Argument Structure

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Argument Structure

by karthikpandian19 » Sun Dec 11, 2011 11:19 pm
A recent report from Pythagoras College determined that although only 4 percent of students wore baseball hats to school regularly, 60 percent of students caught cheating were wearing baseball hats at the time. Pythagoras College concluded that students who wear baseball hats are more likely to cheat than students who do not.

A.No cheating incidents have been reported in classrooms where baseball hats are prohibited.
[spoiler]This is the credited response. It doesn't necessarily prove a causal relationship between hat-wearing and cheating, but it would support such a relationship if it were true.[/spoiler]
B.Baseball hats make students easier to identify.
This would suggest that wearing baseball hats makes it harder to cheat, since cheating is presumably best done anonymously. It does not follow that students easier to identify would be more inclined to cheat.
C.The number of students caught cheating exceeds the number of students wearing baseball hats on any given day.
[spoiler]This statistic neither strengthens nor weakens the argument, from the argument we know that no more than 6 2/3% of all students cheat, and this just adds that more than 4% of all students cheat, but that added information doesn't help or hurt the conclusion.[/spoiler]
D.Many of the students caught cheating have been caught more than once.
This is outside the scope of the question. The college is concerned with the question of how to identify cheaters, not how often they cheat.
E.Students at Pythagoras College cheat more often than students at other colleges do.[spoiler]
[/spoiler]The question is not concerned with the activities of students at other colleges.
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by tuanquang269 » Mon Dec 12, 2011 2:35 am
Hi karthikpandian19, can you post what is the question stem, can't you?

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by tuanquang269 » Mon Dec 12, 2011 2:45 am
Hi karthikpandian19, can you post what is the question stem, can't you?