Lesson: Critical/Logical Reasoning - 03

The Building Blocks Of Arguments: Evidence And Conclusion

Almost all arguments that you'll see will contain evidence and a conclusion (some inference questions will not, but we'll discuss those question types more fully later).

The conclusion is the point that the author is trying to make. The conclusion answers the question "What?" as in "What is the author trying to tell me?"

The evidence is the support that the author offers for the conclusion. The evidence answers the question "Why?" as in "Why should I believe what the author says?"

Go on to the next page for some practice in identifying evidence and conclusion.