Q7

[porsupuesto3798]

For Question 7, I think (A) is definitely wrong. The word "each" is too strong. Dove may write some academic essays, or some dramas, or just some casual writings in her middle school. These are all her works. The passage just picks out her poetry and fiction to discuss. Never can you know that EACH of her works are primarily poetry or fiction.

[olaizola.mariana]

Q7 - this explanation ruling out option (E) does not satisfy me!

[(E) is an unsupported interpretation. While the passage does indicate that German writers write
in many different styles (including drama), we can’t infer that writers who cross the generic
boundary between poetry and fiction generally try writing dramatic pieces. This is too big of a
leap, and there is no support for this interpretation.]

First, are "generally" and "often" equivalent on the LSAT? The explanation above says "generally" but the answer choice actually says "often."

Second, isn't it quite plausible to believe that authors who cross one type of generic boundary *try their hand* at other genres for potential cross-overs? It doesn't mean that they excel or become known for those works. After all these are authors who, according to the passage, tend to be more on the innovative and versatile side. I don't think this is a big leap at all…

In my opinion, answer (A) is much more extreme and unsupported. How could we know that "each" of Dove's works can be classified as one or the other? Lines 49-51 of the passage state: "Thus while the language is lyrical, it OFTEN comes to constitute, cumulatively, a work of narrative fiction." Isn't "often" (meaning, not always) a key word here???

[ohthatpatrick]

(moving Dan's original post here)

7. (A)
Question Type: Inference (42-54)
In the final paragraph, the author describes Dove’s work in very specific terms, first describing
Dove’s poetry and how she has managed to weave in elements of narrative fiction. Next the
author discusses Dove’s fiction and her ability to weave in elements of lyric poetry. While it
doesn’t state this explicitly, we can infer that Dove works primarily in one genre or the other, but
introduces both styles in each of her works. Answer choice (A) expresses this inference.

(B) is a contradictory interpretation. In fact, the passage states that lyric narrative “evokes
emotion and inner states without requiring the reader to organize ideas or events in a particular
linear structure.”
(C) is an unsupported interpretation. We don’t have any evidence to suggest that she was the
first.
(D) is an unsupported interpretation. A relative comparison between lyric narrative and pure lyric
poetry is not made.
(E) is an unsupported interpretation. While the passage does indicate that German writers write
in many different styles (including drama), we can’t infer that writers who cross the generic
boundary between poetry and fiction generally try writing dramatic pieces. This is too big of a
leap, and there is no support for this interpretation.

[ohthatpatrick]

I totally agree with the two previous posters saying that (A) is too extreme to be provable.

However, the stem "most likely to believe" does not require 100% proof. We're just asked to pick the most supportable option.

On old school RC, pretty much every correct answer was fairly provable from the text. On more modern RC, though, there are a handful of correct answers in each RC section that are obnoxiously out of bounds by old school standards of right/wrong.

However, they succeed in beating out their competition (the other choice) because
Some Support > No Support

(A) is definitely too extreme, but I can point to line 25-26, which says that Rita is best known for her poetry and fiction. When we say "each of her works", we're saying "works of art", so it's not like Rita Dove's email history is falling under the umbrella of (A).

Line 40 refers to some of Dove's work as "her poetry", and line 52 refers to some of her work as "her fiction". If the author didn't think you could classify her works as primarily one or the other, he wouldn't be able to make this distinction.

And of course there's plenty of discussion in the final paragraph about how her poetry is sometimes prose-y and her prose is sometimes poetic.

So it's really just the strength of "each" that is unsettling, but in order to think that "each" is incorrect, we have to fabricate the assumption that she also creates other artistic works.

It's definitely possible that she does, but nothing in the passage supports that she does.

Meanwhile, do we have ANY support for (E)? Do we have even one example of someone who crossed the line from poetry to fiction and then did drama?

We do not. In the third paragraph we have an example of a POET who wrote a play, but we don't know that the poet crossed the line from poetry to fiction before getting into drama.

To your other question, "generally" and "often" are not interchangeable, as far as I'm concerned.

