#13 - Parallel Reasoning

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation
(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=10828)

The correct answer choice is (A)

This question asks for the answer choice that is most like Shostak’s, so the correct answer choice will likely mimic the writer’s involvement with her subject.

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice, presenting a parallel case with a documentarian, who also becomes involved with the subject in an examination of the subject’s life.

Answer choice (B): The approach described in the passage is not that of a ghostwriter pretending to be the subject, so this choice should be ruled out of contention.

Answer choice (C): This choice might describe the approach of the standard ethnographer, but it is not like Shostak’s approach as described in the passage.

Answer choice (D): This choice describes a more standard approach to the autobiography; it does not parallel the approach discussed in the passage.

Answer choice (E): The author focuses on the experiences of an individual subject, so this choice fails to provide a parallel to Shostak’s approach.

[moshei24]

I was stuck between (A) and (C). Could I have crossed (C) out because it's too similar to the topic at hand, just like with parallel reasoning questions in LR? Also, doesn't she only interact with her in the third narrative strand? Can you clear this up, please?

Thanks!

[Steve Stein]

In the final paragraph the author says that "Nina's story is interwoven with Shostak's presentation of their encounter...each seems to exist primarily in response to the other. Nina's narrative...the product of a collaboration."

The documentary film producer's interaction with the film's subject is comparable to the Shostak's interweaving. As for answer choice C, yes, with Parallel questions I tend to be wary of answers whose topics are so closely related.

I hope that's helpful--let me know.

Thanks!

~Steve

[moshei24]

Thanks!

[lamahoney15]

Is (E) incorrect because although the developer in the answer focuses on the individuals rather than focusing on the general and anonymous, the developer does not intertwine her own experience with the anecdotes of these people?

[Adam Tyson]

I think that's part of why E is a bad answer, lamahoney15, and that's enough to disqualify it - nice job! I also think a key difference here is that not only did the developer of the textbooks not get personally involved with the subjects, there is no indication that the developer had any first-hand experience with the subjects, not even personally observing them. For all we know, these anecdotes were related to him second-hand.

[KwakuS]

Hello,

I am having some trouble understanding how answer choice A is correct. While I am aware that one of the three strands mentioned at the beginning indicates that there is an intercultural encounter, this seems more metaphorical to me; the author of the prompt never actually interacted with Nisa in the story. However, answer choice A claims that the producer of a documentary interacted on film with the subject to describe the subjects life. I therefore find the author's approach closer to answer choice C, where an author takes a look from above to describe the subject and then use that description to apply to a group of people.

Where am I going wrong?

Thanks,
Kwau

[Adam Tyson]

Answer C describes a completely detached observer, Kwau, and that is very unlike the way that Shostak and Nisa collaborated. Your use of "from above" in your interpretation of what answer C says indicates that you accurately identified that sense of detachment in that answer choice. Good job seeing that! But you now have to use that observation as the means to eliminate that answer.

The issue here is not whether Shostak included herself as a character in her final written product, but about HOW she went about investigating the people she was studying. Look to the last line of the passage for more support for answer A being a better match here:

It is in the process of the dialogue between Nisa and Shostak that a shaped story emerges from this seemingly featureless background.

This is about interaction, a dialogue, and how that interaction tells the story of Nisa's way of life. Not just a description! The ethnographer in answer A who interacts with her subject to reveal insights into their life has that same sense of a dialogue between the observer and the observed.