#6 - Three major laundry detergent manufacturers have

[gmsanch3]

Hello, this question is for the Laundy detergent question “Three major laundry detergent manufacturers have concentrated their powered detergents...”

I was down to answers A and E but chose A because I thought it best supported the conclusion that old style detergents would disappear since smaller manufacturers wouldn’t be able to afford retooling their factories to keep up with the new smaller packaging. The only reason I can see as to why A is wrong now is because it says “most SMALL manufacturer...” so I’m thinking this wouldn’t cause “virtually ALL old-style bulky detergents to disappear,” just the ones from most small manufacturers. So if A said “almost ALL other manufacturers would consider it too expensive to retool” would that have made it a strengthener?

[Jeremy Press]

Hi gm,

You're doing something that you should try at all costs to avoid on Strengthen and Weaken (and all other Family 2 and 3 questions): you're making an extra assumption that smaller manufacturers will go out of business because they don't switch to concentrated detergents. But there's nothing in answer choice A that says that they will go out of business, and that inference is not a necessary implication of what answer choice A says. All answer choice A says is that the smaller manufacturers are, for the most part, not going to switch over to the smaller packages. What if it turns out that some consumers like the smaller manufacturers enough to stay with them in spite of the bulky packaging (a fact we cannot know or assume from what we've been given)? Then the conclusion is weakened, because the old-style bulky detergents will not eventually disappear. In fact, if all I know is what answer choice A says, then it actually weakens the conclusion, because it says that not everyone is going to switch over.

Long story short: be careful not to "read more" into an answer choice than what it explicitly says.

I hope this helps!

[gmsanch3]

Wow! Will do! Thank you so much for that response. I am now wondering how often I am doing this and will now be much more aware! Thank you!!!!!