Strengthen Question - General Clarification

[pacer]

I want to clarify something else regarding strengthen questions.

I am going to use this hypothetical example:

A company hires graduates from university and college programs. The company conducted a comprehensive study to evaluate performance of its employees. The study's results showed that university graduates performed better than college graduates. Thus, it is clear that success in the workplace is a consequence of one's educational institution.

I know that one way to strengthen such an argument is to bolster the reliability of data presented by the author to back up his/her conclusion. I suppose that I could do this by adding more information about another study that showed similar results, supporting that the data can be replicated.

However, can an answer choice that further mentions information on a study's methodology be correct for a strengthen question? For example, if the answer choice states that the study mentioned used multiple methods of reporting performance (manager's account of the employees work, employees self report, co-worker evaluations etc). I think that would show that the study done was not flawed but I am confused on whether such a statement can be used to strengthen an argument since it does not fall under one of the common types of correct answers for this question type. Would his be a way to test the truth of the data and not the validity?

Thanks!

[David Boyle]

I want to clarify something else regarding strengthen questions.

I am going to use this hypothetical example:

A company hires graduates from university and college programs. The company conducted a comprehensive study to evaluate performance of its employees. The study's results showed that university graduates performed better than college graduates. Thus, it is clear that success in the workplace is a consequence of one's educational institution.

I know that one way to strengthen such an argument is to bolster the reliability of data presented by the author to back up his/her conclusion. I suppose that I could do this by adding more information about another study that showed similar results, supporting that the data can be replicated.

However, can an answer choice that further mentions information on a study's methodology be correct for a strengthen question? For example, if the answer choice states that the study mentioned used multiple methods of reporting performance (manager's account of the employees work, employees self report, co-worker evaluations etc). I think that would show that the study done was not flawed but I am confused on whether such a statement can be used to strengthen an argument since it does not fall under one of the common types of correct answers for this question type. Would his be a way to test the truth of the data and not the validity?

Thanks!

Hello pacer,

Another interesting question. --It sounds like it could be a valid strengthening response, since, as you seem to imply, a variety of performance-reporting methods could be a good thing, e.g., it's not just relying on one method, so there is a broader mix, etc.
When you say "Would [t]his be a way to test the truth of the data and not the validity?", I'm not sure what you mean, though. Feel free to let me know.

Hope this helps,
David

[pacer]

Thanks David!

Given that the stimulus already mentioned "comprehensive study", I was wondering if mentioning any further details about the study conducted could strengthen the argument. Could it be considered as a descriptive statement about something that is already mentioned in the stimulus?

[Jon Denning]

Hey pacer,

I'm going to jump in and answer that follow-up. What's great (and interesting) about Strengthen and Weaken questions and their answers is that pretty much anything that makes the conclusion more or less believable, respectively, works! So in the example you give yes that could totally strengthen the argument! Essentially anything that would provide more evidence to support the validity of the study, support the validity of the results, or support any other related idea central to the conclusion would make that conclusion more likely to be correct, and thus would strengthen the argument.

This is also why some people find Strengthen questions difficult: the "help" doesn't have to be all that strong! People want info that confirms conclusions, and while there's a question type for just that (Justify), Strengthen answers don't need to go that far. Any help is sufficient to qualify as "strengthen."

I hope that clarifies things a bit!

Jon