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 brittany1990
  • Posts: 21
  • Joined: Jul 11, 2012
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#5981
Hi!

I wasn't sure how to diagram the conditional reasoning for this question so if you could check below to see if it's right that would be great!

P: not increase enrollment :arrow: reduce spending
P: increase enrollment :arrow: marketing
C: maintain quality :arrow: marketing


Also, I realized that I needed to connect reduce spending and maintain quality so I picked D. However, I'm not really sure how this answer choice would fit into the conditional reasoning I diagrammed above.

Thanks!
Brittany
 Nikki Siclunov
PowerScore Staff
  • PowerScore Staff
  • Posts: 1362
  • Joined: Aug 02, 2011
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#5996
Hi Brittany,

Your analysis of the conditional reasoning in this argument is correct. The structure is as follows:

Premise: NOT increase enrollment :arrow: reduce spending
Premise: Increase enrollment :arrow: marketing

Conclusion: maintain quality :arrow: marketing

To figure out the exact nature of the conditional connection required, connect the premises as follows:

Premise 1+2: NOT reduce spending :arrow: increase enrollment :arrow: marketing

To justify the conclusion (maintain quality :arrow: marketing) we need to connect the rogue element ("maintain quality") to either of the two conditions for which "marketing" is a necessary condition. Thus, we should be looking for one of the following two statements:

maintain quality :arrow: NOT reduce spending
maintain quality :arrow: increase enrollment

Either of these statements (or their contrapositives) would justify the conclusion, proving that answer choice (D) is correct:

maintain quality :arrow: NOT reduce spending :arrow: increase enrollment :arrow: marketing



Let me know if you have any questions!
 Jon Denning
PowerScore Staff
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  • Joined: Apr 11, 2011
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#5998
Hey Brittany - I see Nikki responded as well, but since I already wrote up an answer here I figured I'd post mine too :)

Tricky Justify question here. First off, congrats on the diagrams--they all look correct to me. The trick then becomes how to use an answer to prove that maintaining quality requires they market more aggressively.

Let's look at D and combine it with the premises to see how they're all connected. D says essentially Reduce Spending --> NOT Maintain Quality. Contrapositive: Maintain Quality --> NOT Reduce Spending

Look at how that connects to the contrapositive of your first premise (Not reduce spending --> Increase enrollment):

Maintain Quality --> NOT Reduce Spending --> Increase Enrollment

Which of course connects to your second premise (Increase enrollment --> Marketing):

Maintain Quality --> NOT Reduce Spending --> Increase Enrollment --> Marketing

Looking at the chain above, what we've just done is prove the connection between quality and marketing, where Maintain Quality --> Marketing. That's the conclusion, so D justifies it.

Two more things about this one I found interesting. One, we see a new term in the conclusion--maintain quality of education--which means that term MUST also be in the correct answer choice. Sure enough, D has that same idea (looks negated, but it's just from the contrapositive construction).

Secondly, this structure isn't all that uncommon for justify. Consider this generic, simplified example:

Prem 1: A --> B
Conclusion: A --> C

How can I prove that? Add B --> C as another premise to get A --> B --> C, which proves the conclusion A --> C.

Again, simplified, but the conditional linkage idea is more or less the same as this stimulus.

Hope that helps!

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