Generally means most of the time. Other words in this family would be "typically / tend to / probably / usually / most / a majority".

"Often" is less specific. It's like "commonly / many / a significant number".

Hope this helps.

[olaizola.mariana]

The post above definitely helps - thank you. There is just one issue that I think was left unanswered, and I am interested to know your take on this (I'll quote my previous post):

Lines 49-51 of the passage state: "Thus while the language is lyrical, it OFTEN comes to constitute, cumulatively, a work of narrative fiction." Isn't "often" (meaning, not always) a key word here???

[ohthatpatrick]

The overall point of that last paragraph is to say that Rita Dove likes blending her poetry and her fiction.

Lines 40-51 are all about her poetry.
Lines 51-54 are all about her fiction.

So I don't think "often", or "sometimes yes, sometimes no", has much to do with the answer to Q7.

The author is saying that Rita's poetry OFTEN contains a lot of fiction. When it doesn't, then it presumably just sounds more like traditional poetry (lyrical wording without narrative structure).

This has the same effect as line 51-54, in which the author is saying MANY (not all) pieces of Rita's fiction sound quite poetic. So the other pieces of Rita's fiction sound more like traditional prose.

Q7 is saying each work has a clear dominant function: poetry or fiction. That's what we can infer from the whole umbrella claim about "her poetry" in line 40 and umbrella claim about "her fiction" in line 51.

The part in Q7 that says a work of primarily poetry MAY contain elements of fiction, or a work of primarily fiction MAY contain elements of poetry matches up with the "often" / "many" expressions.

[olaizola.mariana]

ohthatpatrick, I really appreciate you taking the time to explain further. However, I remain unconvinced!

In the second segment (lines 51-4) it is clear that the author is talking about fiction, so that's fine. But this is not the case in lines 40-51. Although the author starts talking about "her poetry" (line 40), he/she seems to make a twist in lines 49-51 when he/she says: "it [the poetry] often comes to constitute, cumulatively, a work of narrative fiction." This indicates that a work of Dove's could be looked at as either poetry or fiction, depending on which elements one chooses to focus on. Indeed, the very last sentence of the passage explicitly states that an individual work can FUSE the two genres. To me, this provides ample of textual support to dispute the claim that ALL of Dove's pieces PRIMARILY fall under one genre, as option A suggests.

I don't mean to spend hours on one question, but I am genuinely worried that my logic does not conform to that of the LSAT authors!

[ohthatpatrick]

Remember that the question stem says the author would be most likely to believe which of the following.

So you're not searching for a perfect, proven answer. You're searching for the most supportable answer.

Which answer choice do you think has MORE support than (A)? If you can't answer that question, then you have to pick (A).

That may sound like an evasion, but that's the nature of some of the correct answers on modern RC sections. They simply are not provable from the passage, but they have more support than any other answer. Given your instinct to pay attention to fine details for the sake of weeding out the provable truth, those sorts of questions are going to drive you nuts.

It's most important to recognize that we will sometimes consider none of the answers up to our (or LSAT's typical) standards. Nevertheless, there is a credited response, and you'll have to live with picking the answer choice that seems to best emulate that.

As far as this specific question, I agree that when one of Rita's poetic works (her lyric narratives) comes to cumulatively represent a work of narrative fiction, then we would say that that work is "primarily fiction, even though it may contain elements of poetry". So we'd still be agreeing with (A). You're only disagreeing with where in the last paragraph we draw the line between primarily poetry and primarily fiction.

The justification for (A) is that the author seems to be acting like such a line CAN be drawn. And it's a weak line, so it's not much to worry about. It's only saying that each work is primarily one or the other.

The alternative to (A) is "some of Rita's works are precisely equal in terms of poetry and fiction".

Is that really something the author would be likely to agree with?

No, so the author is likely to agree with its logical opposite, "None of them are precisely equal in terms of poetry and fiction. Each one has a predominant style, even though we wouldn't say it is exclusively one or the other."

[olaizola.mariana]

Ok, I will have to live with that ! Thank you so much for taking the time to explain.