Analogies to Claims or Arguments
What you must be able to do
Recognize the structure of an argument in the passage and find the option that reproduces that structure in different clothing - or recognize what role a comparison inside the passage is playing.
Concepts to master
- Argument skeleton. Identify the conclusion, the support, and the relation between them (example, counterexample, analogy, causal claim, appeal to simplicity).
- Role of an in-passage analogy. It may illustrate a claim, extend it to a new domain, or set up a contrast that the author then undercuts. Purpose questions and analogy questions overlap here.
- Structural parallelism. The correct answer choice preserves both the shape and the direction of support. If the passage's evidence weakens a claim, the parallel case's evidence must weaken its claim.
- Content independence. The right answer almost always concerns a different subject.
Traps
Vocabulary matching (an option that reuses the passage's key nouns but has the wrong structure), conclusions matched while the support is reversed, and options that are counterexamples to the passage's claim rather than parallels to its reasoning.
Rule of thumb and worked example
Diagram the passage argument in two lines - evidence above, conclusion below - then diagram each choice. Only one will match.
Example: the author argues that because a practice spread rapidly only after a legal change, the law, not underlying demand, drove adoption. The parallel: a product sold widely only after a subsidy was introduced, therefore the subsidy, not consumer preference, drove sales. A tempting wrong answer would say that because a product sold widely before a subsidy, preference drove sales - same words, opposite inference.