Self-study
Support In the previous two years, significantly more rain has fallen in Browning in September than in July. ██████████ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ████████ ████ ██ █████████ ████ ██ █████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that it is likely that more rain will fall in September than in July in Browning. As support, the author says that in the previous two years, more rain fell in September than in July in Browning.
Identify and Describe Flaw
In this argument, the author draws a conclusion from too little evidence. The author only cites weather patterns from the past two years; this is very limited information and not enough data to make a prediction about future weather patterns.
1.
The reasoning in the argument ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████
a
contains a premise ████ ███████████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ██████████
(A) describes circular reasoning, which does not occur in this argument. While the premise only provides weak support for the conclusion, the premise and the conclusion do make two distinct claims, and this argument does not commit the flaw of circular reasoning.
b
draws an inference █████ █ ██████ █████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █ ████ ███████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████
This is the flaw. The argument uses a very limited number of related past events (data from just two years) to make an inference about how things will occur in the future.
c
overemphasizes the possibility ████ ███████ ████████ ██████████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ████
This is descriptively inaccurate. The argument doesn’t overemphasize this possibility; the argument doesn’t even mention this possibility.
d
concludes that two █████████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ████ █████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███ ███████
This is descriptively inaccurate. The argument does not cite many instances of anything.
e
uses evidence drawn ████ █ ██████ █████ ███████████ ██████ ███████ ██ ████████
This is descriptively inaccurate. We don’t know the source of the information used in the argument, so there is no reason given to doubt the source.