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EPSO Verbal Reasoning study materials
EPSO Verbal Reasoning study resources

EPSO Verbal Reasoning: Argument Structure: Assumptions, Conclusions and Evidence

EPSO Verbal Reasoning · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

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Argument Structure: Assumptions, Conclusions and Evidence

These items ask you to map an argument: which sentence is the conclusion, which are premises, and what must be assumed for the premises to support the conclusion. Passages are short arguments embedded in policy prose, so the structure is compressed.

Finding the spine

  • Conclusion indicators: therefore, consequently, it follows that, the upshot is, this suggests.
  • Premise indicators: because, since, given that, as, the data show.
  • Position is unreliable: a conclusion can open the passage ('The scheme should be extended. Three years of data show ...').
  • A recommendation ('the Commission should ...') is usually the conclusion, with evidence following.
  • Purely descriptive statements are background, not premises.

Assumptions

An assumption is an unstated premise the argument needs. Test it by negation: if denying it destroys the argument, it is necessary.

  • Causal arguments assume no alternative cause and no reverse causation.
  • Generalising arguments assume the sample is representative.
  • Policy arguments assume the stated objective is the relevant one and that no overriding cost intervenes.

Keep the distinction clear: a necessary assumption must hold; a sufficient one would guarantee the conclusion and is rarely what the question asks.

Worked example

Passage: 'Recycling rates in the region rose from 31% to 44% in the four years after the deposit-return scheme began. The scheme therefore explains the improvement, and similar schemes should be introduced elsewhere.'

Structure: premises = the size and timing of the increase; conclusion = the scheme caused it and should be replicated. Unstated assumption: nothing else in those four years could account for the rise - for example a parallel awareness campaign or a change in how the rate is measured.

Traps

  • Treating a single example as adequate support for a general claim.
  • Confusing the author's conclusion with a claim the author reports and rejects.
  • Picking an assumption that is merely plausible rather than required.
  • Missing that the conclusion is a recommendation, not a factual statement.

Practice habit

Rewrite the passage in two lines: 'Because ..., therefore ...'. Anything you cannot place in either line is background. If the 'because' line contains an evaluative word, that word is doing argumentative work and deserves scrutiny.