Math Arguments

Sensible or Not? Study structure.

Defend your answer! Here's your claim ... what's your warrant?

Give an example or a situation to bolster your position.

1. When the IRS decided to determine how many people were cheating on their taxes, they did a study in which the sample consisted of every adult in the United States.


2. My professor conducted a study in which he was unable to measure any sample statistics, but he succeeded in determining the population parameters with a very small margin of error.


3. A poll conducted two weeks before the election found that Smith would get 70% of the vote, with a margin of error of 3%, but he ended up losing anyway.


4. The goal of a new startup company is to compete with Nielsen Media Research in compiling television ratings. They intend to succeed by providing data with a larger margin of error than Nielsen's while charging television stations the same price for their service.


5. The goal of the research is to learn about depression among people who have suffered through a family tragedy, so the population of interest is everyone who has been sick in the past month.


6. We know for certain that a majority of Americans support the President's position on this issue because an opinion poll found support from 65% of Americans, with a margin of error of 5%.