#5 - As the current information explosion forces the print

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[flexbubbleboi]

I got this question right the first time I took this test, but I got it wrong the second time. The first time I did this question, I took "consequently" to mean "thus, we can conclude," and identified the second sentence as the conclusion. But the second time I took this test, I took "consequently" to mean "given this conclusion, it also follows that..." -- essentially I was viewing the second sentence as continuing from the main conclusion to articulate an additional implication of that conclusion.

Should I just always view "consequently" as signaling the conclusion, or is there a more substantive way of distinguishing between how these two sentences work together such that the second is the conclusion and the first is not?

Thank you!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Consequently is a conclusion indicator, flexbubble, but that doesn't necessarily make it the main point. Remember that there can be more than one conclusion in an argument, and you are looking for the main conclusion. You want to think about what information is supported in the passage, but doesn't itself support anything. The other way to check is to use the since.....thus test. If you are between two different possible conclusions insert one of them after the word since, and the second after the word therefore. Then switch the two positions. Which one makes more sense? The one that makes more sense in the therefore position is the correct answer.

Here, the test would look something like this:

Since journalistic standards are lowered, thus we are bombarded with inaccurate information.
Since we are bombarded with inaccurate information, thus journalistic standards are lowered.

Do the lower standards support that information is inaccurate, or does the inaccurate information support that standards are lower? Here, it's the first one. Because of the lower standards, we are hit with worse information. The lower standards supports the idea that the information is less reliable.

Hope that helps!

[flexbubbleboi]

That helps a ton, thank you!