Self-study
Although many seventeenth-century broadsides, popular ballads printed on a single sheet of paper and widely sold by street peddlers, were moralizing in nature, Conclusion this is not evidence that most seventeenth-century people were serious about moral values. █████ ████ ████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ███████ ██████████ ███████████ ███ ██ ██ █████ ████ ████ ██████ █████████ ████ █████████████ ██ ██ ███ █████ ███ ████ ███ ███ ███ ██ ██ █████ ███ █████ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ ████ ████ █████
Structure: Counter-Argument
This argument counters the idea that seventeenth-century broadsides serve as evidence that most seventeenth-century people were serious about moral values. The author concedes that most of these broadsides were moralizing and that many people purchased them, but emphasizes that we do not know what these people believed or why they purchased the broadsides.
Analysis: Ways to Strengthen
It's important to be clear on what the author's conclusion is. The author is not claiming that most seventeenth-century people were not serious about moral values, only that these broadsides do not work as evidence for those people's moral attitudes. The premise for this claim is that we don't know why these people purchased the broadsides, or how their own beliefs connected to what the broadsides said.
So to strengthen this argument, we might look for additional reasons to rule out the opposing idea: that these broadsides do serve as evidence for serious moral attitudes among the people who bought them. For instance, additional information about who the buyers were, even if it wouldn't necessarily tell us their exact beliefs, might help support the idea that these buyers were not motivated by serious moral attitudes.
21.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
Like other forms ██ █████ ███████████████████ ███████ ███████████ █████████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ███████ ███ ██ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ████ ████████
Irrelevant. We're not interested in the broadsides' literary quality. We're interested in whether the broadsides tell us anything about the moral attitudes of their buyers, a question this answer choice doesn't help us answer.
b
In many moralizing ████████ ███ █████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ █ ██████ ██████ ██████████ █ █████ █████████ ██████ ████ █ ███████████████ ███████ ██ █████ ███ █████████
This strengthens the argument. This answer choice doesn't tell us for sure that people purchased these ballads only for entertainment value, and besides, we don't know how many of this kind of ballad there were. But this answer choice still provides useful context for the fact that "over half of surviving broadsides contain moralizing statements." If a significant proportion of those broadsides only contained one, not very convincing, moralizing statement, this further undermines any case that the high proportion of broadsides with moralizing statements proves something about seventeenth-century moral attitudes. Thus, (B) strengthens the author's argument.
c
Some seventeenth-century ballad ███████ ████ ████ ███████ ███████ ██ ████████ █████
Irrelevant. We don't know how common this practice was, or how popular these sermons were compared to broadsides.
d
The clergy occasionally █████ ██████████ ███████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ █████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████████████████ ██████████
Irrelevant. We're not interested in the use the clergy "occasionally" made of these broadsides — we're interested in moral attitudes of the population more generally.
e
Well-educated people of ███ ███████████ ███████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ████████ ██ ██ ████████████ █████████
While this might be tempting, keep in mind that we don't know how many "well-educated" people there were in the seventeenth century. They might have been a very small portion of the population, so their attitudes don't necessarily show anything about the moral attitudes of "most seventeenth-century people." We also don't know why these well-educated people looked down on broadsides. They might not have had moral reasons so much as aesthetic or class-related reasons. So this answer choice doesn't effectively strengthen the argument.