Assumption Negation Technique

[Zarie Blackburn]

We recently received the following question from a student. An instructor will respond below. Thanks!

I have a question about how to attack the answer choices.

For Lesson 5 on Assumption questions the "Assumption Negation Technique" has helped me fly by the answer choices with confidence on if something is negated and causes a problem in the argument it is the correct answer. I have similarly seen that using that technique or "justify the conclusion" questions types if i also negate the answer choices and it causes a problem in the argument it generally appears to be the correct answer choice.

In lesson 5 it states the "Assumption Negation Technique" is to only be used for Assumption question types, therefore I was wondering if I should stop approaching the Justify answer choices the same and if this is the wrong method to attack the answer choices.. looking forward to your response,

[Dave Killoran]

Hi,

Thanks for the question! The problem here isn't that the technique won't ever work on Justify questions (because it will sometimes), it's that it won't work every time. And because it would be basically impossible for you to know when it won't work on Justify questions, we can't recommend that you use it as a consistent part of your arsenal.

The issue is that correct Justify answers are allowed to contain extraneous information that when negated won't have an effect on the argument. That could lead you into a misleading situation where you've negated a correct answer and it doesn't appears to cause the issues you expect.

I hope that helps. Thanks!