Structure of Arguments Exercise

Exercise #2:

Argument? Yes this is an argument. "I'm on the way to school. 1 I left five minutes late. 2 Traffic is heavy. 3 Therefore, I'll be late for class. 4 So I might as well stop and get breakfast. 5

Conclusion: I might as well stop and get breakfast.

Additional premises needed? You can definitely add additional premises to this argument if needed. For example after sentence 4 you could say "I can get the notes later from a classmate." This gives another reason for going to breakfast.

Identify any subargument: 1, 2, and 3 are the subarguments.

Good argument? This is not a good argument because it really could have used some extra backing to justify getting breakfast!

This exercise was actually very helpful in helping me breakdown the structure of arguments. It revealed all the seperate components and helped me to understand how to identify each part. It was definitely good practice for any future exercises that may require me to break down an argument!