Conclusion types

[Gstudywithme]

Hello,

I understand that conclusions come in types, and that value judgment and assertion of fact are 2 of the possible types.

I have a really hard type trying to differentiate between these two and how I can use that to my advantage in trying to get the conclusion as fast as possible. Any advise will be helpful.

Thank you!

[Jeff Wren]

Hi G,

You are correct that conclusions can be stated either as facts or as opinions. Because of this, you don't use this distinction in trying to identify the conclusion of an argument.

Instead, what you want to do is try to understand the logic of the argument and how it flows. In other words, which statement is the point that the author is trying to prove (i.e. the conclusion) and which statement or statements offer support for that conclusion (i.e. the premises).

Fortunately, most of the arguments in the logical reasoning section have useful indicator words that help identify the parts of the argument. Be on the lookout for conclusion indicator words like "thus, therefore," etc.. Also be on the lookout for premise indicators like "because, since," etc..

Of course, not all of the arguments will have these indicators; sometimes you just have to reason it out.

There is a discussion of the parts of the argument (including lists of common premise and conclusion indicators) in lesson 1 of The PowerScore LSAT Course and in Chapter 2 of "The Logical Reasoning Bible."

Once you've correctly identified the conclusion, I suggest highlighting or underlining it and paying very careful attention to the exact wording in the conclusion, including whether it is stated as a fact or an opinion.

The conclusion is the most important part of the argument, so correctly identifying it is the first step in solving any LR problem with an argument.