Weaken the Argument.

[ThomasFleetwood]

Hello!

Thank you for all you guys do! Quick question.

When a question asks you which "(if true) weakens the argument", am I to attack the premises over the conclusion?

Thank you so much!!!

[AthenaDalton]

Hi Thomas!

In a weaken question you're looking for an answer choice that makes the conclusion less likely to be true. This can involve attacking the premises or the conclusion -- there is no set formula that works every time.

For example, you can attack the premises by pointing out that the author was relying on incomplete information or bad data. You can also attack the premises by demonstrating that the author is trying to compare two things that are essentially different.

However, you can also weaken an argument by attacking its conclusion. A common scenario for a weaken question is when the author uses what's called a qualified conclusion. A qualified conclusion can look like making a very broad generalization based on a dataset that does not support such a broad conclusion.

Here's an example: In a recent experiment, scientists discovered that adding a special type of wax to the bottom of Olympic racers' skis improved their speed and agility by 10 percent. Therefore, adding wax to the bottom of all skis will improve skiers' speed and agility, whether the skiers are new to the slopes are or experienced skiers.

The qualifier in the conclusion is that skiers of all ability levels will benefit from this discovery, while the experiment only tested Olympic-level athletes. So you could attack this argument by pointing out that the conclusion is too broad.

I hope this helps!

Athena Dalton

[ThomasFleetwood]

Athena,

Thank you! After I went back and read my LR. Bible I found my answer. I have gone through at least 20 LR secetions over the last 2 weeks and am still making the same mistakes, namely, not reading close enough.

Thomas F