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Referring Back At Paragraph Scale

Refer back to a whole argument with one noun that also names what kind of argument it was.

11 micro-lessons

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Naming What You Just Said

Two paragraph openings that point at the same thing. One of them also tells you what it is.

The preceding paragraph

Rents in the city rose by 40% over five years while median wages rose by 6%. Lower-paid workers moved steadily further out. Employers then raised wages to attract staff back, which pushed rents higher still.

Now two ways to open the next paragraph.

This has been visible in several cities since 2015.

This dynamic has been visible in several cities since 2015.

One word different. What did the second one do that the first did not?

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What Kind of Thing

Eighteen passages. Decide what kind of thing each one is before you decide what to call it.

Sort each item into the correct category

A thing that happened or is happening

An argument somebody made

Something taken for granted and never argued

Unassigned

Rents rose 40% in five years while median wages rose 6%.

Every year since 2015, more graduates have left the region than have entered it.

As rents rise, low-paid workers move further out; employers then raise wages to attract them back, which pushes rents higher still.

Three of the four cities that introduced the charge recorded the same fall in the same year.

Applications fell in 2019, fell again in 2020, and fell again in 2021.

The city's population grew by a third while its road network stayed the same length.

Supporters say that the charge reduces traffic, that reduced traffic improves air quality, and therefore that the charge improves air quality.

The government's case is that higher fines deter offending, so raising fines will reduce offences.

Critics argue that since the scheme is voluntary, only motivated firms will join, so its results will overstate the effect.

The report concludes that because the pilot worked in two cities, it will work nationally.

One line of defence is that the cost is offset by the savings, which are larger.

It has been argued that flexible hours raise output, on the grounds that rested workers are more productive.

Throughout, the report treats productivity as something a single number can capture.

The proposal speaks of the community as though it held one view.

Every costing in the document takes the current interest rate as holding for a decade.

The comparison takes for granted that the two schemes were trying to do the same thing.

The argument proceeds as if households could move house freely whenever prices change.

Nowhere does the paper say why 2015 is the right baseline to measure from.

Reference That Also Argues

What each noun claims about the thing it points at, and the two that decide whether you have conceded an argument.

Four nouns for things that happened

Each of these makes a specific claim about the shape of what you just described, and the claim has to be true.

this dynamic — two or more forces feeding each other. It needs a loop. If your paragraph described one thing causing another and stopping there, it is not a dynamic.

this tendency — something that recurs, or a disposition that keeps producing the same outcome. It needs repetition; a single event has no tendency in it.

such a shift — a change from one state to another. It needs a visible before and after. Note the article: such a shift, not such shift.

the pattern — a regularity across separate cases. It needs more than one case. Three cities doing the same thing is a pattern; one city doing it three times is a tendency.

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Pointing and Labelling

The same board of argument, twice. Only the card changes, and it changes what the next paragraph can say.

One wide illustration divided down the middle. On each side, the same person stands beside the same whiteboard of diagrams, holding up a card. The left card reads THIS REASONING; the right card reads THE UNDERLYING ASSUMPTION.

Click to zoom

Same board, same argument, same person. The card decides what the next paragraph is allowed to say.

Match Passage to Classification

Six preceding paragraphs, six nouns. Only one noun is true of each.

NoteEach passage on the left is the paragraph you have just written. Match it to the noun that correctly classifies it. Read all six on the right first — two pairs are close, and getting them the wrong way round makes a claim the passage does not support.

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Terms

Definitions

Reasoning or Assumption

Three chains where the noun you choose is the argument you are making.

Answer the reasoning step first, in ten words or fewer, then write the noun. In every chain, the classification you choose is the argumentative move — so decide what the previous paragraph actually did before you name it.

0 of 6 blanks filled

Chain 1

The previous paragraph: Supporters say the charge reduces traffic, that reduced traffic improves air quality, and therefore that the charge improves air quality. You accept it as an argument and intend to limit its scope.

Candidates: this reasoning / the underlying assumption

Step 1 — Were premises offered and a conclusion drawn?

Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: holds only where the traffic displaced does not simply move to another road.

Chain 2

The previous paragraph: Every costing in the document treats the current interest rate as holding for a decade. Nowhere is that defended. You intend to challenge the foundation.

Candidates: this reasoning / the underlying assumption

Step 1 — Was this argued, or taken for granted?

Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: is that rates will not move for ten years, which no section of the document defends.

Chain 3

The previous paragraph: Rents rose 40% in five years while median wages rose 6%. That is the whole paragraph — one sentence, one fact.

Candidates: this phenomenon / this

Step 1 — Is the reference long or ambiguous enough to need a classifying noun?

Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: alone would explain much of the outflow.

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