Logic and reasoning

Thinking straight

By the end you can take an argument apart, name exactly what is wrong with it, and build one of your own that holds up.

You can tell when something sounds wrong but not yet say why — in an essay, an advert, or an argument you are losing.

Step 1
See the shape of an argument
Before anything can be judged it has to be visible: which part is the claim, which part is the reason. Everything after this depends on being able to separate the two.
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Step 2
Name the common failures
Recognition is easier than production and comes first. Being able to name a fallacy on sight gives you a vocabulary for the rest of the course.
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Step 3
Build a valid argument yourself
The step up from spotting to producing, and genuinely harder — the activity library rates it above every other step here. It belongs after recognition, never before it.
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Step 4
Ask whether the premises are worth believing
A valid argument from false premises is still worthless. This is the step almost everyone skips, and it only makes sense once validity is no longer the thing you are worrying about.
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Step 5
Find the argument hidden in a graph
Arguments stop announcing themselves once they are drawn. Applying the same tools to a picture is the first real transfer out of prose.
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Step 6
Judge a chart that wants something from you
The end, and the version you will meet most often. A chart designed to persuade is the hardest case, and you now have every tool it takes to read one honestly.
Open this step

When you finish

You finish hard to fool — able to say precisely what is wrong with a bad argument instead of only feeling that something is.

Once you have started this course it stays available to you, with your progress intact, even if it is later replaced.

Logic and reasoning

By the end you can take an argument apart, name exactly what is wrong with it, and build one of your own that holds up.

You can tell when something sounds wrong but not yet say why — in an essay, an advert, or an argument you are losing.

Step 1
See the shape of an argument
Before anything can be judged it has to be visible: which part is the claim, which part is the reason. Everything after this depends on being able to separate the two.
Open this step
Step 2
Name the common failures
Recognition is easier than production and comes first. Being able to name a fallacy on sight gives you a vocabulary for the rest of the course.
Open this step
Step 3
Build a valid argument yourself
The step up from spotting to producing, and genuinely harder — the activity library rates it above every other step here. It belongs after recognition, never before it.
Open this step
Step 4
Ask whether the premises are worth believing
A valid argument from false premises is still worthless. This is the step almost everyone skips, and it only makes sense once validity is no longer the thing you are worrying about.
Open this step
Step 5
Find the argument hidden in a graph
Arguments stop announcing themselves once they are drawn. Applying the same tools to a picture is the first real transfer out of prose.
Open this step
Step 6
Judge a chart that wants something from you
The end, and the version you will meet most often. A chart designed to persuade is the hardest case, and you now have every tool it takes to read one honestly.
Open this step

You finish hard to fool — able to say precisely what is wrong with a bad argument instead of only feeling that something is.

Once you have started this course it stays available to you, with your progress intact, even if it is later replaced.