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Fault, mistake, or weakness
- a fault, mistake, or weakness, especially one that happens while something is being planned or made, or that causes something not to be perfect:
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What is a basic flaw?
What is flaw noun?
What are flaw questions?
How do you identify a flaw?
a fault or weakness, esp. one that happens while something is being planned or made and that makes it not perfect: A flaw in the steering mechanism led to a recall of 200,000 cars. (Definition of flaw from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)
- Znaczenie Flaw, Definicja W Cambridge English Dictionary
FLAW definicja: 1. a fault, mistake, or weakness, especially...
- Indonesian Translation
flaw translate: cacat. Learn more in the Cambridge...
- English (US)
uk / ˈbeɪ.sɪk / us / ˈbeɪ.sɪk / simple and not complicated,...
- Flaw
C1. a fault, mistake, or weakness, especially one that...
- Znaczenie Flaw, Definicja W Cambridge English Dictionary
- Overview
- How do we identify flaws?
- How do we recognize Flaw questions?
- What’s the difference between Identifying a Flaw and Identifying a Weakener?
- Example
- How might we approach this question?
- Summary
- Common Incorrect Choices
- Your turn
- A few final thoughts on Flaw questions
How do we identify flaws?
The Logical Reasoning section includes a number of questions that ask you to identify a weakness in an argument’s reasoning. You’ll be presented with an argument that is flawed in some way. Your task? To describe why the argument isn’t sound.
The Logical Reasoning section includes a number of questions that ask you to identify a weakness in an argument’s reasoning. You’ll be presented with an argument that is flawed in some way. Your task? To describe why the argument isn’t sound.
In Flaw questions, you’ll see:
•A full argument in the passage, with a main conclusion and supporting evidence.
•Choices that contain descriptions of different flaws.
Questions of this kind are worded in a variety of ways:
The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument
The argument commits which one of the following errors of reasoning?
•When you’re asked to identify a weakener, you’re essentially finding information in the choices that makes the argument worse than it currently is.
•When you’re asked to identify a flaw, you’re not adding any information but rather simply describing why the argument as it stands isn’t logically strong. In other words, the argument is already unsound.
Sometimes, to identify a flaw you'll need to identify a way in which you could weaken the argument! Take this simple example:
I know it’s going to rain tomorrow, because I heard a forecast for rain on my favorite radio station.
•If your task were to Identify a Flaw, you could predict, “‘A problem is that the arguer assumes that the radio station is accurate in its forecasts.”
•If your task were to Identify a Weakener, you could predict, “I’m looking for a choice that shows that the radio station isn’t always accurate in its forecasts.”
The proportion of fat calories in the diets of people who read the nutrition labels on food products is significantly lower than it is in the diets of people who do not read nutrition labels. This shows that reading these labels promotes healthful dietary behavior.
The reasoning in the argument above is flawed in that the argument
(A) illicitly infers a cause from a correlation
(B) relies on a sample that is unlikely to be representative of the group as a whole
(C) confuses a condition that is necessary for a phenomenon to occur with a condition that is sufficient for that phenomenon to occur
(D) takes for granted that there are only two possible alternative explanations of a phenomenon
✓ Identify the conclusion and support.
A good way to start Flaw questions, as with many other argument-based question types, is to identify the conclusion and the support.
Conclusion
•Reading nutrition labels promotes healthful dietary behavior
because
Support
✓ Identify the conclusion and support
✓ Do a quick check for common flaws
✓ If you don’t find a common fallacy, describe the disconnect between conclusion and support in your own words
✓ Identify the choice that matches your prediction; otherwise, eliminate strategically
•Absent classics These choices describe classic flaws, but they just aren’t happening in the argument
•True statement, not relevant These choices describe possibilities that are indeed being overlooked, but they are possibilities that would have no effect on the strength of the reasoning’s support for the conclusion anyway.
[What’s the difference between a “wrong” overlooked possibility and a “right” overlooked possibility?]
•Bad assumptions Choices that ascribe an assumption to the arguer that’s inaccurate (the arguer isn’t making that assumption at all), or too strong (the arguer isn’t assuming something that’s as extreme as what is described in the choice)
Top tip: Recognize the many phrasings of a flaw. A flaw can be described as an unwarranted assumption, as an overlooked possibility, as a confusion of two things, or as the name of a classic flaw, to list just a few of the many possibilities. Don’t cling to one phrasing of a flaw, because you could miss the answer if you do! The following flaws, while distinct in wording from each other, are all conceptually identical:
•The arguer assumes without warrant that X is the only possible cause.
practice question 1
Journalist: Newspapers generally report on only those scientific studies whose findings sound dramatic. Furthermore, newspaper stories about small observational studies, which are somewhat unreliable, are more frequent than newspaper stories about large randomized trials, which generate stronger scientific evidence. Therefore, a small observational study must be more likely to have dramatic findings than a large randomized trial.
Which one of the following most accurately expresses a flaw in the journalist's reasoning?
Choose 1 answer:
Choose 1 answer:
•(Choice A)
•You’re a step ahead of the arguer! Tell yourself before reading the passage that you know something the arguer doesn’t: you know up front that the argument isn’t sound. That allows you to read with the purpose of finding a disconnect between the evidence and the conclusion.
•Get specific: Try not to get distracted by how abstract some of the choices in Flaw questions can be. If the wording is very vague, try replacing some of the general terms with specific terms from the passage. For example, “The arguer assumes that one event is necessary for another event to take place” can be re-thought of as, “The arguer assumes that eating fewer calories is necessary to losing weight.”
•Make up your own flawed arguments: If you want to get really strong in identifying flaws, you can practice creating your own arguments around the classic flaws, or listening for flaws around you. Can you find an example of a someone committing the flaw of an unrepresentative sample when you listen to advertisements? Can you make up your own argument for causation versus correlation?
•Mind the gap! Often, you’ll find that the arguer addresses one thing in the evidence and then jumps to another thing in the conclusion. The more subtle the jump is, the more challenging it is to identify the flaw. Don’t make the same assumption that the arguer does—try to “zoom out” and see the big picture without jumping to conclusions. For example, if you were faced with the argument, “I need to get a job because I need to make money”, it could be difficult because common sense tells us that this is a fairly reasonable statement. But logical sense should have us asking, “Is it necessary to get a job in order to make money? Or are there other potential ways to make money?” Think critically!
What's a flaw? appear. Where am I most likely to use my knowledge of common flaws? You'll often encounter classic flaws in the arguments and choices in these Logical Reasoning question types: Identify a flaw. Match flaws. And, knowledge about these flaws can sometimes help you identify potential weak points in these question types: Weaken.
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English flaw /flɔː $ flɒː/ noun [ countable] 1 a mistake, mark, or weakness that makes something imperfect SYN defect flaw in a flaw in the software serious/major/basic/minor etc flaw a slight flaw in the glass A design flaw (=a mistake or weakness in the way something was made) caused the engine to ex...
noun. /flɔː/ a mistake in something that means that it is not correct or does not work correctly synonym defect, fault. The argument is full of fundamental flaws. flaw in something The report reveals fatal flaws in security at the airport. There is still a basic flaw in your selection procedure. Extra Examples. Oxford Collocations Dictionary.
