What Are the Issue and the Conclusion?

I. Introduction

Before we evaluate someone's reasoning, we must first find it. To get started as a critical thinker, you must practice the identification of the issue and the conclusion.

In general, those who create Web pages, editorials, books, magazine articles, or speeches are trying to change your perceptions or beliefs. For you to form a reasonable reaction to their persuasive effort, you must first identify the controversy(tranh cãi) or issue as well as the thesis or conclusion being pushed onto you.

When you have completed this chapter, you should be able to answer the first of our critical questions successfully:

Critical Question: What are the issue and the conclusion?

2. Kinds of Issues

There are two kinds of issues. 

2.1 Descriptive issues

Descriptive issues are those that raise questions about the accuracy of descriptions of the past, present, or future. 

They demand answers attempting to describe the way the world is, was, or is going to be. 

They reflect our curiosity about patterns or order in the world.

For example:

• Do families who own pets have fewer arguments with one another?
• What causes high blood pressure?
• Who made the decision to increase our sales taxes?
• How much will college cost in the year 2010?

2.2 Prescriptive issues

Prescriptive issues are those that raise questions about what 

we should do or what is right or wrong, good or bad.

The demand answers suggesting the way the world ought

to be.

These issues are ethical, or moral, issues; they raise questions about what is right or wrong, desirable or undesirable, good or bad.

For example:

• Should capital punishment be abolished?
• What ought to be done about social security?
• Must we outlaw SUVs or face increasing rates of asthma?

3. Searching for the Issue

Issue is explicitly stated:

• The writer or speaker will tell you what it is
• The body of the text, usually right at the beginning
• The title

Issue is implicitly stated:

• Asking "What is the author reacting to?" will often suggest the central issue of a communication
• Check for background information about the author as you try to determine the issue

There is one and only one correct way to state the issue. Critical evaluation is to find the conclusion.

We cannot critically evaluate until we find the conclusion!

A conclusion is the message that the speaker or writer wishes you to accept.

4. Searching for the Author's or Speaker's Conclusion

What is the writer or speaker trying to prove?

What is the communicator's main point?

Any answer to the question provided by the speaker or writer will be the conclusion

How to find?

Looking for a statement or set of statements that the writer or speaker wants you to believe.

This because of that.

This refers to the conclusion; 

That refers to the support for the conclusion. 

This structure represents the process of inference.

Conclusions are inferred; they are derived from reasoning. Conclusions 

are ideas that require other ideas to support them.

The last paragraph says a lot. It would be a good idea for you to read it

again

Example

"Factory farming should not be legal. There are other more natural ways to produce needed food supply."

"Factory farming should not be legal." This is the author's answer to the question: should factory farming be legalized? It is her conclusion. [Prescriptive issues]

The author supports this belief with another: "There are other more natural ways to produce needed food supply."

Do you see why the supporting belief is not a conclusion? It is not the conclusion because it is used to prove something else. Remember. To believe one statement (the conclusion) because you think it is well supported by other beliefs is to make an inference. When people engage in this process, they are reasoning; the conclusion is the outcome of this reasoning.

5. USING THIS CRITICAL QUESTION

Should I accept that conclusion on the basis of what is supporting the claim?

5.1 Clues(đầu mối) to Discovery: How to Find the Conclusion

Clue No. 1: Ask what the issue is

First, look at the title. Next, look at the opening paragraphs. If this technique does not help, skimming several pages may be necessary.

Clue No. 2 : Look for indicator words

The conclusion will frequently be preceded by indicator words that announce a conclusion is coming

consequently, hence, therefore, suggests that, points, to the conclusion that , thus, the point I'm trying to make is, it follows that, it is highly probable that, shows that, proves that, indicates that, the truth of the matter is.

When you write, you 

should draw attention to your thesis with indicator words

Clue No. 3: Look in likely locations

The beginning and at the end

Clue No. 4: Remember what a conclusion is not

Conclusions will not be any of the following

• examples
• statistics
• definitions
• background information 
• evidence

Clue No. 5: Check the context of the communication and the author's back

ground.

Be especially alert to information about organizations with which writers or speakers may be associated

Clue No. 6: Ask the question, "and therefore?"

Ask for the identity of the "and therefore" element.

"Does the author want us to draw an implied conclusion from the information communicated?"

5.2 Critical Thinking and Your Own Writing and Speaking

a. Making your conclusion easily identifiable not only makes a reader's task easier, it also may improve the logic of your writing.

An effective way to emphasize the conclusion

is to insert it at the beginning or end of your essay and precede it with an 

indicator word

b. Make certain that it is 

a direct response to the issue you intended to address

6. 

Practice Exercises

Critical Question: What are the issue and the conclusion?

Passage 1

Home schooling is a valid concept if the parent makes teaching a full time job, and has the insight, knowledge and patience to do so. However, the truth of the matter is that few parents who home school their child are capable of doing so. Parents may choose to pull their student out of public schools for the wrong reasons. Sometimes, when children are a discipline problem, the parents will pull them out of school rather than tolerating the rules associated with the punishment. Such a motivation does not speak well for the probable results of the home schooling that follows. In addition, when there are no other adults to monitor what is going on at home, it is likely that if there is a case of abuse in the home that it will go unnoticed. Society needs to know whether these children are getting the education and treatment they deserve.

Passage 2

Television advertising agencies are very clever in the way that they construct ads. Often the ads are similar to the cartoons that the children enjoy. Children see these characters interacting with a certain product and associate their affection for the character with affection for the product. The companies do not want the children to perceive a difference between the shows they are watching and the advertisements. By using this strategy, these companies take advantage of the fact that children are often not able to discriminate between the cartoons and the ads and do not understand that these things offered come at a cost. Often the advertising is about sugary snacks or fatty foods, leading the children down a path to bad health. Advertising geared towards children should be regulated - j u s t as there are regulations now about tobacco and alcohol ads targeted at children.

Passage 3

Should the public be shown actual courtroom trials on television? It seems as though the system can easily be corrupted by having cameras in the courtroom. Victims are hesitant enough when testifying in front of a small crowd, but their knowledge that every word is being sent to countless homes would increase the likelihood that they would simply refuse to testify. There is little to no assumed innocence for the accused when their trial is put on television. People do not watch court television because they are concerned about our country's ability to effectively carry out the proceedings of the judicial system; instead, they are looking for the drama in witness testimony: entertainment. Thus, leave the cameras out of the courtrooms, and let the public view sitcom drama based off of the legal system.

CRITICAL QUESTION SUMMARY: 

WHY THIS QUESTION IS IMPORTANT

What Are the Issue and the Conclusion?

Before you can evaluate an author's argument, you must clearly identify the issue and conclusion. How can you evaluate an argument if you don't know exactly what the author is trying to persuade you to believe? Finding an author's main point is the first step in deciding whether you will accept or reject it.

Source: Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, 8th Ed