#13 - James: Many people claim that the voting public is

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Strengthen-CE. The correct answer choice is (D)

To support Maria’s counter to James, it is important to understand what James’ argument actually is. Given Reade’s popularity, James concludes that the public is actually able to evaluate complex campaign issues, since the TV commercials for Reade in the national campaign discusses complex campaign issues. You should anticipate his conclusion from the very first sentence of the stimulus, which employs a classic way of introducing a counterargument that the author will ultimately try to disprove (“many people claim that…”).

Maria suggests an alternate cause for Reade’s popularity: instead of his discussion of complex campaign issues, she thinks Reade simply strikes the voters as the most competent and trustworthy candidate:

• Cause Effect
  James: Complex campaign issues Popularity
  
  Maria: Competent and Trustworthy Popularity

To support her argument, you need to provide further evidence that the alternate cause suggested by James does not exist. If most voters cannot identify Reade’s positions on campaign issues, as is suggested by answer choice (D), this will weaken James’ argument and in turn strengthen Maria’s. Notice that answer choice (D) need not prove Maria’s conclusion: it is entirely possible that a third alternate cause can explain Reade’s popularity, having nothing to do either with his trustworthiness or with his ability to discuss complex campaign issues.

Answer choice (A): The issues discussed by Reade’s opponents is irrelevant to Maria’s argument. This answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (B): What Reade’s opponents believe about Reade is irrelevant to the determination of what is causing his popular support. This answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (C): Even if Reade’s popularity diminishes over time, this neither supports nor weakens the notion that he is a competent and trustworthy candidate. At issue here is what caused his popularity, not what will happen to it in the future. This answer choice is incorrect.

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

Answer choice (E): This may seem like an attractive answer, since it establishes that some voters consider Reade competent and trustworthy. However, “some” can simply mean “at least one.” This statement is too weak to strengthen Maria’s argument: had the answer choice stated that the majority of voters consider Reade competent and trustworthy, that would have been a much better answer.

[bonnie_a]

Just a quick question on how to approach this question type! When the question is about choosing an answer choice that strengthens one's counterargument to the other (as seen in this question), do I need to specifically pay attention to how a given answer can weaken the other's argument as well? For regular Strengthen questions, we normally focus on one argument but here I'm not sure if it's necessary to think about how a given answer choice can also impact the other's argument. For example, if I were to strengthen the second speaker's counterargument to the first speaker's, would it be okay for me to choose an answer choice that only weakens the first speaker's argument but doesn't directly strengthen the second speaker's? Thank you!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

No Bonnie. While you have to be aware of James' argument, it would not be correct to find an answer that weakens James without also strengthening Maria. It may be the case that by strengthening Maria, it also weakens James. But just weakening James would not be enough here. As you prephrase these, you want to think about what Maria's argument is, and how it responds to James. Does it attack the evidence? Does it use the same evidence to draw a different conclusion? Or (as here) does it provide additional evidence that makes the makes the conclusion of James less likely? That should be your analysis, and help you focus on where/what to strengthen.

Hope that helps

[cd1010]

I got the correct answer, but could I get clarification on why A is incorrect? At a very schematic and formulaic level, I understand that it does not directly relate to the argument Maria made. Which I know is all I need for the LSAT. Maria's argument is that the reason why Reade is the most popular (Effect) is because he strikes voters as the most competent and trustworthy (cause).

However, I'm trying to also understand this at a more intuitive level, and when I read A, I thought it could work. If Reade's opponents are discussing the same issues, then that levels the playing field and thus discussing these issues is not unique to Reade.

I'm having trouble figuring out what effect AC A has. Does it have no effect (leveling the playing field doesn't actually do anything to support Maria's argument, and what I said above is not correct)? Or, is it wrong because it is supporting this part of the sentence ("However, you are incorrect in claiming that this is because of Reade's discussion of complex campaign issues."), rather than the causal conclusion (trustworthy + competence as causes for popularity)? Or is it wrong for another reason?

Thanks!

[Jeff Wren]

Hi cd,

There are a couple of problems with Answer A.

Be careful with the exact wording of this answer. "Reade's opponents are discussing some of the same issues as Reade" (my emphasis). First, "some" literally means at least one, so that is not very comprehensive and doesn't tell us much. Second, and more importantly, this answer does not specify that the issues discussed by the opponents are the complex campaign issue mentioned in the stimulus. There may be other, less complex issues that Reade also discusses and these are the issues shared by the opponents.

Finally, even if Reade's opponents did discuss the complex campaign issues, that wouldn't weaken James's causal argument unless we also were told that Reade's opponents were not popular. One great way to weaken a causal argument is to show the cause occurring without the effect. Here, if we knew that the opponents did discuss complex campaign issues (the cause) but were not popular (the effect), this would weaken James's explanation. While we know that Reade is more popular than any other candidate, that is a relative statement. It is still possible that his opponents are popular, just not quite as popular as Reade.

[elrchang@gmail.com]

Hello!

I think I'm still a little confused by the complete question explanation. I understand the theoretical idea that we have to basically show that James's alternate cause of Reade's popularity doesn't work, but where I'm lost is why would it matter if voters could identify his position or not if the stimulus is about just "discussing complex campaign issues?"

One of my ideas was that ok, if they can't identify his position, then they don't know if they agree with him, and people won't vote for someone if they don't know agree with them, so that can't explain his popularity? But that feels I'm bringing in a lot of my own experience with how elections and the world works in general. Which makes me think I'm missing something subtle in the stimulus?

Thank you!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi elr

Let's start with what we know, and move to what is suspect.

We know: Reade is the most popular candidate.
Reade's campaign ads discuss complex issues.

Possible conclusion: public is evaluating his stance on complex issues and agreeing with him (James)
The public sees him as competent and trustworthy (Maria)

So what can we do to make Maria's suggestion more likely than James'?

If the public doesn't understand his stances in polling, it's not likely that they are evaluating his positions and agreeing with him. They'd need to understand his positions to agree with them in a meaningful way. It makes it less likely that James' explanation--his popularity is due to the complex positions--a less likely explanation.

You can bring in basic information about how the world works, but not specialty information. The line I typically use is if a typical high schooler would have that information. If yes, I consider it basic. If no, I don't.

Hope that helps!