Timeline for True, false, or not given: there are three main kinds of identity theft
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
21 events
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| Jul 23, 2017 at 15:11 | comment | added | Ben Voigt | @P.E.Dant: It is invalid to conclude on that basis that There are three main kinds of identity theft is true. It is also invalid to conclude on that basis that There are three main kinds of identity theft is false. As your answer says, we know nothing about the conclusion, and as corollary, we know nothing about the veracity of the conclusion. . | |
| Jul 23, 2017 at 6:15 | history | edited | P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 23, 2017 at 6:10 | comment | added | P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica | @BenVoigt If all we are told is that we know nothing about how many kinds of identity theft there are, it is false to conclude on that basis that "There are three main kinds of identity theft". This doesn't seem abstruse to me, but in any case, it's not the point of my answer. | |
| Jul 23, 2017 at 6:02 | comment | added | P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica | @JBH Moi? My answer supports the answer provided in the key. Did you mean to respond to someone else? (You may not be aware that a comment without an @ address is addressed by default to the person who wrote the answer under which the comment is posted.) | |
| Jul 23, 2017 at 5:32 | comment | added | JBH | You cannot rationalize your way out of an incorrect answer. The test is a language comprehension test, not a logic test. (And, frankly, anyone willing to argue this hard against the instructor's answer leaves me to wonder why the question was posted... is the OP looking for help to argue his/her way out of the missed question?) | |
| Jul 23, 2017 at 5:14 | comment | added | Ben Voigt | You just said "Since we know nothing about how many types of identity theft there are", that leads directly to the correct answer (which is not "false") There is no evidence that the conclusion is true, but evidence that it is false is equally lacking. | |
| Jul 23, 2017 at 4:07 | history | edited | P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 23, 2017 at 4:05 | comment | added | P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica | @Mari-LouA Please read the entire paragraph to understand the sentence in context: specious linguistic analysis is exactly what the author of the question intends to evoke, to distract the reader from the real question! That is the bread and butter of my answer. Perhaps the last edit will make this more obvious. | |
| Jul 22, 2017 at 23:08 | comment | added | user3169 | @hvd There are three differently colored apples. One of them is red. Then, is the statement "There are three red apples." true, false or not given? I could check at the grocery store, I suppose, but that would be outside the scope of the example. | |
| Jul 22, 2017 at 23:08 | history | edited | P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 22, 2017 at 23:01 | comment | added | hvd | @user3169 Okay. Now I still don't understand your first comment, and I'm left more confused about your second comment. The question is about how many kinds of identity theft there are, not how many kinds of identity crime there are. You're saying the latter is given, and sure, I agree, but what about the former? | |
| Jul 22, 2017 at 22:56 | comment | added | user3169 | @hvd According to the quotation, there are three kinds of identity crimes (not more). And of those three, one of them is identity theft (the other two are something else). Seems pretty "given" to me. | |
| Jul 22, 2017 at 22:52 | comment | added | P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica | @hvd The question is: is it valid to conclude from the provided text that there are three main kinds of identity theft? The answer is that this conclusion can not be drawn from the text: i.e., that it is false. The test is poorly designed, since "not given" could be said of any statement at all (even "My hovercraft is full of eels.") | |
| Jul 22, 2017 at 22:33 | comment | added | hvd | @user3169 You're saying that for "I know there are three main kinds of identity theft, but the text doesn't specify", "not given" is the wrong answer, for "I know there are four main kinds of identity theft, but the text doesn't specify", "not given" is the right answer, and for "I don't know how many kinds of identity theft there are, and the text doesn't specify", "not given" is again the wrong answer? You then say to answer based on the quotation as written? I don't understand, the way I'm interpreting your comment doesn't make sense, but perhaps I'm reading it wrong and you can clarify. | |
| Jul 22, 2017 at 21:18 | comment | added | P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica | @user3169 Precisely! That is why I use italics in "only from the provided text." (Maybe I should use bold while I'm at it, or ALL CAPS!) | |
| Jul 22, 2017 at 21:12 | comment | added | user3169 | @JamesK You could only choose "not given" if you knew how many kinds of identity theft there are (other than 3), but that information was not given in the quotation. Surely there is an answer in a larger context, but you have to answer based on the quotation as written. | |
| Jul 22, 2017 at 21:06 | history | edited | P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 22, 2017 at 20:59 | comment | added | James K | Therefore the information is "not given". | |
| Jul 22, 2017 at 20:58 | comment | added | P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica | As you say: reasoning only from the provided text, the conclusion that "There are three main kinds of identity theft" cannot be drawn. It is a false conclusion. The answer key is correct. | |
| Jul 22, 2017 at 20:54 | comment | added | James K | It lists three kinds of Identity crime. It explicitly says identity theft is the third type. It doesn't list any types of identity theft. | |
| Jul 22, 2017 at 20:35 | history | answered | P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica | CC BY-SA 3.0 |