#8 - Books updating the classification systems used by many libraries are not free

[desiboy96]

Hey Powerscore, I was wondering why is D incorrect? Doesn't this answer choice challenge the author's argument by saying that it is not JUST (i.e. only) a ploy to make money? In otherwords, it has a practical function?

[Adam Tyson]

Answer D is not the correct answer, desiboy96, because it is not true. The author does NOT conclude that there is no need to ever change the system. Rather, the author claimed that the FREQUENT changes are just a ploy. That's not the same as saying there is never any need to make a change! A good Flaw in the Reasoning answer must be a true description of something that happened in the argument, and that thing must be some sort of problem for the argument. If an answer describes something that didn't happen, it's automatically wrong, even if doing that thing would have been a problem if they had done it!

[sunshine123]

Hello,

Can someone help me understand why C is wrong? Is the reason because the author's conclusion does not preclude that there may be other potential buyers? That is, that the frequent changes being a ploy to make libraries buy their products does not preclude the existence of other purchasers of the book.

Or, as the previous proctor suggested, is C simply not clearly enough expressed in the stimulus?

[atierney]

Hello,

This is a good question because, in all honesty, when I first looked at this question, I saw answer choice as matching my prephrase, and really just "calling out" as the correct answer, that I didn't really give answer choice C much attention. I think this raises two points: flaw in the reasoning questions are those that can be most easily prephrased, so I would definitely take care to do that, and secondly, whenever you are deciding whether an answer choice is correct, you are necessarily answer choices, such that if B is the better answer than C, for reasons that might include better matching your prephrase, simply a stronger answer overall, etc. then C is incorrect for that reason alone, i.e. because it is not as strong of an answer as B is.

Principally, Answer Choice C presents an additional fact, but fails to identify a flaw. For flaw in the reasoning questions, we are looking for the identification of a flaw, typically an answer choice that doesn't give any additional evidence, as C does, but simply points out the faulty reasoning. For this reason, that C gives additional facts, I think it's safe to eliminate C as a contender, even if C presents evidence that would lead the conclusion to be wrong.

Now, looking though at C in a vacuum, I think that it is possible that C is correct as a matter of fact, but considering that the only buyers needing to change the system would be libraries, and considering the conclusion concerns itself with actions taken by those buyers who are libraries, it's unclear how noticing another class of buyers alters the motive to sell to those buyers which are libraries. In other words, if that answer choice had said something to the effect that a significant portion of the revenue generated is to those buyers which are not libraries, then I think it would be a much stronger answer, and possibly the correct one. However, since, it's not clear as stated, how this different class of buyers affects the presumably general class of library buyers, it's not clear how , if at all, this answer choice affects the validity of the conclusion.

Thus, I think C fails for providing additional facts in a question type that doesn't ask for it, and for providing additional facts that fail to really call into question the validity of the conclusion.

Let me know if you have further questions on this.