#11 - Should a journalist's story begin with the set phrase

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Main Point. The correct answer choice is (E)

The author begins with the rhetorical question: should journalists begin their stories with the phrase, "in a surprise development"? Her answer is "no," since journalists should neither insert their own thoughts and opinions into the story, nor report someone else's surprise without proper attribution. And if many share their surprise, why belabor the obvious?

Answer choice (A): The author states that it would not be appropriate to use the phrase "in a surprise development" even if the event was truly unexpected, as to avoid redundancy. This answer choice directly contradicts the stimulus and is therefore incorrect.

Answer choice (B): According to the author, if someone else's surprise is worth mentioning at all, it should have been specifically attributed. Therefore the phrase is not appropriate for use and this answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (C): The author uses three distinct circumstances to explain why a journalist should avoid using the phrase altogether. This answer choice does not summarize the argument and is therefore incorrect.

Answer choice (D): The author never mentions when would be a more appropriate time for a journalist to express her surprise. For all we know, such an expression may never be appropriate. This answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. If the author's conclusion is that a journalist should not introduce a story with the phrase "in a surprise development," then we can assume that doing so would not be sound journalistic practice.

[prep88]

Why is the question stem a Must Be True and not a Main Point?

[Andrew Ash]

Hi Prep,

Thanks for your post!

I agree that this is a potentially confusing question stem because it contains the word "conclusion." Take a look at page 1-9, however, and you'll see that this is a form that Must Be True question stems sometimes take. It's not a Main Point because the stimulus is a fact set, not an argument. The "conclusions" in the answer choices are new ideas, and you have to decide which one is supported by the facts in the stimulus. The test makers could have substituted "conclusions" with "inferences" or "claims" and the question would structurally remain the same.

The bigger lesson here is this: be careful not to assume that certain words, like "conclusion," are automatically associated with certain question types. Instead, think about what the question stem is asking for. In this case, we're looking for a statement that's supported by the facts in the stimulus, and so it's a Must Be True.

I hope this helps!

Best,
Andrew

[prep88]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the response! I am really having hard time to recognize the difference sometimes between these two question stems; for instance:
1. Which one of the following most accurately states the concousion of the argument above?
2. The argument is stractured to lead to the conclusions that?

How do you tell from these two if they are MP or Must? Is there any rule?

Thanks!

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hi Prep,

As Andrew pointed out, the difference between the two question stems comes down to this: are you asked to arrive at (i.e. infer) the conclusion yourself, or are you merely asked to paraphrase the conclusion that is already given? If it's the former, you are dealing with a Must Be True (MBT) question, where the stimulus contains a fact set that implies, but does not itself contain, a conclusion. If it's the latter, we have a Main Point question (MP), where the stimulus contains an argument, and therefore a conclusion that you need to recognize and paraphrase.

Compare these two types of questions:

Must Be True

If the information above is correct, which one of the following conclusions can be properly drawn on the basis of it?

Which one of the following conclusions is most strongly supported by the information above?

Which one of the following conclusions can be properly inferred from the passage?

The statements above, if true, most strongly support which one of the following conclusions?

All of these questions suggest that the stimulus contains "information" (i.e. a fact set) on the basis of which you need to infer something (a conclusion). This is your job, not the author's; the stimulus itself does not contain the conclusion you need.

Compare that to the way they ask Main Point questions:

Main Point

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of the argument?

Which one of the following most accurately restates the main point of the passage?

The main point of the argument is that...

As you can probably tell, Main Point questions ask you to restate a conclusion that is already made in the stimulus. Your job is not to infer anything, but merely to find the conclusion in the stimulus and identify the answer choice with the closest paraphrase of that conclusion.

Hope this clears things up!

[prep88]

Hi Nikki,

Thanks for your time! This really helps!
In Q16, P3-97, the question stem is a Must, however based on the principle you just clarified, it is more of Main Point? Whyis it a Must Be True?

Thank you!

[Nikki Siclunov]

Yup, you're correct - this question is more of a Main Point than a Must Be True. Realize, however, that all Main Point questions fall under the larger category of Must Be True questions, as the Main Point must be provable, i.e. true, with the information contained in the stimulus. But, you are correct in that the more precise categorization of this question should be "Main Point."

Good catch!

[avengingangel]

Hi - After reading the question stem, I was confused if it was asking me to describe the conclusion that's presented in the stimulus, OR, based on the stimulus, what would the conclusion be? In other words, I was confused if the conclusion was actually contained in the stimulus, or if we were being asked to choose the best conclusion based on the facts presented. I've never seen a MBT question stem worded this way, so it threw me off.

I know that everyone time you read a stimulus, you should mentally identify the premise(s) and conclusion (if present) even before you get to the question, so, FWIW, I didn't think that there was a conclusion in the stimulus, because it wasn't really explicitly stated anywhere. BUT because it seems to be inherently present within the stimulus, I wasn't really sure. I did, however, select the correct answer. Any help/elaboration would be helpful! Thanks.


(For my own future reference: 3-117, #16)

[Claire Horan]

Hi AvengingAngel,

The stimulus argument includes all the premises needed to reach the conclusion by deductive logic. The conclusion is not stated explicitly, but is, in your words, "inherent" because the conclusion is inescapable if you take all the premises to be true.

The structure is as follows: It asks a yes/no question. It says the answer is "no" if A and "no" if B. Then it says that C is the only possibility remaining and the answer is "no" if C.

As your experience shows, it does not actually matter how you classify the question type, as this is the only conclusion possible given the argument. Good job choosing the correct answer!

[avengingangel]

Thank you!