Back to the on-screen lesson ·
Every argument has one sentence it is for, and the rest of the passage is offered to get you to accept it.
Paper packet. Every task here also exists on screen, where it is checked automatically; answers written on paper are not assessed by Nydus. When you are back at a device, enter your answers there.
You will take a passage written the way people actually write — a note, a message, a paragraph — and name the one sentence it is arguing for, then say which of the other sentences are offered in support of it and which are background that supports nothing. You will do it when the marker words are there and when they are not, and when the conclusion comes first rather than last.
The city council has asked for comments on its plan to shut the skate park on Sundays.
Sunday is the day the park is busiest.
Shutting a place does the most harm on the day most people are using it.
So Sunday is the worst day of the week the city council could have picked.
Nobody at the meeting said which day would be better.
The park should stay open every day of the week.
Every hour it is shut, the skaters move to the yard behind the shops.
Cars reversing and skaters in one small yard is a worse arrangement than either on its own.
Tomas, who pinned up the note, has been skating there since he was eight.
Every lamp over the ramp was fitted eleven years ago.
The club needs new lights before the winter.
A lamp of that age goes out with no warning at all, and a dark ramp is where people get hurt.
You can already take an argument that is laid out for you — two premises and a conclusion, one to a line — and say which is which. Out in the world nobody lays it out. This lesson is that same skill applied to a note on a fence.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Conclusion | The claim the passage offers reasons for accepting. |
| Premise | A claim presented as a reason for accepting another claim. |
| Background | Information that provides context without being offered as support. |
| Intermediate conclusion | A supported claim used in turn as a reason for a further claim. |
An argument is not a topic and it is not a mood. It is one sentence somebody wants you to accept, plus the sentences they offer to get you there.
The whole job is finding that one sentence. Everything afterwards in this course — what the argument is assuming, whether a step is fair, whether the evidence reaches — is impossible until you can say what is being argued for.
The test that works when the marker words fail: read a sentence, then say and that is why I am telling you this. Only the conclusion can take it.
Reasons come before conclusions in most writing and in none reliably. A conclusion is allowed to come first, last, or in the middle of the paragraph, and a writer who puts it first is not being tricky — they are being clear.
Another way: picture
Draw one box at the top of the page and arrows pointing up into it from the boxes below. The top box is the conclusion. A sentence with no arrow coming out of it is background, and however true it is, the argument would be exactly as strong without it.
Another way: steps
Three questions of any passage:
So, therefore, hence and which shows that announce a conclusion. Because, since, given that and after all announce a premise. When they are there they are the quickest route in.
| Word | What usually follows |
|---|---|
| so, therefore, hence | the conclusion |
| because, since, as | a premise |
| which is why | an explanation, not a conclusion |
Two warnings. Since is also a word about time — since Tuesday marks nothing. And because has a second job: the boiler went out because the pressure dropped is not an argument that the boiler went out. Nobody doubts it. That sentence says what brought it about, which is the next lesson's problem.
Imagine that somebody has copied a paragraph onto a card and removed every punctuation mark. You cannot rely on a heading, a final sentence, or bold type. What remains is the relation between claims. One claim is being recommended for acceptance, and others are offered as grounds for accepting it. This relation, rather than the physical arrangement of the card, determines which claim is the conclusion. Reading an argument is therefore an act of reconstruction: you preserve the writer's meaning while making the support relation easier to see.
Begin by putting a small boundary around the passage you are analyzing. A whole newspaper article may contain several arguments, while one paragraph may only introduce the subject. If the exercise asks about a particular note, identify the conclusion of that note. Do not import the conclusion of the conversation around it. A message saying that the north gate needs oil might support a later request for a maintenance budget, but the budget request is not automatically the conclusion of the message you have actually been given.
Next write a candidate conclusion in a complete sentence. 'The north gate' names a topic. 'Annoyance about the north gate' names a feeling. 'The north gate should be repaired before the open day' makes a claim that a reader can accept or reject. Preserve words such as should, probably, all, some, and before. Changing 'the gate may fail' to 'the gate will fail' makes the conclusion stronger, so it changes the argument. Shortening a sentence is useful only if it preserves what the author is asking us to believe.
Now ask a directional question of every other sentence: if I accepted this sentence, would the writer expect it to make the candidate conclusion more acceptable? The sentence 'the hinge has cracked' can support a repair recommendation. The recommendation does not, in the ordinary reading, support the factual claim that the hinge has cracked. This asymmetry helps you find the arrow. It does not prove that the reason is true or that the recommendation is wise. It reveals the intended direction of the reasoning.
