#9 - One should always capitalize the main words and the

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Must Be True. The correct answer choice is (B)

Since there is no conclusion in this stimulus, we should simply take note of the basic rules in this fact set: Always capitalize: first, last, and main words of a title.
Never capitalize: mid-title articles, prepositions, conjunctions of less than five letters.

Answer choice (A): This choice is incorrect, because a preposition or conjunction of five or more letters might be capitalized even mid-title.

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice. Any article or conjunction that is mid-title and less than five letters should never be capitalized. Thus, it must not be shorter than five letters.

Answer choice (C): This answer choice is incorrect because first and last words in a title should always be capitalized, even if they are prepositions or conjunctions.

Answer choice (D): This is incorrect for the same reason that answer choice (A) is incorrect; a preposition or conjunction of five or more letters might be capitalized even mid-title.

Answer choice (E): This is a potentially tricky wrong answer choice. Capitalization of mid-title, 5+ letter preposition/conjunction is not explicitly prohibited by the rules, it is not dictated either. We can’t presume capitalization of such to be proper in any context.

[ellenb]

Dear Powerscore,

What is the most efficient way to deal with this question? I was thinking to diagram in order to simplify it. Is this a good idea? I really got confused with the answers. I ended up doing conditional statements. But they seemed to confuse me more.

Please let me know what is the best way to approach the answers and this question. I seemed to be very confused not only with the stimulus, but the answers too. What is an easier way to keep track of the details in the stimulus? I even wanted to play out the scenario and give examples, but if it were on the real test. I do not think this would be the most efficient way. Please let me know of one way that would be efficient (for the test) and another that would be helpful even if longer in order to understand what is happening in the question. (Sorry for being a bit redundant). I just want to make sure I find the most efficient and simple way (I tend to overthink !!)



Regards,

Ellen

[Justin Eleff]

I don't think diagramming the individual sentences in this stimulus is the most efficient way to get to the answer, so start by simplifying your approach. Q: What's the question about? A: Rules for capitalizing (or not) the words in a title. Q: So what are the rules? A: THIS is where your focus should be.

We have two rules, really. First, "main" words and first/last words always get capitalized. Second, articles and short prepositions/conjunctions don't always get capitalized. That's it.

So now put the two rules together. Under what circumstances would articles or short prepositions/conjunctions indeed be capitalized? Presumably, either when they appeared as first/last words in a title, or if they somehow counted as "main" words -- but I read the stimulus to be drawing a distinction specifically between "main" words and articles/prepositions/conjunctions, so it's probably just the first part.

Now our rules are: 1. Capitalize first/last words and "main" words. 2. Don't capitalize articles or short prepositions/conjunctions unless they are first/last words themselves.

If you can reduce all of the text in the stimulus to just those two numbered rules, you should see that only one answer -- namely, (B) -- works.

(A) fails to restrict itself to talking about SHORT prepositions/conjunctions.

(C) does not allow for the possibility that short prepositions/conjunctions might appear as first/last words in titles, so it might run afoul of rule 1.

(D) just ignores rule 2.

(E) is obviously out of scope; we aren't talking about "any text" here, but only about titles.

The real key is to think clearly and quickly about what the stimulus means. Part of that will mean recognizing that articles, prepositions and conjunctions are all parts of speech. Odds are good that you haven't thought about those words as grammatical concepts in several years (or more), but you'll have to recognize that they are all words associated with grammar and written construction. Then you should immediately start thinking about the distinctions being drawn between those kinds of things (articles and short prepositions/conjunctions specifically) and the other kinds of things discussed ("main" words, first/last words). Those distinctions are our rules, ultimately, and the rules solve the question for us.

Hope that helps.

[amagari]

how would you diagram this problem? I am just starting on this and need to visualize it.

[AthenaDalton]

Hi there,

As my colleague mentioned, this is not a question that lends itself to diagramming. I would just sketch out the rules in plain English and apply them to the answer choices.

The first sentence gives us this rule:

(1) Capitalize the first and last words of a title and "main" words

The second sentence gives us this rule:

(2) Do not capitalize articles (a, an, the) and do not capitalize prepositions/conjunctions that have fewer than 5 letters (unless these words are the first/last words of the title).

Next, we can apply these rules to the answer choices (this question progresses more like the rules question of a Logic Games problem than a typical LR question):

Answer choice (A) is wrong because it omits the possibility that a conjunction / preposition could be capitalized if it's in the middle of the title and has 5+ words.

Answer choice (B) is a correct application of the rules.

Answer choice (C) is incorrect because it overlooks the possibility that a preposition or conjunction could be the first or last word of the title, in which case it should be capitalized.

Answer choice (D) oversimplifies the rules and omits the possibility of a 5+ letter preposition / conjunction in the middle being capitalized

Answer choice (E) incorrectly refers to "any text" and not "titles," which is what our rules apply to.

The bottom line is that not every question lends itself to diagramming. This is one such case.

Best of luck studying!

Athena Dalton

[Bubba]

Hello,

While I agree there isn't another answer choice that is more correct, Answer choice B seems only partially true since it does not include the prepositions in its necessary condition.

Any insight into why the answer does not need to include 'nor a preposition' would be appreciated.

Thank you

[Adam Tyson]

Thanks for the question, Bubba! It's true that the word in question must not be an article, or a preposition with fewer than five letters, or a conjunctions with fewer than five letters. But if that's true, then each of these statements is also true:

—It is not an article

—it is not a preposition with fewer than five letters

—it is not a conjunctions with fewer than five letters

And any combination of those claims is also true - it is not an article nor a preposition with fewer than five letter; it is not an article nor a conjunction with fewer than five letters; it is not a preposition or conjunction with fewer than five letters.

We don't need to mention all three things, because each one of them is true and any two of them together are also true. The authors left out mentioning prepositions in order to make the answer less attractive, but it doesn't make the answer any less true. It's like me saying that I don't live in a yurt, or a mansion, or a condominium. It must be true that I do not live in a yurt or a condo, right? I don't need to mention the mansion for that answer to be necessarily true. The question doesn't ask for a "complete and accurate list of all things that must be true" (as a Logic Games question might), but only for something that must be true.

The answer is incomplete, but it's absolutely necessary, and that is all we were asked to find. Don't let them trip you up by playing that game of leaving something out!

[heartofsunshine]

Hi there,

I chose D. I read some of the previous answers above this post on why D is wrong. I think that I considered a preposition/conjunction with greater than 5 letters to then be considered a "main word". If this were the case then I thought D would be right. I suppose I shouldn't be making an assumption like that? Thanks!

[Jeremy Press]

Hi heartofsunshine,

You're absolutely right that if you assume articles, prepositions, or conjunctions with 5+ letters are "main words," then answer choice D becomes much more likely to be right. (I might quibble a little and say it's still possible that there are some "non-main" words other than articles, prepositions, or conjunctions that I don't have a definitive rule about, which would render answer choice D uncertain.)

And you're also absolutely right that you can't make the assumption you wanted to make here. We don't have any information on what qualifies as a "main word," so we can't be sure that articles, prepositions, or conjunctions with 5+ letters would fall into that category.

I hope this helps!

Jeremy

[cleocleozuo]

Thanks for the detailed explanation! When I did this question, I was trying to use conditional logic. Because I think there is a conditional logic indicator (always). However, I was confused about which way I should draw the arrow:
Should be capitalized----> main words, or first and last words, or title OR main words, or first and last words, or title----> should be capitalized To me, It seems that both can work. Am I confusing something with conditional logic? Maybe statements contain "should" can not be approached this way at all?

Many thanks!