Critical Reasoning

Affirmative action is good business. So asserted the National Association of Manufacturers while urging retention of an executive order requiring some federal contractors to set numerical goals for hiring minorities and women. “Diversity in work force participation has produced new ideas in management, product development, and marketing,” the association claimed.

The association’s argument as it is presented in the passage above would be most strengthened if which of the following were true?

A. The percentage of minority and women workers in business has increased more slowly than many minority and women’s groups would prefer.

B. Those businesses with the highest percentages of minority and women workers are those that have been the most innovative and profitable.

C. Disposable income has been rising as fast among minorities and women as among the population as a whole.

D. The biggest growth in sales in the manufacturing sector has come in industries that market the most innovative products.

E. Recent improvements in management practices have allowed many manufacturers to experience enormous gains in worker productivity.

this is pretty tough......

what is the OA by the way?

I go for B. I hope I am right.....

A: Close and probable choice. But gets eliminated by the Assumption Negation Technique( Described in my earlier post)

B: Correct

C: Neutral

D: Weakens

E: Weakens


OA please.

Cheers
Turbo Jet

The argument: affirmative action is good business.
Premise: Diversity in work force [hiring minorities and women] produces new ideas in management, product development, and marketing.
In this case, diversity in work force = affirmative action. So affirmative action produces new ideas in product development, and marketing.
The factor that proves [new ideas in product development, and marketing lead to good business] is the good one to strengthen the argument. That factor is (D).
I choose D.
Do you have other ideas?

D doesn't take into account minority or women...
B is the correct answer..IMO

lily164 wrote:The argument: affirmative action is good business.
Premise: Diversity in work force [hiring minorities and women] produces new ideas in management, product development, and marketing.
In this case, diversity in work force = affirmative action. So affirmative action produces new ideas in product development, and marketing.
The factor that proves [new ideas in product development, and marketing lead to good business] is the good one to strengthen the argument. That factor is (D).
I choose D.
Do you have other ideas?

I think you are getting the meaning of affirmative action wrong.
Affirmative action means providing equal opportunities to minorities, women, etc

In this context, Ans choice D is clearly weakening the conclusion/ argument (Affirmative Action is good business) by giving another reason for good business. When there is more than 1 cause for a conclusion, then it weakens the conclusion.

Hence D is not the correct answer.

Suggestions/Views welcome

Cheers
Turbo Jet

aj5105 wrote:Affirmative action is good business. So asserted the National Association of Manufacturers while urging retention of an executive order requiring some federal contractors to set numerical goals for hiring minorities and women. “Diversity in work force participation has produced new ideas in management, product development, and marketing,” the association claimed.

The association’s argument as it is presented in the passage above would be most strengthened if which of the following were true?

A. The percentage of minority and women workers in business has increased more slowly than many minority and women’s groups would prefer.

B. Those businesses with the highest percentages of minority and women workers are those that have been the most innovative and profitable.

C. Disposable income has been rising as fast among minorities and women as among the population as a whole.

D. The biggest growth in sales in the manufacturing sector has come in industries that market the most innovative products.

E. Recent improvements in management practices have allowed many manufacturers to experience enormous gains in worker productivity.

For some reason this questions seems pretty straightforward and easy. I chose B the first time around.

The reason why I discounted D was it says success=Marketing the most innovative products and nothing about the minorities.

turbo jet wrote:A: Close and probable choice. But gets eliminated by the Assumption Negation Technique( Described in my earlier post)

B: Correct

C: Neutral

D: Weakens

E: Weakens


OA please.

Cheers
Turbo Jet

Can you please explain the negation technique for option A?

Thanks.

guys I am a little confused and would apppreciate some help.

the argument says
“Diversity in work force participation has produced new ideas in management, product development, and marketing,” the association claimed.

with this statement it iis already proved that diversity creates new ideas.

now B is sort of restatting the same, however D says that innovation brings profit. so I wud say why not D

turbo jet wrote:

lily164 wrote:The argument: affirmative action is good business.
Premise: Diversity in work force [hiring minorities and women] produces new ideas in management, product development, and marketing.
In this case, diversity in work force = affirmative action. So affirmative action produces new ideas in product development, and marketing.
The factor that proves [new ideas in product development, and marketing lead to good business] is the good one to strengthen the argument. That factor is (D).
I choose D.
Do you have other ideas?

I think you are getting the meaning of affirmative action wrong.
Affirmative action means providing equal opportunities to minorities, women, etc

In this context, Ans choice D is clearly weakening the conclusion/ argument (Affirmative Action is good business) by giving another reason for good business. When there is more than 1 cause for a conclusion, then it weakens the conclusion.

Hence D is not the correct answer.

Suggestions/Views welcome

Cheers
Turbo Jet

Could you please explain the negation technique and how you used it on this example.

b is the answer..
a--The percentage of minority and women workers in business has increased more slowly than many minority and women’s groups would prefer. -----clearly weakning...
b-correct..
c-what we have to do with disposable income..
d-nobody mentioned about sales..
e-whether these improvements includes minority workers' participation or not...

Can you please explain the negation technique for option A?

Thanks.[/quote]



Sure catalyst,

The assumption negation technique is used to confirm an answer when we are stuck between 2 close answer choices in a strengthening/ assumption/premise qs

In this method, we negate the answer choice and see whether it undermines the argument's conclusion. If yes, then it is the correct answer and vice versa.


For eg. In the above example, if you want to confirm your answer between Choice B and Choice D.

CHOICE B

1. Take answer choice B. Negate it.
It becomes, "Those businesses WHICH DO NOT HAVE THE highest percentages of minority and women workers are those that have been the most innovative and profitable."

or

It becomes, "Those businesses with the highest percentages of minority and women workers are NOT those that have been the most innovative and profitable."

2. Does the above undermine my conclusion that Affirmative Action is Good Business.?

3. Yes, because both the statements are indicating that minorities and women do not lead to good/profitable/innovative business


CHOICE D


1. Take answer choice D. Negate it.
2. It becomes "The biggest growth in sales in the manufacturing sector has NOT come in industries that market the most innovative products. "

or

It becomes "The biggest growth in sales in the manufacturing sector has come in industries that DO NOT market the most innovative products. "

3. Does the above undermine my conclusion that Affirmative Action is Good Business.?

4. No. It is not even closely related. And it definitely does not undermine my conclusion Affirmative Action is Good Business in any way. Hence eliminated.


Hope this helps!!!

Cheers!!!
Turbo Jet