Handwriting analysis (with explanations pls)

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Handwriting analysis (with explanations pls)

by max37274 » Thu Feb 18, 2010 10:01 am
Sasha: Handwriting analysis should be banned in court as evidence of a person抯 character, handwriting analysis called as witnesses habitually exaggerate the reliability of their analyses.

Gregory: you are right that the current use of handwriting analysis as evidence is problematic. But this problem exists only because there is no licensing board to set professional standards and thus deter irresponsible analyst from making exaggerated claims. When such a board is established, however, handwriting analysis by licensed practitioners will be a legitimate courtroom tool for character assessment.

Which one of the following, if true, would provide Sasha with the strongest counter to Gregory's response?

(A) Courts routinely use means other than handwriting analysis to provide evidence of a person's character.

(B) Many people can provide two samples of their handwriting so different that only a highly trained professional could identify them as having been written by the same person.

(C) A licensing board would inevitably refuse to grant licenses to some responsible handwriting analysts for reasons having nothing to do with their reliability.

(D) The only handwriting analysts who claim that handwriting provides reliable evidence of a person's character are irresponsible.

(E) The number of handwriting analysts who could conform to professional standards set by a licensing board is very small.
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Thu Feb 18, 2010 10:04 am
A- This is just irrelevant, the task at hand is the validity of hand writing analysis, anything else is out of scope.

B- This would strengthen Gregory's argument

C- This is irrelevant, as long as reliable analysts obtain licenses, that is all that matters

D- This is correct. If quote on quote experts, don't believe its reliable, then Greg's argument is hollow.

E- The number is irrelevant.
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Is this a LSAT CR?

by gmatmachoman » Thu Feb 18, 2010 10:09 am
First of all let me appreciate you for posting a "Neat/Decent/Good" CR.

Let us come to options:

I came to know OA is D. Generally thes kind of falalcy falls in a category called "Ad Hominem".

An ad hominem argument has the basic form:

Person 1 makes claim X
There is something objectionable about Person 1
Therefore claim X is false
The first premise is called a 'factual claim' and is the pivot point of much debate. The contention is referred to as an 'inferential claim' and represents the reasoning process. There are two types of inferential claim, explicit and implicit. The fallacy does not represent a valid form of reasoning because even if you accept both co-premises, that does not guarantee the truthfulness of the contention. This can also be thought of as the argument having an un-stated co-premise


Generally these kind of fallacy based questions never appear on GMAT .But do on LSAT. I think its a LSAT prep CR.

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by max37274 » Thu Feb 18, 2010 10:23 am
THANKS EVERYONE OA IS D

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by komal » Thu Feb 18, 2010 12:34 pm
gmatmachoman wrote:First of all let me appreciate you for posting a "Neat/Decent/Good" CR.

Let us come to options:

I came to know OA is D. Generally thes kind of falalcy falls in a category called "Ad Hominem".

An ad hominem argument has the basic form:

Person 1 makes claim X
There is something objectionable about Person 1
Therefore claim X is false
The first premise is called a 'factual claim' and is the pivot point of much debate. The contention is referred to as an 'inferential claim' and represents the reasoning process. There are two types of inferential claim, explicit and implicit. The fallacy does not represent a valid form of reasoning because even if you accept both co-premises, that does not guarantee the truthfulness of the contention. This can also be thought of as the argument having an un-stated co-premise


Generally these kind of fallacy based questions never appear on GMAT .But do on LSAT. I think its a LSAT prep CR.
wow i had no clue about this kind of approach to such questions. Gmatmachoman - Thanks for this informative post.