If two candidate conclusions seem possible, try writing both maps. For each map, put the remaining claims underneath as reasons. A good reconstruction makes sense of more of the passage with fewer invented claims. Suppose a note says, 'The gate drags on the ground. Its hinge is bent. Please use the side entrance until Friday.' The first two sentences fit naturally as reasons for the request. Treating 'its hinge is bent' as the conclusion leaves the request hanging without a clear evidential role. That does not make the first map infallible, but it gives you a reason to prefer it.
The phrase 'and that is why I am telling you this' is a useful reading aid, not a mechanical test that never fails. People tell us facts to entertain us, explain something, or record an event. A sentence can be the point of a story without being the conclusion of an argument. Before applying the phrase, check that the passage offers some claim as a reason to accept another. Where the author only gives three unrelated facts, the honest answer is that there is no argument to map yet.
An argument can contain a small argument inside a larger one. Consider this four-sentence message: 'Every room in the east wing loses power at six. The rehearsal room is in the east wing. Rehearsal cannot continue there after six. We should move the evening rehearsal to the west hall.' The third sentence is a conclusion from the first two. It then becomes a premise for the fourth. A claim's role is relative to the support relation being examined; it is not a permanent label attached to that sentence wherever it appears.
Draw the first two arrows into the third sentence, then draw an arrow from the third into the fourth. The fourth is the main conclusion of this message because it is the final claim the message recommends accepting. It need not be the last sentence on the page. The author could begin with the request to move and explain the power cut afterwards. The same arrows would still describe the reasoning. An intermediate conclusion has both an incoming arrow and an outgoing arrow; a main conclusion has incoming support and no further supported claim within this passage.
Background has a different role. The note might add, 'The west hall was painted blue last summer.' That detail helps identify the room, but as stated it gives no reason to prefer it for rehearsal. Do not erase background from the original passage; simply keep it out of the support map. Your map is a selective representation of reasoning, not a claim that every omitted sentence is worthless. A date, name, or location may be essential for understanding a message even when it does not function as a premise.
Be cautious about declaring information irrelevant before understanding the context. 'The hall has no stairs' looks incidental in one discussion but becomes an important reason when the question concerns wheelchair access. Ask whether the author presents a connection between that detail and this particular conclusion. If a connection is only imaginable after adding an elaborate story, you are probably repairing or inventing an argument rather than identifying the one written. Later lessons will examine modest hidden assumptions. For now, distinguish a clear implied connection from an unsupported guess about what the author might have meant.
The removal check can help, but it needs care. Cover a sentence and reread the argument. If the passage loses a relevant reason, the sentence was doing evidential work. If it only loses color or an identifying detail, it was probably background. Two reasons can be redundant: removing one does not necessarily make the remaining argument much weaker, but it still had the role of a premise. You are identifying the writer's offered support, not measuring each sentence's exact numerical contribution to persuasion.
Finish by reporting a conclusion and its support in different lines. You can write, 'Conclusion: move rehearsal to the west hall. Reasons: the current room loses power at six, so rehearsal cannot continue there afterwards.' If asked only to mark text, keep those lines mentally rather than rewriting the passage. A clear answer preserves the strength of the claim, excludes unrelated detail, and respects the direction from reasons to conclusion. Agreement with the author's decision is a separate matter that can wait until the map is accurate.
A youth council has received a 140-word comment before a meeting about opening hours. Its secretary must turn it into an agenda item without misrepresenting the writer. The relevant part reads: 'The library should stay open until seven on Wednesdays. Forty students finish practice at five thirty. The last bus leaves the library stop at seven fifteen. Our team won its match last weekend.' These numbers are facts in a fictional planning case; the reading task is to identify the proposal they are meant to support.
The secretary first writes the proposed decision: keep the library open until seven on Wednesdays. That is the conclusion. The finishing time and bus time are offered as reasons: they identify a possible period in which those students could use the library and still catch a bus. Winning a match does not support the opening-hours proposal as written. It is background, even though it may matter greatly to the writer.
The secretary must not replace the conclusion with 'all forty students will use the library every Wednesday'. That stronger prediction was never stated. Nor should the secretary say that the comment proves extended opening is affordable. There is no staffing or cost evidence in these four sentences. An accurate agenda entry can name a proposal without certifying that it should be adopted.
A useful summary is therefore: 'Proposal: extend Wednesday opening to seven. Offered reasons: forty students finish practice at five thirty and the last bus leaves at seven fifteen.' The city council can now ask separate questions about demand, staffing, and cost. Finding the conclusion has made disagreement more productive by ensuring that everybody discusses the same proposal rather than a distorted version of it.
Taking the first sentence as the conclusion. It is usually the topic, and very often the background. The order of a paragraph is a writing choice.
