Chapter 9 Evaluating Argument Evaluating reasoning the use

Chapter 9 Evaluating Argument: Evaluating reasoning: the use of evidence, examples and explanations

By the end of this session you will: • Understand how to use language clearly • Evaluate the use of evidence in argument

Little Miss Scatterbrain asks: • What is a principle? • What is an analogy? • What is inconsistency? • What is contradiction?

Homework

Matching activity • You will be given a selection of cards in groups. You have five minutes to try to pair the cut outs together. Even if you are not sure, try to guess which are the correct pairs. Good luck!

Work individually • Read the handout and focus on the examples in the third column. You have five minutes to work your way through them and identify any problems.

Activity • Do Activity 12 on the handout. Work in pairs to consider all the possible problems that could rise from the word ‘justice’. You should write down a full answer for a and discuss part b with your partner. You have 10 minutes.

Highlighting activity (13) • Use different colours to match the questions with the correct answer. You have fifteen minutes.

Mr Forgetful (5 mins) • Could you please remind Mr forgetful what we mean by: • Evaluating an argument? Work individually. Write down the answer and then check if our answers match.

• Evaluation is the skill of judging whether an argument is strong or weak, whether the evidence, examples and explanations are reasons to give us sufficient grounds to accept a conclusion.

What are the common mistakes that other students make but you won’t! You know better than to: • Simply consider whether the evidence is true rather than whether it supports a reason or a conclusion • Expect to learn an answer by heart ready to copy in the exam. You know that you should respond to the precise evidence in front of you.

The plausible or implausible game • Write ‘plausible’ which means ‘possible’, could happen, not far-fetched on one side of a piece of paper and ‘implausible’ on the other. I will give you numerical evidence or information. You should write a plausible explanation for this evidence on another piece of paper. • A crop circle has appeared in a field in Wiltshire.

Voting • Read out your explanations to your classmates. After each answer you should all vote by holding out the correct piece of your ‘plausible’ ‘implausible’ page.

Questions that you should consider when evaluating evidence • Is this evidence precisely relevant to the author’s reason/ conclusion? • Does this evidence support the author’s reason/ conclusion? • Are there other conclusions that could be supported by the evidence? • Is the example typical of the issue the author is talking about? • Does the example support the author’s reasoning? • Are there alternative, plausible explanations of this evidence?

Evidence • Facts • Statistics • References to the results of research or surveys • Numerical information Graphs Charts Tables

The key • The key to evaluating the use of evidence is to keep asking questions about the link between evidence and the reason or conclusion it is supposed to support.

Is the evidence relevant? • It must be about precisely the same thing as the reason. It must cover the same timescale, and be about the same area or the same group to which the reason is referring. PRECISE AND FOCUSED ON THE REASON Do activity 14 in pairs. You have 5 mins.

Is the evidence sufficient to support the conclusion? • Another common problem in the use of evidence s using sufficient (enough) evidence to support a fairly strong conclusion. • Is the evidence relevant and sufficient? 80% of students achieve at least two A grades at AS Levels. So Hawkwood Towers is an academic college. (Class discussion)

Answers • The evidence is relevant and gives us grounds to believe that HT is an academic college. However, it is not sufficient to support the conclusion on its own. We need evidence of other indicators of academic success such as university entrance. • The problem here is being unreasonably selective.

Is the evidence selective? • Red wine is good for your health. A study has found that it is a rich source of polyphenols which are linked to long life. We should clearly ditch the guilt and drink wine.

Remind me… • What is ambiguity? • What is the difference between necessary and sufficient conditions? • What do we mean by relevant? • What do we mean by sufficient?