Assumption Question Answer Choices:negating the statements

[cpando1995@gmail.com]

How do you negate a statement with multiple negations without getting the wrong opposite statement? I'm having trouble applying the Assumption Negation Technique

[Jonathan Evans]

Hi, cpando, excellent question, and you bring up a topic that many students find challenging in re the Assumption Negation test.

First, to review, before applying the Assumption Negation test, you need to eliminate the two or three answers that are clearly and transparently wrong for other reasons (shell game, outside the scope, LSAT writer inside joke, etc. etc.) .

Now with the two or three remaining answer choices, you can do the test to find the losers among your contenders and choose the credited response. Done correctly, the Assumption Negation test will lead you to the credited response every time.

The key is not to make the process overly complicated. Sometimes it's easy to negate an answer choice:

"Depression is not caused in some cases by an organic condition of the body" easily becomes "Depression IS caused in some cases by an organic condition of the body"

You either excise the "not" next to the primary verb or introduce the word "not" next to the primary verb.

Sometimes, as you have observed, negating an answer choice may be more challenging:

"Depression can have many causes, including actual conditions about which it is reasonable for anyone to be depressed."

You may ask, "so do I phrase it, 'Depression can NOT have many causes...'?" In these cases in which the sentence becomes unwieldy or you no longer can even ascertain what your negation means, stop. Make it easy on yourself. Just try saying it like this: "It is not true that depression can have many causes, including actual conditions about which it is reasonable for anyone to be depressed." Then ask yourself what that means in a nutshell: "Okay, so what if depression actually didn't have a lot of different causes? What if depression wasn't actually caused by stuff people would feel depressed about?" Would my conclusion still be plausible, or does this negated answer choice weaken my conclusion?

For "if-then" conditional statements, focus on the "then" part of the conditional (the necessary condition). Basically, to negate a statement like this, you need to think: "if the 'if' part is true, what if my 'then' part weren't always true?"

For instance, to negate:

"If the nursing profession solves the problems of low wages and high-stress working conditions, high quality health care will be maintained"

focus on the "then" clause, "high quality health care will be maintained."

Negate by saying to yourself: "If the nursing profession solves the problems of low wages and high-stress working conditions, high quality health care will NOT be maintained."

Does the conclusion still make sense? If not, you have your winner.

I hope this helps. Please follow up with further questions or comments.

[cpando1995@gmail.com]

Oh, I see; as long as the original meaning of the statement is kept, I could easily negate that statement by saying it isn't true. Thank you!