My topic is Racial Discrimination For this module, students are to select an argument about their social problem and to evaluate it. Students will need to find an inductive argument that someone else has made about this topic (you cannot write your own argument and then evaluate it). In order to successfully complete this exercise, students should write a brief (approx. 1-2 page) essay which addresses the following topics: 1)locate and summarize the argument about your social problem (this should be a written argument, so something in a newspaper article, op-ed piece, academic paper, or policy paper), 2) identify the type of inductive argument (is it a generalization, a statistical syllogism, an argument for analogy, or a combination of types) and explain why it is that type of argument, and 3) provide a basic evaluation of the strength and cogency of the argument using the appropriate criteria (you evaluate statistical syllogisms in a different manner than inductive generalizations and inductive generalizations in a different manner than arguments from analogy). For example, suppose I wrote an evaluation of an argument regarding the incarceration of individuals for drug offenses. I then go to google and start looking around for arguments regarding my topic. Specifically, I search for "current drug policy incarceration in us op-ed" and find an article by Richard Branson called "War on Drugs a Trillion Dollar Failure." I'd then quickly summarize this article in a paragraph or two (while also noting and explaining why this is a mixture of an argument from analogy and an inductive generalization from a sample), then I'd evaluate the argument in the second paragraph (I'd think about the strength of his premises and how much they support his conclusion).

My social problem is Racial Discrimination.

For this module, students are to select an argument about their social problem and to evaluate it. Students will need to find an inductive argument that someone else has made about this topic (you cannot write your own argument and then evaluate it). In order to successfully complete this exercise, students should write a brief (approx. 1-2 page) essay which addresses the following topics: 1)locate and summarize the argument about your social problem (this should be a written argument, so something in a newspaper article, op-ed piece, academic paper, or policy paper), 2) identify the type of inductive argument (is it a generalization, a statistical syllogism, an argument for analogy, or a combination of types) and explain why it is that type of argument, and 3) provide a basic evaluation of the strength and cogency of the argument using the appropriate criteria (you evaluate statistical syllogisms in a different manner than inductive generalizations and inductive generalizations in a different manner than arguments from analogy).


For example, suppose I wrote an evaluation of an argument regarding the incarceration of individuals for drug offenses. I then go to google and start looking around for arguments regarding my topic. Specifically, I search for "current drug policy incarceration in us op-ed" and find an article by Richard Branson called "War on Drugs a Trillion Dollar Failure." I'd then quickly summarize this article in a paragraph or two (while also noting and explaining why this is a mixture of an argument from analogy and an inductive generalization from a sample), then I'd evaluate the argument in the second paragraph (I'd think about the strength of his premises and how much they support his conclusion).