Analysis and Evaluation Continued
CRITICAL READING AND WRITING
I. Read the passage below and answer the following questions:
1. What is the claim (conclusion) being argued for in this passage?
The claim is that David Oates believes that people have a hidden message behind all their
speeches. He believes that it is unintentional. “There is no scientific evidence for the
phenomena of reverse speech; and that the use of reverse speech as lie detection in courts
of law or any other forum, as advocated by Oates, is entirely invalid and unjust” (Schick
and Vaughn, 2011, p. 60).
2. What premise or premises are used to support the conclusion?
The messages can be understood by recording normal speech and playing it in reverse.
“To our knowledge there is not one empirical investigation of reverse speech in any peer-
reviewed journal” (p. 60).
3. Is the argument inductive or deductive?
I think the argument is inductive because since there is no evidence to support the claim,
but no evidence to say that it is false, it is not proven true or false. “Although descriptions
of “research papers” are available on the Reverse Speech Web site, there is no good
indication that Oates has conducted any scholarly or empirical investigation” (p. 60).
4. Assuming that the premise or premises are true, is the argument a
good one?
Yes, since the conclusion cannot be false.
5. Do you believe that reverse speech exists? Why or why not?
No, there is not enough scientific data to back the claim up.
II. In a 200-word paper, answer this question: What evidence would persuade you to accept the
proposition that reverse speech is a real phenomenon and that it can be useful as a lie detector in
courts of law? Explain in detail why the evidence would justify your acceptance of the
proposition.
I would need solid evidence, statistics, and data to see that the reverse speech is real. I would
want to see the studies done. I am a skeptical because of lack of evidence for the reversed
speech. I would believe that reverse speech would exist if scientists would use random sampling
