Top Down Task
Prove Family
Top Down Task
Disprove Family
Bottom Up Task
Help Family
Bottom Up Task
Hurt Family
Top-Down
Accept the stimulus information as true and use it to examine the answer choices - NO NEW INFORMATION
Bottom-Up
Accept the answer choices as true and use them to examine the stimulus
Prove Family (Top-Down)
Must Be True/Most Strongly Supported
Prove Family (Top-Down)
Main Point
Prove Family (Top-Down)
Point of Issue/Agreement
Prove Family (Top-Down)
Method of Reasoning
Prove Family (Top-Down)
Flaw in Reasoning
Prove Family (Top-Down)
Parallel Reasoning/ Flaw
Disprove Family (Top-Down)
Cannot Be True
Help Family (Bottom Up)
Assumption
Help Family (Bottom Up)
Justify the Conclusion
Help Family (Bottom Up)
Strengthen/Support
Help Family (Bottom Up)
Resolve the Paradox
Hurt Family (Bottom-Up)
Weaken
Help Family
Based on the principle of assisting/helping the author's argument in some way.
Start with examining ACs, and see which one best fits what the question stem is asking you to do (justify, strengthen, etc.)
Immediately consider the S and look for holes or gaps in the argument that can be filled by one of the ACs
AC is accepted as given
You cannot dispute the factual basis of an AC even if they contain "outside/new" information not mentioned in S
The S is under suspicion.
Hurt Family
Attack/weaken the author's argument.
Start at S, expose the hole, and make the hole bigger with an AC.
The info in the S is suspect--often with reasoning even if they include new info errors present.
ACs are accepted as given, even if they include new info. Your task is to determine which AC best attacks the argument in the S.
Prove Family
Based in the principle of using info in the S (without any new information added) to prove that one of the ACs must be true.
Start at S and and use only that information to separate the ACs
-S is accepted as given (even if it contains an error of reasoning)
-The ACs are considered "suspect"
-Any info in an AC that does not appear either directly in the S, as a combination of items in the S, or under the umbrella of a concept in the S will be INCORRECT
Disprove Family
Prove that one of the answer choices cannot come true. Accept the S as given and examine the ACs. No new information can be added.