Exercise:
Las Vegas has too many people. (1) There's not enough water in the desert to support a million people (2). And the infrastructure of the city can't handle more than a million: (3) The streets are overcrowded (4), and the traffic is always congested (5); the schools are overcrowded, (6) and new ones can't be built fast enough. (7) We should stop migration to the city by tough zoning laws in the city and county. (8)
Argument: Yes
Conclusion: Las Vegas has become overpopulated, to rectify this the city and county should implement harsh zoning laws to make it harder for the city to expand more.
Additional premises needed?: If 1+2+3+4+5+6+7 is true then 8 must be true and no additional premises are needed.
Identify any subargument: Point two begins a subargument about the city's problems, which lasts until point seven, points one and eight however are independent and the subargument supports point one which in turn supports the conclusion.
Good Argument: Yes, there are plenty of citations within this argument as to why Las Vegas is overcrowded.
I found this exercise to be quite difficult when I first attempted it, but after studying the chapter I've learned to identify structure within argumentative sentences much better. This particular example is interesting because the argument involves the writer going off on a tangent about just what was wrong with Las Vegas. I found this argument method effective; however because of the tangent the writer embarks on it could be said that the argument was formed poorly, but I believe the good execution outweighs that.
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