CATA 335 - McGaan

Practice Exercises 6 - Answers

Label or create the grounds, claim and warrant for each of the following arguments. You may have to infer some parts of the argument. (Make your choice of warrant as general as you can for the example given.) Then label the type of warrant at work (e.g. sign, cause, analogy, etc.)

1. [gr.]The scenes of mass graves, the tales of "ethnic cleansing," and the stories of calculated rape of Muslim women indicate that [cl.]significant violations of human rights occurred in Bosnia.

[w] These acts are (by definition) violations of human rights.

2. If [gr.] additional lighting has reduced crime on campus at Knox, [cl.]it will do the same here.

[w] Knox and Monmouth are substantially similar (analogy) in terms of campus safety.

3. [w] Anyone who studies harder will improve his or her grades. That=s why I think [cl.] you should increase your study time be a significant amount.

[gr.] The college has told you that you will be suspended if your GPA does not improve.

4. [gr.]John always seems to find a way to sit near Mary. [cl.]I think he likes her.

[w] Sitting next to people is a sign you like them.

5. I polled the [gr.] students in my CATA 101 class and 12 out of 20 voted for Bush in 2004. I think this shows [cl.] the President has the majority of the college age vote.

[w] My class is representative of the college age vote? (Induction)

6. [gr.] Research consistently shows that [cl.] communication skills are the most important abilities in determining success on the job.

[w] authority B AThe researchers are experts and they got it right@

 

last updated 9/10/2008