Evaluating

Evaluation skills help you make good judgements on the reliability

of information and the soundness of arguments. They allow you to
reach conclusions and make decisions, while justifying them with
reasons. This process requires you to act like a judge, weighing all
of the information available and reaching a final conclusion.

What is evaluation?
When we evaluate information or a claim, we make judgements and
decisions. These are usually done in responses to some key
questions, such as:

• So what? What implications does this information or argument

have for my own thinking, or for the task I’m undertaking?
• What is the value or importance of this information? Is it
relevant for my purposes?
• Are the argument’s claims fully supported by the evidence?
• Now what? What additional information is required? What
claims need further investigation?

How do I evaluate arguments?

Recall that arguments are contentions with supporting reasons.
Arguments aim to support or challenge contentions, drawing on
evidence in order to do so.

To determine whether an argument is reasonable, you could ask a

few evaluative questions:

• Is the contention clearly stated? Does it make sense?

• Is reliable evidence provided for each reason?
• Do the reasons and evidence provided fully support the
contention? That is, is there a logical connection between the
reasons and the conclusion?
 • Are any objections to the contention clearly and convincingly
rebutted (or refuted) with evidence and logic?
• Is there evidence of any logical fallacies in the argument?

We are always making these judgements based on the information

available at the time. If more information becomes available, a good
critical thinker will be willing to re-evaluate their judgement based
on this new evidence.

Evaluating logical fallacies

Another aspect of evaluation is the consideration of an argument’s
logical structure. Logical fallacies are often used as a means to
misrepresent, distort or ignore the claims of an argument. Fallacies
are flawed patterns of reasoning that typically indicate a weak or
invalid argument. Understanding common logical fallacies can help
you identify poor arguments, as well as improve your own
argumentation skills. The following are some examples of fallacies
and an explanation as to why they represent poor reasoning.

Read the different types of fallacies for an explanation of what they

look like in an argument.

Ad hominem fallacies
Ad hominem fallacies are also called “attacking the person.” They
occur when someone insults the person making an argument,
instead of engaging with the argument itself.

E.g. “John is a stupid idiot. He doesn’t know anything about

scientific processes.”
The slippery slope fallacy
This form of reasoning claims that a series of events will occur as a
result of an initial event and that this will ultimately lead to a
disastrous outcome. It is a fallacy when justification is not provided
for each event along the causal path, but assumes it will necessarily
occur. Hence, it is argued that the first event should be prevented at
all costs to avoid the disastrous outcome.

E.g. “If you waste time in class then you won’t get your assignment
done. If you don’t get your assignment done then you will fail the
unit. If you fail the unit then you will be expelled from uni. If you get
expelled from uni then you won’t get a job. If you don’t get a job
then you’ll be homeless. If you’re homeless you’ll get into drugs. If
you get into drugs then you’ll be dead within a year. So you better
not waste time in class.”

The bandwagon fallacy

This fallacy claims that if that if many other people are already
doing (or believing) something, then this is a reason for you to do
(or believe) it, too. Just because lots of people are doing something
and believe it’s fine, doesn’t make it so. The popularity of a belief
isn’t evidence that it is true or reasonable for you.

E.g. Everyone who is popular has a Facebook, Twitter and

Instagram account so you should have them too.

The black and white fallacy

This is also called the false dichotomy, false dilemma and either/or
fallacy. This fallacy presents two options as if they are the only
options. In doing so, other options are ignored, and people feel
forced to choose between two extremes.

E.g. “Which movie do you want to see : Crazy Rich Asians or

Bohemian Rhapsody?”
The straw man fallacy
This fallacy occurs when a person oversimplifies or misrepresents
someone else’s argument, thereby turning it into a “straw man” -
something that cannot stand up and is pulled apart easily. This can
involve exaggerating an opponent’s position, focusing only on their
weakest line of reasoning, or refuting something not even stated.

E.g. “Smith asserts that tertiary education should receive greater

funding. This is outrageous - that primary and secondary schools
should have their funding cut for the benefit of universities.” This
may be an effective argument if it were true. However, the claim that
tertiary education should receive greater funding does not
necessitate that Smith contends that funds be reduced or taken
from primary and secondary schools.