Exam 2: Identifying Arguments

If the following passage contains an argument, write a well-crafted version of it; if the passage is not an argument, classify it as a report, illustration, explanation, or single conditional statement. The sea holds even more strange and wonderful forms. Plunge into the shallow waters off an Australian coral island and the variety of fish, corals and shelly creatures will literally hit you in the face. Neon colors, bodies of all shapes and sizes, fantastic geometrical designs are everywhere, and occasionally there's a glimpse of a giant se turtle, an octopus, or a darting shark. Sean Carroll, Endless Forms Most Beautiful (2005), p. 3.

If the following passage contains an argument, write a well-crafted version of it; if the passage is not an argument, classify it as a report, illustration, explanation, or single conditional statement. One should always eat grapes downward-that is, always eat the best grape first; in this way there will be none better left on the bunch, and each grape will seem good down to the last. If you eat the other way, you will not have a good grape in the lot. Besides, you will be tempting providence to kill you before you come to the best. (Samuel Butler)

Which of the following is not a principle for rewriting arguments as well-crafted ones?

In a well-crafted version of an argument, the conclusion is stated last.

Which of the following is an example of an explanation?

If the following passage contains an argument, write a well-crafted version of it; if the passage is not an argument, classify it as a report, illustration, explanation, or single conditional statement. What is politically good cannot be morally bad. For what is good for a large number is also good for the individual. (J. S. Mill)

If a passage contains a conditional statement, then it does not contain an argument.

If the following passage contains an argument, write a well-crafted version of it; if the passage is not an argument, classify it as a report, illustration, explanation, or single conditional statement. Of all the animals commonly eaten in the Western world, the pig is without doubt the most intelligent. The natural intelligence of a pig is comparable and perhaps even superior to that of a dog; it is possible to rear pigs as companions to human beings and train them to respond to simple commands much as a dog would. (Peter Singer, Animal Liberation)

If the following passage contains an argument, write a well-crafted version of it; if the passage is not an argument, classify it as a report, illustration, explanation, or single conditional statement. . . . decoration is not given to hide horrible things: but to decorate things already adorable. A mother does not give her child a blue bow because he is so ugly without it. A lover does not give a girl a necklace to hide her neck. (G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy)

A subconclusion is a statement that serves both as a conclusion and as a premise.

Well-crafted arguments should retain any repetition found in an argument because it emphasizes a point or makes it more understandable.

If the following passage contains an argument, write a well-crafted version of it; if the passage is not an argument, classify it as a report, illustration, explanation, or single conditional statement. Since first appearing in 1981, some 1.5 million personal ads have been printed in Chinese newspapers and magazines; more than 370,000 couples have been married as a direct result. ("It Adds Up," World Press Review, Feb. 1993)

Commands are never statements.

Which of the following is an example of a report?

Rhetorical questions are statements.

The Principle of Fairness requires that we be loyal to the original argument and not distort its meaning when rewriting it as a well-crafted argument.

If the following passage contains an argument, write a well-crafted version of it; if the passage is not an argument, classify it as a report, illustration, explanation, or single conditional statement. Chemical elements, as well as compounds, can be represented by molecular formulas. Thus, oxygen is represented by "O₂," sodium chloride by "NaCl," and sulfuric acid by "H₂SO₄."

Some arguments are false.

If the following passage contains an argument, write a well-crafted version of it; if the passage is not an argument, classify it as a report, illustration, explanation, or single conditional statement. One must know how a photograph was made in order to correctly interpret it. In this way, photographs are like dental X rays, seismographs, and other records. Photographs are records, and a necessary part of interpreting a record is knowing the causal chain that produced it. Some photographs made by specialized equipment-like the electron microscope-would be reasonably misinterpreted by a viewer ignorant of the origins.

If the following passage contains an argument, write a well-crafted version of it; if the passage is not an argument, classify it as a report, illustration, explanation, or single conditional statement. Selective harvesting of timber is less damaging to the environment and healthier for local economies than clear-cutting. . . . Selective harvesting uses the natural rhythms of a forest's ecosystem instead of ignoring them. Selection harvesters carefully choose trees for timber, thinning a tree stand by cutting down the slow-growing trees that are likely to die within 15 or 20 years. They leave the healthier, faster-growing trees alone to reseed the forest. Above all, these foresters avoid cutting too many trees for a quick profit, and each decade they take a tree count to ensure that they are not over-cutting. (John Tibbetts, Utne Reader, Jan./Feb. 1992)