Activist: As electronic monitoring of employees

Answer choices

1. A

   Bad Evidence Match3% picked this

   attack an argument different from that actually offered by

   The author doesn't attack a different argument; she just dismisses the one that employers are making by saying that it's a self-serving argument. (Attacking a different argument goes by the nicknames Straw Man or Irrelevant Response)

   3%
2. B

   Too Strong: never4% picked this

   presume that employees are never dishonest, inefficient,

   Our author doesn't insinuate that no employee has ever been dishonest, inefficient, or rude. That's an absurdly crazy claim to believe, and we can't point to where our author sounds that crazy.

   4%
3. C

   Unsupported Comparison1% picked this

   insist that modern business practices meet moral standards far higher than those accepted

   Nothing in the argument relates to "past moral standards" vs. "modern moral standards"

   1%
4. D

   Correct88% picked this

   attack employers’ motives instead of addressing

   Why this is right

   "Ad hominem" means attacking the person rather than the argument. Our author did not address whether surveilling employees would indeed make them more polite, efficient, or honest. She only brought up the motives ("self-serving") of the employers and used that to reject their argument

   Skill tested: Flaw · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   88%
5. E

   Bad Conclusion Match Bad Evidence Match3% picked this

   make a generalization based on a sample that there is reason to

   The conclusion does not make a generalization. It's a specific rejection of the justification these employers were making. This answer choice describes the famous flaw Sampling. If this answer had been committing a Sampling flaw, it would have needed to make a move from "because it's true here, it's true in other cases like this". "Since these justification are self-serving, any reason an employer gives for increased surveillance must be self-serving." Instead it said, "Because these explanations are self-serving, these explanations should be rejected."

   3%