Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

40 SMART THINKING: SKILLS FOR CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING & WRITING

premises relating to a particular 'reason' are dependent on one another and thus are

shown, in the diagram, as being linked along the same line. Dependency involves

one of the key qualities of claims that we looked at in chapter 2: that within a single

claim there is an internal connection between two (and, occasionally, more than

two) ideas.

In the following claim, the two component parts are (a) and (b):

The Internet (a) has greatly increased the amount of information readily

available to researchers (b).

Imagine we are using it to argue for another claim:

The Internet (a) has increased the amount of work that researchers need

to do (c).

The first claim only relates to the conclusion via a third claim:

The more information available to researchers (b), the more work they

must do (c).

By adding these two claims together, the internal connection between the

Internet and more information (a-b) is combined with the connection between

more information and more work (b—c) to establish the conclusion's claim that the

Internet leads to more work (a—c). The significance of these two premises working

together is clear: most people would assume that the likely conclusion to a claim

that 'The Internet has greatly increased the amount of information readily available

to researchers' is that it has made their job easier; only by combining premises can

we support the opposite view.

Here is another example, this time written in the analytical structure for-

mat:

1. Australia's natural environment should be protected.


2. The Australian natural environment is very beautiful.


3. Beautiful natural environments make a country a popular site for
   international tourism.


4. International tourism is very beneficial to a nation's economy.


5. If something is of benefit to the national economy, then it should be
   protected.

Y

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