Arguments and evidence
Strategy card
Evaluate arguments by their structure, evidence and hidden assumptions.
- Step 1: Identify conclusion, premises and the gap between them.
- Step 2: Name the assumption that bridges the gap.
- Step 3: Test answers: does this strengthen, weaken, or simply restate?
- Step 4: Watch for overgeneralizing, cause-vs-correlation and sampling problems.
Tip: The best answer is the one the passage supports most directly, not the most interesting one.
Worked example
What went wrong in the summary?
An AI tool summarizes a news article and says the city “banned all cars downtown.” The original article says the city “banned cars on one downtown street on Sundays.”
- A: It was too short.
- B: It overgeneralized: it made a small, specific change sound much bigger. (the answer)
- C: Nothing; the summary is accurate.
- D: It used the wrong date format.
Why: One street on Sundays is very different from all of downtown. Always compare a summary with its source.
Your turn
Your turn 1 of 3
Which fact would most weaken the company's claim?
A juice company says: “Kids who drink our juice score higher on spelling tests, so our juice makes kids better spellers.”
Your turn 2 of 3
Which best describes the flaw?
“Since our town built the new skate park, there have been fewer broken windows downtown. The skate park stopped the vandalism.”
Your turn 3 of 3
Which unstated assumption does this rely on?
“We should replace all the library's printed books with tablets, because students prefer reading on screens.”
Keep practicing
Grown-ups: Debate a topic at dinner using evidence. Parent guide
Next lesson: Checking AI answers