Career consultant: The most popular

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct62% picked this

   bases a conclusion about how one group will respond to self-deprecation on information about how a different

   Why this is right

   The conclusion is about how employers would respond to self-deprecation (were their employees to stop emphasizing strengths and downplaying weaknesses), whereas the evidence is about how employees responded to their bosses' self-deprecation.

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

   62%
2. B

   Not an Objection5% picked this

   ignores the possibility that what was viewed positively in the managers’ self-deprecating humor was the self-deprecation

   The "self-deprecation" (playing down your strengths / playing up your weaknesses) was the relevant part of that study. It would have been an objection if the employees had been responding to the humor, not the self-deprecation.

   5%
3. C

   Not as Good an Objection13% picked this

   ignores the possibility that non-self-deprecating humor might have been viewed even more positively

   This one isn't nothing, but it's way less important or strong of an objection compared to (A). If this answer said that "self-aggrandizing humor" might have been viewed even more positively than self-deprecating humor, it would have a lot more punch. The advice the author is fighting against says to "play up your strengths, downplay your weaknesses". This answer is only really going to feel like an objection if it's saying that "playing up strengths" was better than self-deprecation. You can avoid self-deprecation (non-self-deprecating humor) without playing up your strengths. So this doesn't give us a good comparison between the study of employers and the original advice to employees.

   13%
4. D

   Bad Conclusion Match6% picked this

   infers from the fact that self-deprecating humor was viewed positively that nonhumorous self-deprecation would not

   The author infers from the fact that self-deprecating humor was viewed positively that "the advice about playing up strengths was misguided". The author is never concerned about humorous vs. non-humorous. This conversation is only about whether it's more advantageous to be self-aggrandizing or self-deprecating.

   6%
5. E

   Bad Evidence Match15% picked this

   bases a conclusion about certain popular career advice on a critique of only one part

   The author does make a conclusion about certain career advice. Does her evidence only critique one part of that advice? No. Saying that self-deprecation worked for these managers, is attacking both the idea that we should play up our strengths and downplay our weaknesses. Those aren't really two different things — they're two sides of the same coin. The advice says "make yourself look better" and the author's evidence is saying that these managers fared better when they "made themselves look worse".

   15%