by ohthatpatrick Thu Jan 24, 2019 4:54 pm
Purpose and Main Point go hand in hand. Our primary job in reading the passage is basically to articulate what we think the purpose is and to find 1 - 3 sentences in which we can best point to the Main Point (the Main Point sentence(s) is the claim(s) that best presents the author's headline or best delivers on the author's purpose).
I would have categorized the purpose of this passage as
Present a Problem
Discuss a Complex Situation
There was no opinion from the author, just as exploration of the ambiguities and difficulties in the legal issues of privacy over e-mail
The thesis appears to be lines 9-11.
Main Point
"Email privacy is a complicated legal issue"
Subsidiary Main Points
- Govt email theoretically shouldn't be destroyed, in case public wants access to info
- Private businesses basically have the legal right to spy on emails that go over their system, unless employees have some expectation of privacy, which most don't.
(A) The author isn't trying to demonstrate anything, other than that email privacy is a thorny legal matter.
(B) That does happen, but it does so in service of discussing the ways in which email privacy is a complicated matter. The comparison wasn't the headline, it was subsidiary support.
(C) Ha. That analogy was the first sentence or two, that's it.
(D) YES, this sounds like our thesis, lines 9-11.
(E) We never explain WHY courts have done anything.
Answer (B) is the classic "True, but Too Narrow" type of answer we gotta look out for on big picture questions.