Analyzing the text

Last updated: 13 Oct 2008

Here's an example of a Critical Reasoning text:

A CEO of a major company noted a serious decline in worker productivity during the previous five years. According to a report done by an outside consultant, productivity dropped by 35% by the end of that period. The CEO has therefore initiated a plan to boost productivity by giving employees shares of the company as part of their pay package.

We can use the text above to show the four different parts of a Critical Reasoning text.

Conclusion/Main Idea

Most problems have a central idea or thesis. This is almost always located in the sentence at the beginning of the text, or in the sentence at the very end. In this case, it is at the end of the passage:

The CEO has therefore initiated a plan to boost productivity by giving employees shares of the company as part of their pay package.

Notice the word therefore in that sentence. Words like therefore, thus, hence, and so usually tell us that this is the conclusion or the main idea.

Let these words lead you to the main idea.

Premise

Premises are the facts or evidence that support or lead to the conclusion. Unlike assumptions, they are explicit. Here is an example from the text:

A CEO of a major company noted a serious decline in worker productivity during the previous five years.

This premise helps the author lead to the conclusion or main idea of the text.

Assumption

Assumptions are the facts that support the conclusion, like the premise does, but unlike the conclusion and premises they are not stated in the text: they are implicit.

Here is what would be an example of an assumption for this particular critical reasoning problem:

Owning something or part of something obliges you work harder to make it succeed.

Note that this line is not in the text: it cannot be in the text if it is an assumption of the author. But it does give the argument as a whole some sense, and also supports the conclusion.

Supporting Information

Like a premise, this is stated and explicit information embedded in the text, but unlike a premise, it does not support the conclusion.

At best it supports a premise or provides further detail or information regarding a premise. From the text:

According to a report done by an outside consultant, productivity dropped by 35% by the end of that period.

This sentence supports the first sentence, the premise that notes that productivity has dropped.

Supporting Information does not support the conclusion or main idea, rather, it supports information that is already in the text.

Next page: General strategies for critical reasoning