Which terms to use when diagramming

[ScholesFan]

Hi PowerScore,

I'm not entirely sure how to phrase this question, but hopefully it'll end up making sense.

I'm really digging into conditional reasoning (currently using your Logical Reasoning Bible), and even though I'll often come up with the correct answer, I tend to use different terms in my diagrams than I find in the explanations. For example...

On page 141 of the 2012 edition, there's a conditional reasoning practice question about the angle of the Earth's orbit. I won't reprint the whole question here, but the book diagrams the stimulus as follows:

AS = angle stable
GI = gravitational influence of Earth's large, nearby Moon
PCE = planet's climate too extreme and unstable to support life

AS —> GI
~PCE —> AS
Chain Inference: ~PCE —> AS —> GI

I diagrammed it this way:

S = stable
M = Moon
L = life

S —> M
~S —> ~L
Chain Inference: ~M —> ~S —> ~L

When I read the explanation, I was glad to have gotten the answer correct, but I guess I'm concerned that I'm not picking the correct terms out of the stimulus to use in my diagrams.

I guess my question is this: How do I know which components of a given conditional sentence to use in my diagrams. Also, and maybe this is more important, how much does it matter if I don't seem to use the exact same terms that I'm finding in the explanations?

I hope that made sense! Thanks for all you do, PowerScore!

ScholesFan

[Adam Tyson]

The way you handled this one was perfect, ScholesFan! You definitely do not have to worry about using the exact same terms that we do, as long as you are hitting the right concepts. If by "life" you meant something like "the climate is capable of supporting life/is not too extreme", than you're right on the money! I like that you are keeping it clean and simple. We expect a lot of variation in the shorthand that students will use when distilling these complex stimuli down to simple diagrams, and you should never be worried about matching exactly the choices we make in our explanations as long as you have the right general idea and it leads you to the correct answer for the right reason.

Well done!

[ScholesFan]

Awesome! Thanks very much, Adam!