Issue and Conclusion
CSIT 58 Chapter 2
What are they saying?
Web pages, editorials, books,
speeches, magazine articles,
TV shows are designed to alter
your perceptions or beliefs.
First identify:
 The issue
 The conclusion
The Issue
The issue is the question or
controversy being addressed.
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Is Tide the best laundry detergent?
Should you get a divorce?
Should we have a flat tax rate?
Are baseball players paid too
much?
Descriptive Issues
Descriptive issues are about facts. They raise
questions about the accuracy of descriptions of
the past, present or future.
 Does aspirin prevent heart disease?
 Do we have enough money to buy a new car?
 Are smog control devices effective in preventing
pollution?
Prescriptive Issues
Prescriptive issues are questions of right
and wrong. Involve ethics, morals and
values.
 Is there too much violence on TV?
 Is marriage better than living together?
 Should cloning human cells be
outlawed?
Searching for the Issue
 May be clearly stated at the beginning or
in the title.
 Sometimes must look for it.
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What is the author is reacting to?
What is the author’s background?
Find it in the conclusion
The Conclusion
Look for a statement or set of statements
the author wants you to believe.
Conclusions are inferred; they are derived
from reasoning.
Conclusions are ideas that require
evidence to support them.
Issue and Conclusion?
Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart
once quipped that though he couldn't
define pornography, he knew it when he
saw it. Will Internet filtering software ever
have it that easy? Not anytime soon, and
not without a lot of human intervention.
The Internet is too vast and diverse, and
the applications too indiscriminate in
their quest for the obscene and the
pornographic.
Issue and Conclusion?
The issue and conclusion are clearly
stated in the passage:
Issue: Will Internet filtering software ever
have it that easy?
Conclusion: Not anytime soon, and not
without a lot of human intervention.
It’s not always this clear, you often have
to figure it out.
Finding the Conclusion:
Clue #1
Ask what the issue is.
This is Circular:
Find the issue by locating conclusion, find
conclusion by locating issue?
Clue #2
Look for indicator words
but
proves that
shows that
hence
indicates that
suggests that
in short
it follows that
the most obvious explanation
the point I’m trying to make is
it is highly probable that
the truth of the matter is
it should be clear that
points to the conclusion that
we may deduce that
consequently
so
in fact
therefore
thus
Clue #3
Look in likely locations.
Conclusion?
Reasons
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The beginning
 The end
Conclusion?
Clue #4
Remember what a conclusion is not.
It will not be any of the following:
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Examples
Statistics
Definitions
Background Information
Evidence
Clue #5
Check the context of the communication
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Stand may be a predictable one
Source can be biased
Author’s background
Organization belongs to
Clue #6
Ask the question, “and therefore?”
The author may expect you to draw a conclusion
from the information communicated.
Common in politics
Candidate X will be soft on crime.
Identify the Issue and Conclusion
#1
For a better college learning environment, all classes should
begin in the afternoon. Most students try to schedule afternoon or
evening classes anyway; you rarely hear of a student who is
upset at being closed out of the 8a.m. section of a class. Also,
experts say that students who are alert learn more and learn more
quickly. For example, at Southern State University, one group of
students took an 8a.m. psychology course from Dr. Miller while
another group took the same course from Dr. Miller at 2p.m. The
students in the afternoon class had slightly higher average than
those in the morning class. Changing the starting time for classes
at universities to afternoon will help students.
Identify the Issue and Conclusion
#1
Issue: Should starting times for classes be changed to help
students learn?
Found In: Changing the starting time for classes at universities to
afternoon will help students.
Conclusion: All classes should begin in the afternoon.
Found In: For a better college learning environment, all classes
should begin in the afternoon.
Identify the Issue and Conclusion
#2
Corporate managers are always interested in techniques for
increasing the productivity of their workers. One interesting
suggestion made by productivity consultants is to pipe music into
the work area. Several recent studies have explored the extent to
which different types of music affect workers output. The primary
hypothesis examined in the studies was that soft-rock music
would prove the greatest aid to productivity. The research has
found almost universally that country and western music is the
greatest inducement to efficiency. Therefore, corporate officials
should seriously consider playing country and western music as a
stimulus to worker productivity.
Identify the Issue and Conclusion
#2
Issue: Should music be played to improve worker productivity?
Found In: Several recent studies have explored the extent to
which different types of music affect workers output.
Conclusion: Play country western music to improve productivity
Found In: Therefore, corporate officials should seriously consider
playing country and western music as a stimulus to worker
productivity.
Conclusion vs. Opinion
When someone claims something is true
or ought to be done and provides no
statements to support the claim, that
claim is not a conclusion because no
one has offered any basis for belief.
It’s an opinion instead.
End of Chapter 2 Lecture