Q4 - Editorial: It is common to find essays offering argumen

[ohthatpatrick]

Question Type:
Flaw

Stimulus Breakdown:
Conclusion: We don't need to be worried that our nation is in decline, as many essays suggest.
Evidence: The anxious tone of these essays shows that the writer is just anxious, not that our nation is in decline.

Answer Anticipation:
Wow, looks like a Circular Argument! The author is trying to argue that the nation is not in decline. The essays are potential counterevidence, but the author just rules out their legitimacy without any real reason. It's eligible for the classic answer of "the author assumes what it sets out to prove".

Someone with an open mind might read the essay and think, "Wow, maybe the nation is in decline". Someone with a preformed agenda that the nation is doing fine will read it and say, "They must just be anxious because they're anxious people".

Correct Answer:
A

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) YES, this seems accurate and is indeed a flaw. The author certainly didn't address any reasons offered in the essays. He just said, "Their anxious tone disqualifies them from serious consideration".

(B) Did this compare two situations? I can't match that up.

(C) "Political" is out of scope.

(D) It wouldn't be an objection to this argument to tell the author, "Hey, author, the nation is holding steady at the status quo". So it doesn't matter whether the author overlooked this possibility.

(E) The author didn't offer evidence that supports the view that the nation is in decline.

Takeaway/Pattern: Since this argument is structured as a rebuttal against another's point of view, we should be listening/looking carefully for any illegal form of objection (Attacking the Person … Unproven vs. Untrue) or any form of bad listening. This author fails to give potentially disconfirming evidence a fair hearing, sweeping it away with some spurious accusation that the writers are simply anxious people.

#officialexplanation

[Yu440]

Okay I chose E for this question. I see why A is correct. But during the timed test, my rationale for choosing E was that by stating the anxious tone of these essays amounts to offering evidence that supports the view our nation is in decline. Because if these writers are writing in an anxious tone, sure it's because they really feel for the dire situation? Is that just my assumption?

[ohthatpatrick]

The author dismisses the view that "our nation is in decline".

According to this answer, the author offered evidence that supports the idea that "our nation is in decline".

Why should I believe that our nation is in decline?
AUTHOR: because some writers are writing with an anxious tone

There are a couple problems there:
1. that's REALLY weak evidence

Sharon wrote an essay with an anxious tone. Clearly, our nation must be in decline.
(say what?)

2. That's not really an independent piece of evidence. By writing that "our nation is in decline", the tone is almost by definition anxious.

Consider this analogous argument:
Patrick commonly writes blog articles entitled "Everyone Hate Me, Volume ____ "
Nobody hates him, however. The defensive tone of these essays shows that he suffers from some guilty complex like Impostor Syndrome and thus imagines these perceived attacks/insults.

You wouldn't be allowed to say, "SEE?! Everyone DOES hate Patrick! He's writing with a defensive tone, so that means there's evidence that people are attacking him!"

It would be like using what's written in the Bible to justify the objective truth of the Bible.

You can't use what's in my defensive essay (which is possibly just stuff I made up) as evidence that I have good reason to be defensive.

You can't use what's in these writers' anxious essays (which are possibly just paranoid fictions) as evidence that they have good reason to be anxious.

If the final sentence had said something like, "The anxious tone of these essays is just because nobody in the nation will read anything if it isn't hysterical hyperbole", then you'd be creeping towards an answer like (E) .... assuming we accepted the idea that "nobody will read anything except hysterical hyperbole" is a sign of a "declining nation".

Hope this helps.

[Orianna E438]

Writing an essay is a very difficult job for me, but I need it. What should I do in this situation?