Self-study
Literary critic: Often Support the heirs of a successful writer decide to publish the manuscripts and the letters the dead writer left behind, regardless of the merit of the work. ████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███████████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ██ ████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ████ ██ ██ ████████ ██████████ ████ █████ ████ ████ █████ █ ██████████ ██████ ███ ███████ ███ ██ ███████ █ ████████ █████████ ██████████ ██████ ███████ ██ ████████████
Summarize Argument
Successful writers should immediately destroy any recently completed manuscripts they decide not to publish. When these writers pass away, their heirs often publish works that the writers chose not to release during their lifetime. Many writers would prefer that unpublished manuscripts remain unpublished posthumously.
Notable Assumptions
The critic assumes that writers are confident in their preliminary evaluations of recently completed manuscripts—confident enough to destroy them immediately if they decide not to publish.
16.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ████ ████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ███████
a
Some writers whose ████ ███████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ █████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ███████████ ██████ █████ ██████████
This does not affect the argument. The literary critic argues that writers often have manuscripts they do not want published at all; the potential for posthumous success does not alter this stance.
b
Writers who achieve █ ███████ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████████████ ████ ██████ ████████ █████████ █████ ████ ████
This does not affect the argument. The scope of the literary critic’s conclusion is limited to manuscripts and does not include personal correspondence.
c
Most successful writers' █████████ ██ █████ ████████ █████████ ████ ██ █████████████ █████ ███ ██ █████ █████ ████████
This weakens the argument. It exploits the critic’s assumption that writers’ immediate evaluations of their manuscripts are reliable and that they won’t soon change their minds about the quality of their work, leading to regret over having destroyed them immediately.
d
Many posthumously published █████ █████ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ███ ██████ ██████
This does not affect the argument. The critic does not claim that all manuscripts left behind by a deceased writer were deemed unworthy. Rather, the critic argues that writers should destroy unworthy manuscripts to prevent the publication of works they do not want released.
e
Some heirs of ██████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ██ █ ████████ █████
This does not affect the argument. The critic claims that a successful writer’s heirs will often publish the writer’s works regardless of their merit. The heirs’ ability (or inability) to judge the quality of these works does not seem to influence their tendency to publish them.