#10 - Global Reference, Must Be True, Organization

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[CPA2lawschool]

Hi team,

I incorrectly selected C over the correct answer (A) here.

I felt that "counters" was a better description than "illustrates", but I ultimately passed on answer choice A because I felt that "criticizes the focus of the scholar's research" was a bit of. I did not identify a discussion of Bordwell's "research" within the passage. Is this specific to the final sentence? Why is C incorrect?

Thank you!

[Adam Tyson]

Those two answers are pretty close, aren't they, CPA? "Illustrates" is where C starts to go wrong - the example is of a movie musical, which does not illustrate the thesis about straightforward narrative considerations and realistic story, but rather runs counter to it. Then, answer C goes wrong further by talking about the scholar's "interpretation" of the example. Does the scholar, Bordwell, ever interpret the movie musical? Not really - it's more like he rationalizes a way to make it fit into his thesis.

"Counters" is much better than "illustrates" here, and that is what makes A the better choice of the two.

[medialaw111516]

Still confused about why A over C. I can see why A would be correct, but am having a hard time saying C is wrong. Are the use of illustrates and the summary of the scholar's interpretation the only things that make C wrong? I guess I was looking for something more obvious.

[Adam Tyson]

No, there's more that's wrong with C, but the thing about a structure/organization answer is that the whole answer is wrong as soon as any part of it goes wrong. What example is used to illustrate Bordwell's thesis? What movie does the author describe that fits neatly into Bordwell's idea of what the style of the time was? Without that example, this answer is junk, and there is no point to even reading further. Throw it away and move on with sorting losers and contenders, rather than wasting time trying to find some redeeming quality in a bad answer.

The rest of the answer is wrong because it focuses on an interpretation supposedly made by Bordwell, but there was no such interpretation, because there was no illustrating example for him to interpret. Bordwell didn't interpret anything! Once that answer goes wrong, it just stays wrong the rest of the way through.

[jm123]

For this problem, I chose C over A. The main reason I didn't go with A was that it stated: "criticizes the focus of the scholar’s research." The word research threw me off as I did not know what research this answer choice was referring to. All I thought was that Bordwell was stating his case and the author was arguing against Bordwell's case, not criticizing any research. Where did I go wrong with my reasoning?

[Adam Tyson]

You may be overlooking that Bordwell is described as a "film scholar" at the beginning of the passage. Scholars don't just share opinions at random - they do so as a part of scholarly research. The passage is referring not to a personal conversation the author had with Bordwell, but to something that Bordwell has written on the subject, presumably after having conducted some amount of research into it.

[German.Steel]

I chose (A) by POE and it does fit pretty well, but I thought "criticizes the focus of the scholar's research" was a tad bit too saucy...is this just a case of "choosing the least flawed among several imperfect answers" or would you say there is, in fact, ample support for "criticizes the focus of the scholar's research"? Obviously the last two sentences are the key here. It seems to me more accurate to say the author criticizes the interpretation and suggests they approach their research from a different angle, which is not quite the same as (A).

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi German Steel,

The author's problem here is with the whole of Bordwell's focus. It's a research focus because we know Bordwell is a film scholar. It's not a stretch from there to say he does film research. Otherwise, how could he study the topic? I agree that the phrasing in the answer choice may not have been the phrasing I would choose, but you aren't looking for something that is written as you would write it. You are looking for the answer choice that accurately reflects the organization of the passage.

It's also not that the author thinks Bordwell should approach it from a different angle. He disagrees with the categorization as a useful one at all.

Getting there by process of elimination is a fine way to get there. It's often fastest for me on these, because it can be easy to eliminate answer choices as soon as they diverge from the structure on the page.

Hope that helps!

[SwanQueen]

Hello,

I was debating between (A) and (E). I chose correctly, however want to confirm where (E) went wrong.

- "The author states a scholar's thesis" - yes, para 1, Bordwell's research

- "Presents the results of research supporting the thesis" - if yes, then it would have to be lines 5-12. However I would not qualify these examples as "results of research," but rather, just general examples to illustrate what is meant by straightforward narrative considerations. This was the error that made me choose (A) over (E).

- "Counters the results with an example" - Para 2, the musical, an anomaly to classical film style's "realism"

- "Acknowledges the legitimacy of the response" - Para 3... but this might be too much of a positive connotation for what the author does. (e.g. says that Bordwell stretches the term "realism" in order to fit musicals in the umbrella). Also another reason to eliminate (E)

- "But suggests that further research is needed..." - Para 3, last sentence. Truthfully, I liked this better than (A)'s "and criticizes the focus of the scholar's research". I felt it better captured the essence of the last sentence of the passage, since it is a recommendation in nature.

Let me know your thoughts on my analysis above.

Thank you in advance for your time!