#4 - Monroe: Our organization’s project has been a failure.

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Point at issue. The correct answer is (E).

Monroe calls the organization's project a failure based on the fact that the goal was to reduce the number of homes without electricity. The project left 2,000 homes without electricity.

Wilkerson seems to think the project was a success, based on the fact that there were 5,000 homes at the start without electricity and the project brought electricity to 3,000 homes.

It seems they disagree over what constitutes success in this project - they agree that 2,000 homes still are without electricity, but Monroe calls this a failure while Wilkerson views it as a success.
 
Answer choice (A) Both speakers agree on this number, so this cannot be correct.

Answer choice (B) Monroe does not say whether 5,000 homes were without electricity to start, so we cannot say whether Monroe disagrees with this and (B) cannot be correct.

Answer choice (C) It is unclear how Monroe and Wilkerson would feel about this statement. Wilkerson likely disagrees, since they think even the current 2,000 homes without electricity is a success, however we don't know what Monroe would say. 2,000 without electricity is a failure, but if only 5 homes were without, would Monroe still call it a failure? We can't say, so answer (C) cannot be correct.

Answer choice (D) Both parties seem to agree that this was the goal of the project.

Answer choice (E) This is the correct answer choice. Both speakers acknowledge there are 2,000 homes without electricity, but seem to have different feelings about this.

[juanmcarrillo]

4. Point at issue
Monroe's conclusion: Our organization’s project has been a failure.
Monroe's first premise: Our stated goal was to reduce the maximum number of homes in the comm. that lacked electricity.
Monroe's second premise: At the end of the project, about 2,000 homes still don’t have electricity.

Wilkinson's conclusion: Bringing 3,000 homes electricity surely counts as a success.
Wilkinson's first premise: At the beginning of the project, 5,000 homes did not have electricity.
Pre-phrase: Monroe believes the organization failed entirely (i.e. the glass is half-empty) while Wilkinson believes that some success was achieved (i.e. the glass is half-full).

a. Incorrect. Both Monroe and Wilkinson agreed that 2,000 homes still don’t have electricity.
b. Incorrect. This is Wilkinson’s premise (thus he draws support from it) and one that Monroe does not contest.
c. Incorrect. Monroe’s argument was about “reduc[ing] as much as possible the number of homes.” This answer choice exaggerates his argument by writing, “if any home in the community has no electricity, the project must be considered a failure.” Thus, neither Monroe nor Wilkinson would presumably agree with this.
d. Incorrect. Both Monroe (explicitly) and Wilkinson (implicitly) agree that the organization’s goal was to reduce the number of homes that lacked electricity. In other words, the disagreement is about interpreting the results of their work and not the organization's stated purpose.
e. Correct. Monroe concludes that “[the] project has been a failure…[since] approximately 2,000 homes are still without electricity.” Whereas, Wilkinson sees the glass half-full and concludes that “brining electricity to around 3,000 homes counts as a success.”

[Jonathan Evans]

Hey Juan,

I think you've got this one pretty well analyzed! Are you doing this for all the problems? because I think it might verge on overkill for preparing for the test. However, I commend you for your thorough understanding of this question.

Generally for Point at Issue problems, especially more straightforward ones such as these, it is sufficient to prephrase that "Monroe considers the project a failure, and Wilkerson doesn't."

Even if you come down to (C) and (E) you can trust your concise analysis to eliminate (C) as too extreme and inaccurate.

Thank you for your post!