Critical Reasoning – Strengthening and Weakening Arguments

Critical Reasoning is an important part of the CLAT syllabus. Critical Reasoning involves the process of skillfully conceptualizing, analyzing, applying, and evaluating information to reach a conclusion. Questions based on critical thinking are in a comprehension format with a series of questions. The questions can be based on – 

• Assumption/ Presumption based
• Inferential questions
• Conclusion based questions
• Arguments based (Strengthening and weakening the arguments)
• Anticipation based
• Summary/ Theme based questions

 Concepts

Statement – A statement is something that can be judged as being true or false. 

Argument – A group of statements, one or more which are intended to prove or support another statement. 

Premises – A premise is an evidence. Statements in an argument offered as reasons why one should accept the statement. 

Assumptions – Assumptions are implicit; they are not stated and acts in support of the argument. 

Conclusion – It is the final statement that the premises support or prove. 

Signal Words

Signal Words for Premise/Evidence

Because, Since, After all, On the grounds that, Given that, For, As shown by, in that, seeing that, as indicated by, for the reason that, as much as, for given, may be inferred from, for given, that owing to, follows from, in view of the fact that, follows from, This study shows, etc. 

Also read: How to Prepare For CLAT Legal Aptitude

Signal Words for Conclusion 

Thus, Therefore, Hence, Conclude, So, As a result, Obviously, Nevertheless, it must be that, entails that, implies that, whence, accordingly, which points to, which implies that, etc. 

Warning! Remember that conclusion doesn’t need to have any kind of leading keyword at all.

 Strengthening and Weakening Arguments

Strengthening an argument 

The key to strengthening an argument is finding the answer that confirms that the central assumption is correct. This can be done in two ways –

1. If you encounter an answer choice that would be correct according to an assumption question, it would also be correct on a strengthen question. 
2. If the correct answer can confirm the assumption by citing any relevant evidence that makes the assumption to be true, then it will support our main argument. 

Weakening an argument 

Finding a statement that can weaken an argument follows the same process only backwards. This also has two possibilities –

1. Any answer that weakens the argument can directly disapprove the assumption. Any given choice that states that the assumption is wrong will weaken the argument.
2. If new pieces of evidence can strengthen the argument, it can weaken the argument as well. Any new information presented in the answer choice that makes the assumption less likely to be correct will act to weaken the argument completely.

 The process to answer a Critical Reasoning question –

1: Identify the variety of the question

2: Analyze the Argument

3: Ask the right questions

4: And then, eliminate the options

5: Choose the right option 

Also read: How to Prepare for Logical Reasoning CLAT

Step 1: Identify the variety of the question

The question stem asks us to select an option that supports the argument or strengthens the argument.

Step 2: Analyze the ArgumentIn order to choose an option that strengthens the argument, you first need to know what the argument is. And also, what assumption has the author made in the argument. An option that supports the argument supports the assumption made in the argument.

Step 3: Ask the right questions

When selecting an option that strengthens a given argument, ask yourself which option supports the assumption in the argument. 

Step 4: Eliminate the options

Look at each option closely and verify if it suits the requirement or not.

 Step 5: Choose the Right Option 

Choose the correct option wisely after analyzing properly.  

 Example

Bangladesh and Pakistan have suffered defeats at the hands of the Indian cricket team. So, India must defeat them in tennis as well.

Solution This is the example of Argument by Analogy

	Premise	Hidden Assumption	Conclusion
Break-up	India has defeated both countries in cricket.	What happens in cricket also happens in tennis.	India will defeat both the countries in tennis as well.
Strengthened statements	In fact, India has been defeating them for the past ten years.	Cricket and tennis are very similar games.
Weakened Statements	But India has been losing to them also.	It is not necessary that what happens in cricket also happens in tennis.

Aspirants who are looking for more such sample questions for various other topics for CLAT Preparation, can go to our website and prepare with Online CLAT Classes.