PrepTest 84, Section 3, Question 22
Commentator: Unfortunately, Roehmer's opinion column has a polarizing effect on national politics. She has always taken a partisan stance, and lately she has taken the further step of impugning the motives of her adversaries. That style of argumentation is guaranteed not to change the minds of people with opposing viewpoints; it only alienates them. But that is likely not a problem for Roehmer, since her column is just an attempt to please her loyal readers.
Commentator: Unfortunately, Roehmer's opinion column has a polarizing effect on national politics. She has always taken a partisan stance, and lately she has taken the further step of impugning the motives of her adversaries. That style of argumentation is guaranteed not to change the minds of people with opposing viewpoints; it only alienates them. But that is likely not a problem for Roehmer, since her column is just an attempt to please her loyal readers.
Commentator: Unfortunately, Roehmer's opinion column has a polarizing effect on national politics. She has always taken a partisan stance, and lately she has taken the further step of impugning the motives of her adversaries. That style of argumentation is guaranteed not to change the minds of people with opposing viewpoints; it only alienates them. But that is likely not a problem for Roehmer, since her column is just an attempt to please her loyal readers.
Commentator: Unfortunately, Roehmer's opinion column has a polarizing effect on national politics. She has always taken a partisan stance, and lately she has taken the further step of impugning the motives of her adversaries. That style of argumentation is guaranteed not to change the minds of people with opposing viewpoints; it only alienates them. But that is likely not a problem for Roehmer, since her column is just an attempt to please her loyal readers.
The reasoning in the commentator's argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument
fails to rule out the possibility that a purported cause of a phenomenon is actually an effect of that phenomenon
criticizes a column merely by invoking the personal characteristics of its author
concludes that one event caused another merely because that event occurred immediately prior to the other
contradicts itself in its portrayal of Roehmer's column
employs a tactic at one point that it elsewhere objects to
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