Strengthen or weaken vs. find the assumption or flaw questions

Assumption questions look for something absolutely vital for the argument to work.

Strengthen questions look for something lending additional support. They aren't absolutely necessary.

The quick way to identify a Weaken or Strengthen question is the phrase IF TRUE.
You will see the phrase IF TRUE in Weaken questions, in Strengthen questions, and also in Explain/Resolve the Paradox questions.

More details now.
For Weaken and Strengthen questions, each answer choice will contain new information, ie new FACTS.
You have to see whether this new information is relevant to the argument.

Difference Between Flaw and Weaken Questions
In Flaw questions, the right answer simply describes a flaw in the argument's reasoning.
The answer choices do not contain new facts.
The answers describe what may (or may not) be flaws in the argument. Or they may describe something that could go wrong with the plan.

There really isn't any difference in how we do the questions. And sometimes the answer to a Flaw question is almost the same as the answer to a weaken question.

For example, here is an answer to a Flaw question: Delays caused by weather and other uncontrollable factors could have increased dramatically during the year under discussion.

The Weaken version of the same question could have this answer: Delays caused by weather and other uncontrollable factors increased dramatically during the year under discussion.

At other times, the answer to the Flaw question is nothing like an answer to a Weaken question. For example: known risks can be weighed against known benefits, but unknown risks cannot


Difference Between Strengthen and Assumption Questions
An Assumption is necessarily true.
It may not be sufficient, as the argument may depend on multiple assumptions.

A strengthener is NOT necessary to the argument. It makes the argument or plan more believable, more likely to be true.

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