Marking everything as a premise. A passage with five sentences rarely has four reasons in it. A sentence that would not change your mind about the conclusion is not supporting it.
Deciding the conclusion by what you agree with. The conclusion is whatever the writer is arguing for, including when they are wrong. Finding it is reading, not judging.
Separate the three claims in the note.
A: varnished Friday. B: takes four days to harden. C: nobody should enter before Tuesday.
Keeping the claims separate lets us inspect the support relation rather than the topic alone.
Use the marker to identify a candidate conclusion.
So C: nobody should enter before Tuesday.
The word so normally introduces the claim the earlier reasons support.
Check the first offered reason.
A supplies the starting day: Friday.
A drying interval cannot determine a reopening day without a starting point.
Check the second offered reason.
B supplies the interval: four days.
The interval connects the varnishing date with the proposed restriction.
Record the support map.
A and B support C; no separate background claim remains.
Both factual claims are presented as reasons for the restriction, rather than as unrelated news.
Write the bin note as three claims.
A: move the bin. B: it is under the only opening window. C: it sits in the afternoon sun.
A support map needs claims rather than isolated nouns such as bin or window.
Try the request as the conclusion.
Candidate: the bin should be moved.
The remaining sentences can naturally answer why someone would make this request.
Read the location as offered support.
B supports moving the bin away from the opening window.
The writer presents proximity to the window as relevant to the request.
Read the exposure to sun as offered support.
C also supports moving the bin.
The note treats afternoon heat as another reason for avoiding this location.
Keep reconstruction separate from endorsement.
Map: B and C support A; no claim that the argument is decisive.
Identifying a conclusion does not settle costs, alternatives, or whether the writer's concerns are justified.
List the claims about evening rehearsal.
A: the east wing loses power at six. B: rehearsal is in that wing. C: rehearsal cannot continue there after six. D: move to the west hall.
Separating claims makes the two support relations visible.
Combine the general power-cut information with the room location.
A and B support C.
The room falls inside the part of the building affected by the stated cut.
Find what the resulting limitation is used to support.
C supports D.
The inability to continue there is presented as a reason to change rooms.
Name the intermediate conclusion.
C receives support from A and B, then supports D.
A claim can be a conclusion at one stage and a premise at the next.
Exclude an identifying detail added to the message.
E: the west hall was painted blue last summer. E is background here.
The paint color is not offered as a reason that rehearsal can continue there.
Report the main conclusion with its intended support.
Main conclusion D: move rehearsal to the west hall. Support chain: A + B → C → D.
The proposal is the endpoint of the reasoning in this bounded passage.
List the stated obstacles to printing.
No toner; no spare; a replacement takes three days.
These facts describe why a printed submission might be unavailable.
Find the recommendation those obstacles support.
Anything due Thursday must be submitted on a screen.
This is the claim the message asks its reader to act on.
State the argument's direction.
In the first note on the fence, mark the premises and the conclusion.
Underline the premises and circle the conclusion in the passage above.
A note says: '1. The hall is booked all Saturday. 2. The only available rehearsal room is the music room. 3. Saturday's rehearsal should be in the music room.' Complete the support map using the sentence numbers.
Find the sentence recommending an action.
Conclusion sentence: conclusion.
The other sentences explain why that room is being recommended.
Locate the sentence ruling out the hall.
First premise sentence: first.
The hall booking removes the usual room from the available choices.
Locate the remaining room information.
Second premise sentence: second.
The availability claim supplies the room proposed in the conclusion.
A short note reads: *The spare kit has not been washed since the last match. Anyone who forgets their own kit is given the spare. Somebody is going to play on Saturday in a dirty shirt. The kit is kept in the cupboard by the showers.* Which sentence is the conclusion?
The third note has no marker word anywhere in it. Mark its premises and its conclusion.
Underline the premises and circle the conclusion in the passage above.
Five sentences from a message about the late bus. Mark the one sentence the other four are there to support.
This task has no paper form; do it on a device.
In the second note on the fence, mark the premises and the conclusion. Be careful: it does not come last.
Underline the premises and circle the conclusion in the passage above.
Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.
1. The pool roof leaks onto the locker room floor. 2. The city council should repair the roof this month. 3. Wet locker room floors have forced three closures this week. Give the conclusion's sentence number, followed by the two premise numbers in increasing order.
Conclusion c; premises a and b.
You can find the conclusion of a passage with no marker word in it, and tell a reason from a piece of background. Say out loud why the gate was hung by the caretaker's brother is not a premise for anything. Next: passages that look like arguments and are not.
14. Complete the printer argument, step 3
The three supply facts support the electronic-submission recommendation.
The recommendation is supported by the facts rather than evidence for those facts.