Logic Your Way into Writing

Week 2 Worksheet

Task 1: Premises and Conclusions

- In each passage, identify the main conclusion and the premise(s) that support it

1. In order to prosper, a democracy needs its citizens to be able to carry out their responsibilities competently.
Being a competent citizen requires familiarity with the basics of math, natural science, social science, history,
and literature, as well as the ability to read and write well and the ability to think critically. A liberal education is
essential to developing these skills. Therefore, in order for a democracy to prosper, its citizens must get a liberal
education

2. Racial segregation reduces some persons to the status of things. Hence, segregation is morally wrong.

3. While performing an autopsy on a dead sea turtle, Dr. Stacy found shrimp in the turtle’s throat. Sea turtles can
only catch shrimp if they are stuck in nets with the shrimp. Therefore, the dead sea turtle was probably caught in
a net

4. Positron-emission tomography, better known as PET, is a method for examining a person’s brain. Before
undergoing PET, the patient inhales a gas containing radioactive molecules. The molecules are not dangerous for
the patient because they break down within a few minutes, before they can do any damage.

5. The only remaining question was why the man had been murdered. Was it a politically motivated crime or a
private one? I thought right away that it must be a privately motivated crime. Political assassins move quickly
and flee. But in this case, the murderer’s footprints are all over the room, showing that he had spent quite a
while in this room.

Task 2

- Which of the following passages are arguments?

- Which are not arguments?
- If a passage is an argument, identify its conclusion
- If passage is not an argument, classify it as a report, illustration, explanation, or conditional statement

1. Americans are materialistic because they are exposed to more advertising than any other people on Earth.
 2. Waging war is always wrong because it involves killing human beings. And killing humans is wrong.

3. Since particle-like behavior and wave-like behavior are the only properties that we ascribe to light, and since
these properties now are recognized to belong not to light itself, but to our interaction with light, … it appears
that light has no properties independent of us! To say that something has no properties is the same as saying
that it does not exist. The next step in this logic is inescapable. Without us, light does not exist.

-- Gary Zukav, The Dancing Wu Li Masters (New York: Bantam Books, 1979), p. 95

4. Prime numbers are divisible only by themselves and one. For example, 3, 5, 7, and 11 are prime numbers.

5. The good don’t always die young because Mother Teresa was a good person.

Task 3

- Each of the following statements can be made the conclusion of an argument

- For each statement, write down at least one premise that provides some degree of support for it

1. It is morally permissible to experiment on nonhuman animals.

2. Only violent criminals should be imprisoned.

3. Americans are too individualistic.

4. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

5. It is wrong to misrepresent one’s income on a tax form.

Task 4
- The lettered words and phrases that follow each of the following fragments vary in their precision. In each
instance, determine which is the most precise and which is the least precise; then rank the remainder in order
of precision, to the extent possible.

Example: Over the past ten years, the median income of wage earners in Tainan
a. Nearly doubled
b. Increased substantially
c. Increased by 85.5 percent
d. Increased by more than 85 percent

1. Eli and Sarah

a. Decided to sell their house and move
b. Made plans for the future
c. Considered moving
d. Talked
e. Discussed their future
f. Discussed selling their house

2. The recent changes in the tax code

a. Will substantially increase taxes paid by those making more than $200,000 per year
b. Will increase by 4 percent the tax rate for those making more than $200,000 per year; will leave
unchanged the tax rate for people making between $40,000 and $200,000; and will decrease by 2
percent the tax rate for those making less than $40,000
c. Will make some important changes in who pays what in taxes
d. Are tougher on the rich than the provisions in the previous tax law
e. Raise rates for the wealthy and reduce them for those in the lowest brackets

3. Hurricane Sandy
a. Was the second most costly storm to hit the United States
b. Took over 200 lives in seven countries along its path
c. Killed people in several countries
d. Killed 253 people from Jamaica to Canada and did $65 million worth of damage
e. Was the most lethal storm to hit the United States since Katrina
Task 5
- You do not always have to classify problematic sentences as too vague, ambiguous, or too general, but
practice in doing so can help you learn to spot problems. For each of the following, determine if it is too vague
or too ambiguous, or simply not useful because of either of these faults. Explain your answer.

Example: Full implementation of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) will cause a serious increase in health care costs

1. Full implementation of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) will cause a noticeable decrease in health care
costs

2. He chased the girl in his car

3. He gave her cat food

4. You only need modest exercise to stay healthy

Task 6
- Read the following claims to remedy problems of ambiguation. Do not assume that common sense by itself
solves the problem. If the ambiguity is intentional, note this fact, and do not rewrite

1. “How Therapy Can Help Torture Victims” – Newspaper headline

2. Chelsea has Hillary’s nose

3. “Police Kill 6 Coyotes After Mauling of Girl” – Newspaper Headline

4. “Besides Lyme disease, two other tick-borne diseases, babesiosis and HE, are infecting Americans in 30 states,
according to recent studies. A single tick can infect people with more than one disease.”

5. “Samsung: We bring good things to life.” – Advertisement

6. She was disturbed when she lay down to nap by a noisy cow.