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that increasing productivity in the economy as a whole may help business owners, but it will increase unemployment. She supports this by saying that increasing productivity in a corporation means increasing profit, which often means reducing the number of employees in that corporation.
Identify and Describe Flaw
This is the cookie-cutter part to whole flaw, where the argument assumes that what is true of a part of something is also true about the whole. Here, the author assumes that increasing productivity in the whole economy will lead to more unemployment, simply because increasing productivity in a single corporation can reduce the number of employees there.
7.
The reasoning in the argument ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████
a
presumes, without providing ██████████████ ████ █████████ ████████████ ██ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███████ █████████ ████████████ ██ ██ ████████ ████
The author never claims that politicians should abandon the goal of increased economic productivity. She just notes that they often overlook the drawbacks of this goal.
b
fails to justify ███ ███████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ████████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █ █████ █████ ███████ ███████ ███████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████████ ████████████ ██ █ ██████ ███████████
The author assumes that what is true of a single corporation is also true of the economy as a whole. Just because increasing productivity in a corporation may reduce employees doesn’t mean that increasing productivity in the economy will increase unemployment.
c
unfairly criticizes politicians ██ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █ ███ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ ███ █████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████████ ████████████
The author doesn’t generalize about all politicians based on the actions of a few. She just notes that politicians often advocate for increased economic productivity while ignoring its drawbacks. This also seems to be a factual, contextual statement, not an unfair criticism.
d
fails to justify ███ ███████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ████████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █ █████ ██ ██████ ████ █████████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ ████████ ██████
The author never assumes that increased economic productivity is always more important than the interests of workers or business owners. She points to unemployment as a drawback of increased productivity, but she never makes any claims about which one is more important.
e
fails to address ███ █████████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████████ ████████████ ██ █ ██████ ███████████
The author’s argument is vulnerable because she assumes that a drawback of increasing productivity at a single corporation also applies to increasing productivity in the economy as a whole, not because she doesn’t address all potential drawbacks and benefits.