Asking the Right Questions, A Guide to Critical Thinking, 8th Ed

What Words or Phrases Are Ambiguous? 39
on words to get our points across when we communicate, there is no way to
avoid ambiguity. But what can and should be avoided is ambiguity in an argument.
When someone is trying to persuade us to believe or do something, that
person has a responsibility to clarify any potential ambiguity before we consider
the worth of the reasoning.
Locating Key Terms and Phrases
The first step in determining which terms or phrases are ambiguous is to use the
stated issue as a clue for possible key terms. Key terms or phrases will be those
terms that may have more than one plausible meaning within the context of the
issue; that is, terms that you know must be clarified before you can decide to agree
or disagree with die communicator. To illustrate the potential benefit of checking
the meaning of terminology in the stated issue, let's examine several issues:
1. Does TV violence adversely affect society?
2. Is the Miss America contest demeaning to women?
3. Is the incidence of rape in college residence halls increasing?
Attention:
for a word or phrase.
Ambiguity refers to the existence of multiple possible meanings
Each of these stated issues contains phrases that writers or speakers will
have to make clear before you will be able to evaluate their response to the
issue. Each of the following phrases is potentially ambiguous: "TV violence,"
"adversely affect society," "demeaning to women," and "incidence of rape."
Thus, when you read an essay responding to these issues, you will want to
pay close attention to how the author has defined these terms.
The next step in determining which terms or phrases are ambiguous is
to identify what words or phrases seem crucial in determining how well the
author's reasons support her conclusion; that is, to identify the key terms in
the reasoning structure. Once you locate these terms, you can then determine
whether their meaning is ambiguous.
When searching for key terms and phrases, you should keep in mind why
you are looking. Someone wants you to accept a conclusion. Therefore, you
are looking for only those terms or phrases that will affect whether you accept
the conclusion. So, look for them in the reasons and conclusion. Terms and phrases
that are not included in the basic reasoning structure can thus be "dumped
from your pan."