LSAT Logical Reasoning Prep The Stimulus and Arguments vs Facts Introduction:  The logical reasoning question contains three parts. o Stimulus o The question stems. o 5 answer choices.  Read these parts in the order given. The Stimulus:  You need to understand this.  Make a quick analysis of the topic and general view of the author.  Read it very carefully.  You want a strong handle on what the author says in each stimulus.  Analyze structure of stimulus. o What pieces are present? o How do these pieces relate to each other?  Approach questions as a detective and a crime has been committed. Argument vs Fact:  There are two categories in the stimuli. o Arguments  Set of statements wherein one statement is claimed to follow from or to be derived from others.  Example: all professors are ethical. Mason is professor. So, mason is ethical. o First 2 statements give the reasons for accepting the third statement. o Third statement is a conclusion. o Fact Sets:  Collection of statements without a conclusion.  Usually a set of facts.  When doing logical reasoning you need to determine if you are reading an argument or set of facts. Premises and Conlcusions:  Determine whether the stimulus contains an argument or if it is only a set of factual statements. o Must recognize if a conclusion is present.       o Identifying premises and conclusions  Premises give a reason why something should be believed.  Conclusion is the part the author tries to prove by using another statement. Arguments can contain more than one premise or conclusion. Can be multiple. o Examples:  Humans cannot live on Venus because the surface temperature is too high.  Because = premise indicator  First portion of the sentence is a conclusion.  Humans cannot live on Venus. Why? o Because the surface temperature is too high o Relationship of premises and conclusions is to think of it like a house.  Premise is the walls of the house.  Conclusions is the roof supported by those walls. Premises and conclusions can be constructed without indicator words present. Can think about the argument as a pretend conversation. Premises and conclusions can be presented in any order. o Conclusion can be first, last or in the middle. o Relationship between the premises and conclusion remains the same. Can appear in the same sentence or be separated out into multiple sentences. o You must identify the conclusion prior to proceeding on to the question stem. Sometimes they will place a conclusion indicator and premise indicator back-to-back, separated by a comma. o Example: therefore, since.  The comma creates a clause, that due to the premise indicator, contains a premise.  End of premise clause will be closed with a second comma and conclusion follows.  Example: therefore, because higher debt has forced consumers to lower their savings, banks now have less money to loan. o Higher debt has forced consumers to lower their savings = premise. o Banks now have less money to loan – conclusion.  Therefore, introduces a conclusion.