#5 - Oscar: I have been accused of plagiarizing the work of

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Justify the Conclusion, Principle. The correct answer choice is (D).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[mcdonom4]

Hello!

I'm having trouble distinguishing the difference between answer choices (A) and (D) of question 5. I've gone over and over the two, but they both seem to say the same thing?

A little help would be great!

[Charlie Melman]

Hi M,

In the stimulus, Oscar says that his using words without attribution is not plagiarism because he had permission from the original author to use her words. Millie says that Oscar's analysis addresses only one part of plagiarism: it does not address the fact that Oscar is lying to his readers about where the words came from, since the readers don't know about the original source.

We want to support Oscar's position. Answer choice (A) says that authors can't quote other authors without permission. But that's not the issue here: we know that Oscar did have permission, and Millie says that having permission isn't enough. So supporting Oscar would mean showing that having permission is enough.

Answer choice (D) does that. By saying that an author is "entitled" to quote another author freely if the other author has given permission, (D) establishes that doing what Oscar did—quoting with permission—is sufficient to avoid plagiarism. Since Oscar satisfied this sufficient condition, it doesn't matter that he didn't cite.

Hope this helps!

[mcdonom4]

Thank you so much, that definitely makes things more clear!

[Hazel03]

Hi, While reading option (D) it seemed that it brought in additional information - that no where does an author having to give up their claim to the material means the same as giving permission in private. Am i missing crucial links?

[Jay Donnell]

Hi Hazel03!

The key to answer choice D here is the particularity of the language within the principle, especially in regards to the word exclusive.

Your paraphrasing of 'give up the claim to their material' was I believe here a dangerous shifting of the exact language in the answer.

We know that through Myers gave permission to Oscar for the use of some of her written material in his recent article. We also know what this permission was given through private correspondence, but that detail didn't end up being particularly poignant.
But what we do know is that she allowed him to use her work, which means she no longer claims the work can only be used by her, so she no longer claims exclusive right to the material.

That fact allows us to activate the principle used in D, since her allowing access to Oscar is consistent with giving up her exclusive rights to the material. The rest of the principle then claims that in such a case "an author is entitled to quote freely without attribution the work of a writer," which serves to strengthen Oscar's claims that his accusations of plagiarism are unwarranted.

I hope that helps!

[cmorris32]

Hi Hazel03!

The key to answer choice D here is the particularity of the language within the principle, especially in regards to the word exclusive.

Your paraphrasing of 'give up the claim to their material' was I believe here a dangerous shifting of the exact language in the answer.

We know that through Myers gave permission to Oscar for the use of some of her written material in his recent article. We also know what this permission was given through private correspondence, but that detail didn't end up being particularly poignant.
But what we do know is that she allowed him to use her work, which means she no longer claims the work can only be used by her, so she no longer claims exclusive right to the material.

That fact allows us to activate the principle used in D, since her allowing access to Oscar is consistent with giving up her exclusive rights to the material. The rest of the principle then claims that in such a case "an author is entitled to quote freely without attribution the work of a writer," which serves to strengthen Oscar's claims that his accusations of plagiarism are unwarranted.

I hope that helps!

Hi PowerScore!

I had a similar issue with answer choice D as some of the other people who also commented, but I am just confused as to how the language of D provides a more accurate principle than answer choice A.

From the stimulus, we know that Oscar received permission from Meyers to use the passage. However, is that really Meyers relinquishing "exclusive right to the material?" I was stuck between A and D, but I ultimately chose A because D just seemed to strong. Is D correct because the word "exclusive" relates solely to Oscar's right to use the passage?

Also, just a side question, is the October 1994 LR generally on the more difficult side? I found myself struggling a lot more with this LR section than I have with other LR sections from other practice tests.

Thank you!
Caroline

[Adam Tyson]

Answer A is of no help to us here, Caroline, because to help Oscar out we need a principle that says that he DOES have the right to use Myers' work in his own without attribution. A only tells us about a case when you would NOT have that right.

The "exclusive" right is Myers' right, not Oscar's. Ethel Myers has exclusive right to her own writings, until she shares that right with someone else, making it no longer exclusive. If D is a valid principle, then Myers gave up her exclusive right, and Oscar becomes free to quote it without attribution. Just what Oscar needed!

As to your last question, I didn't think the LR on this test was substantially harder than on others, but it's not the first time I have heard that, either, so perhaps it is? That's a pretty subjective thing to judge, or course. If it was harder for you, then it was harder!

[SwanQueen]

Answer A is of no help to us here, Caroline, because to help Oscar out we need a principle that says that he DOES have the right to use Myers' work in his own without attribution. A only tells us about a case when you would NOT have that right.

The "exclusive" right is Myers' right, not Oscar's. Ethel Myers has exclusive right to her own writings, until she shares that right with someone else, making it no longer exclusive. If D is a valid principle, then Myers gave up her exclusive right, and Oscar becomes free to quote it without attribution. Just what Oscar needed!

As to your last question, I didn't think the LR on this test was substantially harder than on others, but it's not the first time I have heard that, either, so perhaps it is? That's a pretty subjective thing to judge, or course. If it was harder for you, then it was harder!

So, I suppose this is JC - PR, and thus we need to add a sufficient assumption.

My issue with (D) is that it says "if that writer relinquishes" but we do not know if they did...

As per (A), I thought of it as a conditional relationship:

~Permission granted by author to use words --> ~Right to using author's words
Contrapositive:
Right to using author's words, then the permission was granted by the author

Does the above not work since it is like a mistaken reveral of what we would need? (in other words, this would help justify the conclusion had it been: Permission granted by author to use words --> Right to using author's words

Thanks in advance!

[Luke Haqq]

Hi SwanQueen!

Happy to address your concern.

First, to address answer choice (D), that answer states, "An author is entitled to quote freely without attribution the work of a writer if that writer relinquishes his or her exclusive right to the material." You suggest that we don't know this. However Oscar states about using Myers' book without attribution, that "Myers gave me permission in private correspondence to do so." Since we must take what is given in the stimulus as true, we must accept that Myers gave Oscar permission to use Myers' book without attribution. This is tantamount to relinquishing an "exclusive right to the material." Myers relinquished the exclusive right to the material by permitting someone else to use that material without attribution.

Second, regarding answer choice (A), your intuition is certainly correct that this is a mistaken reversal (or mistaken negation, depending on how one diagrams the initial diagram) of what you'd need. The question stem asks about what justifies Oscar's judgment that it is unwarranted to claim he engaged in plagiarism. Answer choice (A) is about what someone doesn't have a right to do ("A writer has no right..."), when we're looking for a justification that a writer didn't commit plagiarism.