Informal Logic

In the required reading this week we learned about the following argument forms: Deductive arguments, statistical syllogisms, arguments from analogy, appeals to authority, and inductive generalizations.

Choose three of the five argument forms and create an example of each. Your arguments do not have to be great arguments (you will analyze their quality below), but they should clearly be instances of the argument types you chose in question (make sure to indicate what argument type each one is).

After each argument, provide a brief analysis of its quality. If it is deductive, is it valid? Is it sound? If it is inductive, is it strong? Is it cogent? (Be sure to read the definitions from the text.) What might be done to improve the argument? What can people do to better understand and apply this type of argument in general?