Sample Essay on Logic and Language Exercise

Example of case essay, Sample Paper

1. Money is a universal tool that can serve and cause the prosperity of both the good and the evil.
2. - Time is important, so we better travel by plane.
C. Air travel is faster than ground travel.

1. Every time you eat a can of tuna, you endorse a slaughter of innocent dolphins that are trapped in the nets of tuna fishermen.

“Endorse a slaughter” – better to say “support the death of…”.

Logic & Language Exercise Essay

3. - Biology Dept. wants to know whether you'll accept the nomination for Vice-President.
A logical confusion has its center is the word "except" that is the synonymy of the word "besides". "Accept" is the correct word and but here "agree with" is more suitable but agree not with the nomination but with being nominated. The Dept cannot "want to know" - but may be interested in having certain information.
Correct variant:" The Biology Dept. is interested in having the information whether you agree with being nominated for Vice-President".
- When you site someone in your paper, be sure to follow APA guidelines.
It is necessary either to substitute the word "guidelines" with the word “style”, or to put the word "style" before the word
"guidelines".
Correct variant: “When you site someone in your paper, be sure to follow the APA style (guidelines)”.
- Orioles beat Rangers as pitcher relieves himself.
“Relieves himself” confuses the message of the sentence. but is the synonymy of "leaves the field".
Correct variant: "Orioles beat Rangers as the pitcher leaves the sport-field".
- He caught a robber in his pajamas.
It was not the robber that was in his pajamas, but the person that caught him. Therefore the most confusing part is the usage of the pronouns he and his.
Correct variant: "He was wearing his pajamas when he caught the robber."
- He approves hunting dogs.
The language problem lies in the word combination “hunting dogs”, because in the sentence it becomes the synonymy for “retrievers”. So it seems like the person "approves" a type of dogs.
Correct variant: He approves the dogs being hunted.
- Retired priest may marry Springstein
It is not correct to say a "retired" priest, because this term is ordinarily used to standard jobs and also in army and navy and the second mistake is the absence of the gender indication of the person the priest is going to marry.
Correct variant: "Not being a priest anymore he may marry Ms. Springstein".
4. "Most right thinking Americans agree with President Reagan - we need to build the strategic defense initiative as soon as possible." 
It is C) - the example of Appeal to popularity, because it claims the statement to be true because many people (in this case – most right thinking Americans) – believe it to be true.  
"Yesterday I forgot to take my vitamins and immediately got sick. I won't make that mistake again!".
It is A) – the example of Questionable cause because the fallacy claims that the cause of the sickness is that the person forgot to take his vitamins yesterday while it is not necessarily the true cause.
5.  a) Cantrell whose only sport is poker plays it either with the technician or Lee. Lee is not the technician. Lee is either the mainframe programmer or the PC programmer. Cantrell can possibly be either the mainframe programmer or the PC programmer, too. He is not the technician because he plays poker with him and as Cantrell’s only sport is poker he therefore cannot not like bowling like the mainframe programmer. Cantrell is the PC programmer. From this we get that Lee is the mainframe programmer because he is definitely not the technician and Cantrell is the PC programmer. As neither Lee nor Cantrell are the technician, than Oswald is the technician.
What does each person do?
Cantrell – is the PC programmer and plays only poker
Lee – is the mainframe programmer, likes bowling and sometimes plays poker with Cantrell and Oswald
Oswald – is the technician, sometimes plays poker with Cantrell and Lee.
b) Denise beats Blake four times out of five or in other words wins 80% of the ping-pong breaks with Blake. Therefore Blake wins 20% of these games=Blake still can beat Denise. Matt cannot beat Denise, for they always break even. So, Blake is stronger than Matt.  The instruction says that Matt and Denise break even, but Matt never wins over Keesha and Denis looses almost always, so therefore sometime she still wins over Keesha. Therefore Denis is stronger than Matt. Matt is the weakest ping-pong player.
Bonus: Denis according to the instructions is the only one that at least once has won over Keesha. But Blake wins 20% breaks with Denis. So Blake can beat Denis and can also beat Keesha, too. Blake is most likely the strongest player