Jaya6 wrote:
can someone highlight the conclusion and the premise here as we have contrasting premises and how do we assume without negating the statement?
I thought that the conclusion was to get tough on crimnals and make prison conditions harsher.
Hello,
Jaya6. Most of the time, the conclusion can be found at the end of the passage, particularly in assumption questions. (Boldface questions are another story.) Looking at this passage, we can see a judgmental turn of phrase in the last sentence when everything prior has been more informative—that is, earlier in the passage, we have been
told by a third party what the governor aims to do. The turn of phrase I refer to is
this action is clearly counter to the governor’s ultimate goal, and it is the argument within the editorial. (Who says the action is
clearly misguided? That is more opinion than fact.) Meanwhile,
since is a premise marker, used to justify an argument or conclusion. In other words, the argument says that
because inmates who had taken such courses committed far fewer crimes overall than other inmates [after being released from prison], the governor's efforts are counterproductive to his or her own goal. So, how do we tease out the necessary assumption?
Many students, tutors, and teachers of the test prefer the negation technique on such questions, and for this type of analysis, I would urge you to read more of the thread above. I, however, prefer to tackle the answers directly, seeking a missing link between premise and conclusion in the following manner:
1) Premise—
inmates who had taken such courses committed far fewer crimes overall than other inmates [after being released from prison]
2) Assumption—? [insert answer choice]
3) Conclusion—
this action [to deny inmates the access they formerly had to college-level courses] is [i]clearly counter to the governor’s ultimate goal [to reduce the crime rate][/i]
Choices (A) and (C) are the only two viable options, and of the two, (C) directly leads to the conclusion, while (A) runs contrary to it. (If (A) were true, why would the author of the editorial arrive at a seemingly opposite conclusion?) Since others have discussed these two answers more in depth above, I will again refer you to earlier posts. I was simply hoping in this post to help you identify how an argument is constructed. Typically, it will consist of background information that leads into premises, which in turn build up to an argument or conclusion.
I hope that helps. Good luck with your studies.
- Andrew
Thank you Andrew, that was quite useful.
can I reach out to you for any questions that I have? if yes, then how?