Critical thinking flashcards

Front

Two legal interns submit the same 5-page research memo. One is a single block of text. The other uses headings, subheadings, bullet points, and bold keywords for case names.

Why might a senior lawyer perceive the second, formatted document as more credible and intelligent, even if the text is identical?

Back

• Concept: Visual Hierarchy and Readability.

• Think: Formatting isn't just for decoration; it's a tool for communication. A well-formatted document guides the reader's eye, reduces mental effort (cognitive load), and makes key information easy to find. It signals professionalism and a respect for the reader's time. How does poor formatting create a barrier between the writer's message and the reader?

Front

You use Mail Merge to send a meeting request to 500 members of an organization. You could use a generic greeting ("Dear Member") or a personalized one ("Dear Ms. Gupta").

Why is the personalized greeting more effective? When could using personalization in a mass email become deceptive?

Back

• Concept: Effective Personalization vs. Ethical Communication.

• Think: Personalization (<<First_Name>>) makes the recipient feel acknowledged and increases the chances they will read the message. However, it can become deceptive if the rest of the message implies a one-on-one relationship that doesn't exist. Where is the ethical line between using a tool for efficiency and creating a false impression?

Front

You need to create a formula to calculate a student's status. The rule is: "A student will 'Pass' if their Exam Score is over 50 AND their Attendance is over 75%. Otherwise, they 'Fail'."

Why is a single IF function combined with an AND function the best way to do this? What would be wrong with using two separate IF functions?

Back

• Concept: Nested Logic and Boolean Conditions.

• Think: The core question has two conditions that both must be true. The AND function is designed to check this (AND(Score>50, Attendance>75)). This entire AND statement produces a single TRUE/FALSE result, which can then be used as the logical test inside one IF function. Using separate IFs would be inefficient and could lead to incorrect results.

Front

A company's sales for the four quarters were ₹10 Lakh, ₹11 Lakh, ₹15 Lakh, and ₹12 Lakh. A manager presents this data in a pie chart.

Why is a pie chart a poor choice for showing this data, and what type of chart would be better?

Back

• Concept: Choosing the Right Chart for the Data's Story.

• Think: Pie charts are used to show parts of a whole at a single point in time (e.g., market share). They are not effective for showing changes over a period of time. A line chart or a column chart would be far better because they clearly illustrate the trend of sales rising and then falling across the four quarters.

Front

You see a bar chart showing a company's profits tripling in one year. However, you notice the vertical (Y) axis starts at ₹5 Crore instead of ₹0.

How does this formatting choice manipulate the viewer's perception? Is this an ethical way to present data?

Back

• Concept: Data Integrity and Misleading Visualization.

• Think: Starting the axis at a value other than zero exaggerates the changes. While the data points are technically correct, the visual representation is dishonest because it makes the growth look much more dramatic than it actually is. This is a common way to mislead an audience without technically lying. The most ethical representation would start the axis at 0 to show the true scale of the change.

Front

A 50-page report needs all its main headings changed from blue to black. Colleague A manually formatted each heading and must find and change all 30 of them one by one. Colleague B used the "Heading 1" Style.

Who finishes first and why is their method superior for long-term document management?

Back

• Concept: Efficiency and Consistency with Styles.

• Think: Colleague B finishes in seconds. By modifying the "Heading 1" Style, every heading linked to that style updates instantly and automatically. Using styles ensures consistency (no missed headings or slight variations) and makes global format changes effortless, saving significant time and reducing errors.

Front

Your firm needs to draft dozens of contracts and legal notices each month. Why is creating each one from a blank document a fundamentally inefficient and risky process?

(Back)

Back

• Concept: Standardization with Templates.

• Think: Starting from scratch every time invites inconsistency and the risk of omitting crucial clauses or information. A template pre-defines the structure, formatting, and standard boilerplate text. This ensures every document is uniform, professional, and legally sound, while dramatically speeding up the creation process.

Front

You are about to run a Mail Merge using an Excel sheet as the data source. You notice a few errors in the client addresses within the spreadsheet.

Why must you fix these errors in the Excel source file instead of just correcting the few letters in the final Word document?

Back

• Concept: Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO).

• Think: The Word document is just a reflection of the source data. If the source is flawed, the output will be flawed. Fixing the source data (the "single source of truth") ensures that this mail merge, and all future work using that file, will be accurate. Correcting only the final document is a temporary fix that allows the root problem to persist.

Front

n a sales report, you use the =SUM(B2:B100) formula to get the total. When you filter the report to show only sales from Delhi, the total at the bottom does not change. Why? What function should you have used for a total that updates with filters?

Back

• Concept: Static vs. Dynamic Calculation.

• Think: The SUM function always adds up all cells in its range, even if they are hidden by a filter. For a dynamic total that only includes visible cells, you should use the SUBTOTAL function. For example, =SUBTOTAL(9, B2:B100) will give you a total that updates automatically as you apply filters.

Front

An Excel sheet has Employee ID in Column A and Employee Name in Column B. A VLOOKUP formula to find a name using the ID works perfectly.

Why does a VLOOKUP to find an ID using the name fail?

Back

• Concept: Understanding a Function's Limitations.

• Think: The VLOOKUP function has a strict rule: it can only search for a value in the first (leftmost) column of the range you give it and return a value from a column to the right. It cannot look "backwards" or to the left. To do this, you would need to either rearrange your columns or use a more powerful combination like INDEX and MATCH.