Bow Tie Kreative Writing System
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Rules / argument

ARG-012 Hard constraint layer: paragraph

Separate premise from conclusion

IF the conclusion is presented as a premise OR circularly restates it, THEN add independent support or acknowledge assumption ELSE retain.

Why the rule exists

A conclusion cannot gain support solely by being restated.

Condition

The rule fires when this evaluates true. Paths marked below must be present in the fact base; the engine reports the rest rather than guessing them.

  • ANY
    • argument.circularity eq true
    • argument.conclusion_used_as_premise eq true

Facts this rule reads

PathSource
argument.circularity You supply it
argument.conclusion_used_as_premise You supply it

Then

  1. repair — target argument

Else

  1. retain — target current_text, No triggering condition is present.

LAKA

Smallest sufficient intervention
Yes
Primary axes

Sources

  • Rhetorical Situations — Purdue Online Writing Lab link
    Author, audience, purpose, text, and setting as communication constraints.
  • Technical Communication — Mike Markel; Stuart A. Selber
    Audience, design, ethics, research, and technical genres.
The raw rule record

Verbatim from 14-argument-nonfiction-rules.json. Also available at /v1/rules/ARG-012.

{
  "id": "ARG-012",
  "name": "Separate premise from conclusion",
  "domain": "argument",
  "layer": "paragraph",
  "strength": "hard_constraint",
  "human_logic": "IF the conclusion is presented as a premise OR circularly restates it, THEN add independent support or acknowledge assumption ELSE retain.",
  "when": {
    "any": [
      {
        "path": "argument.circularity",
        "operator": "eq",
        "value": true
      },
      {
        "path": "argument.conclusion_used_as_premise",
        "operator": "eq",
        "value": true
      }
    ]
  },
  "then": [
    {
      "action": "repair",
      "target": "argument",
      "options": [
        "add_independent_premise",
        "mark_assumption",
        "withdraw_conclusion"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "else": [
    {
      "action": "retain",
      "target": "current_text",
      "reason": "No triggering condition is present."
    }
  ],
  "unless": [],
  "because": "A conclusion cannot gain support solely by being restated.",
  "diagnostics": [],
  "examples": {},
  "source_ids": [
    "WEB-010",
    "BK-026"
  ],
  "laka": {
    "smallest_sufficient_intervention": true,
    "primary_axes": [
      "scope",
      "depth",
      "magnitude",
      "reversibility"
    ]
  }
}

Other argument rules

  1. ARG-001 Define the rhetorical situation IF author, audience, purpose, text, or setting is unknown, THEN define the missing element before drafting strategy ELSE proceed. Hard constraint
  2. ARG-002 One controlling thesis IF a document makes multiple unrelated controlling claims, THEN narrow, subordinate, or split them ELSE retain. Context default
  3. ARG-003 Classify claim before selecting evidence IF a claim is present, THEN classify it as factual, causal, evaluative, definitional, predictive, or policy before choosing support ELSE do not infer support requirements. Hard constraint
  4. ARG-004 Evidence matches claim type IF evidence type does not support the claim type, THEN replace, supplement, narrow, or remove the claim ELSE retain. Hard constraint
  5. ARG-005 Make the warrant available IF evidence does not obviously entail the claim for the intended audience, THEN state the connecting warrant ELSE retain. Context default
  6. ARG-006 Qualify to the evidence boundary IF claim scope exceeds evidence population, conditions, time, or uncertainty, THEN narrow or qualify the claim ELSE retain. Hard constraint
  7. ARG-007 Address strongest relevant counterargument IF a reasonable reader has a strong relevant objection, THEN represent it fairly and respond with evidence or concession ELSE omit peripheral objections. Context default
  8. ARG-008 Distinguish correlation from causation IF evidence is correlational AND the claim is causal, THEN add causal evidence, state a mechanism with tests, or change the claim to association ELSE retain. Hard constraint