An argument is made up of at least one premise (or claim), which is the reason intended to support a

conclusion. An argument can be made up of several premises (or claims) supporting a conclusion.

When making arguments, people do not usually indicate explicitly if they are stating a premise or
conclusion. As such, we must look out for cue words that help us identify the premises and conclusions
in an argument. Sometimes, the conclusion can be stated at the start, followed by the premises or
reasons given to support it. In this case, to identify the premises in the argument, we can look out for
words like ‘because’. The cue words, 'therefore', 'as such', and 'so' are used to state the conclusions.

In summary:

 An argument is made up of a conclusion and at least one premise.

 Premise (or claim) is the reason supporting the conclusion.
 There are cues to identify the premise(s) and conclusion in any argument.

The poor or illogical link between the premises and the conclusion may be caused by the false
assumption of the premises or unclear premises. Arguments need to be logical.

For an argument to be a good argument, it must fulfil the following two criteria:

 The premises support the conclusion, and

 The premises are true.

Logical Fallacy:

A logical fallacy is a flawed argument in which the premises do not support the conclusion well (criterion
1), even if the premises are true.