Vonnegut's Argument Analysis

As much as the questions in the common assessment attempt to assess students’ common knowledge and progress, they fail to be objective and should be clearer. The semantics of questions vary upon how they’re interpreted. Also, what seems to be reasonable turns out to differentiate with the established answer choices in many cases. Along with that, with the state of being subjective, more than one answer choice can be correct. In the English 1 - Unit 5 Common Assessment, a letter is provided for the readers to analyze and base answers of given questions with. One example of how semantics varies upon the reader is in the question, “Which of the following statements best describes what Vonnegut’s books are about, according to the letter?” Breaking this question down, one can see that the question is frankly asking what the books are about. What books are about is usually addressed with a main idea based on content. In the letter given, it says what …show more content…
McCarthy’s decision?” This question asks for what Vonnegut’s argument was, as well as which one was ethical. What seems to be the reasonable answer is when Vonnegut declares, “If you are an American, you must allow all ideas to circulate freely in your community, not merely your own.” This statement covers ethics because it has to do with basic morals, and is used by Vonnegut against Mr.McCarthy. Apparently, the established answer is answer choice C, which cannot be true because it does not match with what the question is asking. Even though it covers ethics, answer choice C is Mr.McCarthy’s potential argument, not Vonnegut’s. Some may say that since Vonnegut is using that possible counterargument, it’s his argument. If that were so, then his part of that argument would be his rebuttal “against Mr.McCarthy’s decision,” not Mr.McCarthy’s argument