Coursework: Discursive and Argumentative Writing: Question 5

Worked solution

Assessment focus

This question tests the ability to evaluate reasoning critically. A skill a discursive writer needs both to test their own draft arguments before submission and to identify weaknesses in a source text or counter-argument being addressed. Recognising a hasty generalisation matters because relying on a single anecdote, dressed up as proof, is one of the most common weaknesses examiners see in coursework argument.

Why A is correct

The passage treats one cousin’s experience (no homework, grades went up) as sufficient proof of a universal claim (“all schools should abolish it immediately”). It ignores every other possible explanation for the improvement (a change of teacher, subject, motivation, or simply chance) and generalises from a sample of one to every school everywhere. That leap, from a single unrepresentative case to a sweeping universal rule, is precisely what “hasty generalisation” names.

Why the distractors are wrong

• B (ad hominem) requires an attack on a person’s character rather than their argument; no individual is criticised here, so this label does not fit.
• C (false dilemma) requires the argument to force a choice between only two options when more exist; this passage does not present homework as an either/or choice, it makes a single sweeping claim from one case.
• D (circular reasoning) requires the conclusion to be smuggled into the premise as its own justification; here the premise (the cousin’s result) is a genuinely separate claim from the conclusion, just an insufficient one. The flaw is weak evidence, not circularity.

Mark scheme

• 1 mark for selecting A.
• 0 marks for any other option. No partial credit, since this is a discrete single-answer selection question.