Admissions prep · Humanities
Critical reading and reasoning
Find conclusions and hidden assumptions, strengthen or weaken arguments, separate inference from fact and spot common reasoning flaws.
About this deck
Critical reading is the skill of working out exactly what an author claims, what reasons are given, and whether those reasons are enough. It matters on reasoning sections of some admissions tests, in law, philosophy and social science courses, and whenever you read research or news. This deck covers the parts of an argument (conclusions, premises and intermediate conclusions), how to find unstated assumptions, what makes evidence strengthen or weaken a claim, the difference between a supported inference, a stated fact and an opinion, and the most common flaws in reasoning, from hasty generalization to reversing a conditional.
All examples are original. To study, cover the definition, explain the idea in your own words, and then invent a quick example from something you have read recently. For the flaw cards, look for them in opinion columns or advertising; spotting a straw man in the wild fixes the idea better than any list. Students often lose marks by choosing an answer that is true in general but not supported by the passage, by confusing a necessary condition with a sufficient one, by picking an answer with extreme wording such as always or proves, and by treating any correlation as evidence of cause. Slow, precise reading beats speed reading here.
Before you start: None; comfortable reading of Grade 12 level texts.
All 38 cards
Cover the definitions with a sheet of paper and test yourself, or use the study modes above.
Argument parts
- Conclusion
- The main claim an argument tries to establish; ask what the author ultimately wants you to accept.
- Premise
- A statement offered as a reason to accept the main claim.
- Conclusion indicator words
- Therefore, thus, so, hence and consequently often signal the main claim of an argument.
- Premise indicator words
- Because, since, given that and for often introduce the reasons behind a claim.
- Intermediate conclusion
- A claim that is supported by premises and then itself supports the main claim.
- Counterpoint in an argument
- An opposing view the author mentions, often after although or some argue, before rejecting it.
Assumptions
- Assumption
- An unstated premise that the argument needs in order for its reasoning to work.
- Negation test
- Deny a candidate statement; if the argument then falls apart, that statement was a required hidden premise.
- Gap between evidence and claim
- A mismatch, such as evidence about all students but a claim about first-year students, that points to a hidden premise.
- Sales rose after the ad campaign, so the ads caused the rise
- The argument takes for granted that nothing else, such as a holiday season or a price cut, explains the increase.
Strengthen and weaken
- Strengthening evidence
- Information that makes the conclusion more likely, often by ruling out a rival explanation.
- Weakening evidence
- Information that makes the conclusion less likely, often by offering another cause or showing the sample is unrepresentative.
- Weaken: library users get higher grades, so libraries raise grades
- Point out that motivated students may both visit the library more and earn more, so the visits may not be the cause.
- Strengthen: a new bus route cut downtown traffic
- Show that traffic did not fall in similar areas without the route, which rules out weather or other citywide causes.
- Irrelevant comparison
- A choice that compares things the argument does not depend on, so it neither helps nor hurts it.
Inference and fact
- Inference
- A conclusion that must be true, or is strongly supported, based only on what the passage says.
- Stated fact
- Information the passage says directly, without interpretation.
- Opinion
- A judgement or value claim that evidence alone cannot prove true or false.
- Must be true question
- Asks for a statement guaranteed by the passage; reject choices that go beyond the text, even if they are true in real life.
- Main idea
- The overall point of a passage, broader than any single detail but no wider than what the passage covers.
- Author's tone
- The attitude shown through word choice, such as critical, cautious, enthusiastic or neutral.
- Extreme language trap
- Choices with words like always, never, all or proves are usually stronger than a passage can support.
Reasoning flaws
- Correlation treated as cause
- Assuming that because two things happen together, one must produce the other.
- Hasty generalization
- Drawing a broad claim from too small or unrepresentative a sample.
- Ad hominem
- Attacking the person making a claim instead of the claim itself.
- Straw man
- Misrepresenting an opponent's view as weaker than it really is, then refuting that weaker version.
- False dilemma
- Presenting only two options when more are available.
- Circular reasoning
- Using the conclusion, sometimes reworded, as one of its own supporting reasons.
- Appeal to popularity
- Arguing that something is true or good simply because many people believe or do it.
- Slippery slope
- Claiming that one step will inevitably lead to extreme outcomes without showing each link in the chain.
- Appeal to inappropriate authority
- Relying on someone whose expertise does not cover the topic in question.
- Equivocation
- Using one word in two different senses within the same argument.
- Post hoc reasoning
- Assuming that because B happened after A, A caused B.
- Sampling bias
- Data drawn from a group that does not represent the population, such as an online poll answered only by fans.
- Composition fallacy
- Assuming that what is true of the parts must be true of the whole.
- Necessary versus sufficient condition
- Something required for an outcome, versus something that guarantees it.Example: Passing every required course is needed to graduate but may not be enough on its own
- Reversing a conditional
- Treating if A then B as though it meant if B then A; the reversed statement does not follow.
- Contrapositive
- From if A then B, the valid conclusion is if not B then not A.