ARGUMENTS INTRODUCTION
An argument， as used on the GMAT， is a presentation of facts and opinions in
order to support a position. Many arguments will be fallacious. And many co
rrect answers will be false！ This often causes students much consternation1；
they feel that the correct answer should be true. But the arguments are inte
nded to test your ability to think logically. Now logic2 is the study of the
relationships between statements， not of the truth of those statements. Bein
g overly concerned with finding the truth can be ruinous to your GMAT argume
nt score.
2 OUT OF 5 RULE
Creating a good but incorrect answer-choice is much harder than developing t
he correct answer. For this reason， usually only one attractive wrong answer
-choice is presented. This is called the 2 out of 5 rule. That is， only tw
o of the five answer-choices will have any real merit. Hence， even if you do
n't fully3 understand an argument， you probably can still eliminate the three
fluff choices， thereby4 greatly increasing your odds5 of answering the questi
on correctly.
LOGIC I
Although in theory the argument questions are designed to be answered withou
t any reference to formal logic， the section is essentially6 a logic test. So
me knowledge of the fundamentals of logic， therefore， will give you a defini
te advantage. Armed with this knowledge， you should quickly notice that the
arguments are fundamentally easy and that most of them fallsintosa few basic
categories. In this section， we will study the logical structure of argumen
ts. In Logic II， we will symbolize7 and diagram arguments in much the same wa
y as we did with games
Conclusions
Most argument questions hinge， either directly or indirectly8， on determining
the conclusion of the argument. The conclusion is the main idea of the argu
ment. It is what the writer tries to persuade the reader to believe. Most of
ten the conclusion comes at the end of the argument. The writer organizes th
e facts and his opinions so that they build up to the conclusion. Sometimes，
however， the conclusion will come at the beginning of an argument， rarely d
oes it come in the middle， and occasionally， for rhetorical effect， the conc
lusion is not even stated.
Example：
The police are the armed guardians9 of the social order. The blacks are the c
hief domestic victims of the American social order. A conflict of interest e
xists， therefore， between the blacks and the police.Eldridge Cleaver10， Soul
on Ice
Here the first two sentences anticipate or set up the conclusion. By changin
g the grammar slightly， the conclusion can be placed at the beginning of the
argument and still sound natural：
A conflict of interest exists between the blacks and the police because the
police are the armed guardians of the socialsgroupsand the blacks are the ch
ief domestic victims of the American social order.
The conclusion can also be forcedsintosthe middle：
The police are the armed guardians of the social order. So a conflict of int
erest exists between the blacks and the police because the blacks are the ch
ief domestic victims of the American social order.
It is generally awkward， as in the previous paragraph， to place the conclusi
on in the middle of the argument because then it cannot be fully anticipated
by what comes before nor fully explained by what comes after. On the rare o
ccasion when a conclusion comes in the middle of an argument， most often eit
her the material that comes after it or the material that comes before it is
not essential
