LR Problem Set #2 Question 132

[abajaj]

Hello,

I'm having a hard time understanding why A is the correct answer. I do not understand how the journalist is undermining their professional standing by submitting something dull. I did make a conditional diagram for this as follows, but it doesn't really help, since it's a strengthen question.

Accepted for publication High in plausibility, originality, or interest.

I chose answer D, which, now that I look back and re-read also does nothing to strengthen the argument.

Any help would be great, thank you!

[Nikki Siclunov]

Your conditional reasoning diagram of the teacher's premise is correct:

Premise: Accepted for publication Anecdotal statements

The conclusion is the first sentence of the stimulus: journalists stake their reputations on the logic of anecdotes.

Conclusion: Professional reputation Anecdotal statements

There is clearly a gap between the conclusion and the premise. For the conclusion to make any sense at all, we need to establish the qualities or criteria upon which professional reputation depends. If a journalist's professional reputation depends on whether or not the statements she submits for publication are accepted, then we'd have a much stronger argument:

Professional reputation Accepted for publication

Answer choice (A) is the contrapositive of this prephrase: if a statement is rejected for being implausible, unoriginal, or dull (i.e. not "anecdotal"), this would undermine the reputation of the journalist. In other words, journalistic reputation depends, at least in part, on the publication of statements that are accepted for being anecdotal.

At the most simplistic level, the correct answer choice needs to define what journalistic reputation depends on ("reputation" is the "rogue" element in the teacher's conclusion). Only answer choices(A) comes even close to doing so. (D) is completely irrelevant, as we don't care about whether the identify of a journalist's sources is revealed to publishers but not to the general public.

Let me know if this helps!