Self-study
P1
Traditionally, members of a community such as a town or neighborhood share a common location and a sense of necessary interdependence that includes, for example, mutual respect and emotional support. ███ ██ ██████ █████████ ████ ████ █████████████ ███ █████████ ████ ███████████ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████████████ ████ █████ ███████████ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ███████ ███
Problem ·
Trending away from communities of people in the same geographic area
Modern people spend less time interacting in ways that are required for thriving communities. (We don't interact with our neighbors as much.)
Potential solution? / Computer advocates' perspective ·
Computer conferences constitute communities
These communities can substitute for traditional interactions with physical neighbors.
P2
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Computer advocates' support 1 ·
People in computer conferences often share common interests
Think about Reddit forums.
Computer advocates' support 2 ·
Certain conventions constitute etiquette, which helps form genuine relationships through the computer
Example of convention: abbreviations, typing characters designed to look like a face to convey emotion.
P3
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Critique / Author's main point ·
Computer conferences are not communities
Concedes that conferences can be respectful and supportive, like actual communities. But they're still not communities.
Author's support 1 ·
Conferences don't allow certain people in
People without basic knowledge of computers or enough resources to access conferences can't join.
Author's support 2 ·
Conference participants are self-selecting; actual communities are not
Actual communities are more likely to have real diversity of age, career, and personal interests.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Problem-analysis
2.
Based on the passage, the ██████ █████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ████████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ █ ██████████
a
a group of ████████ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ███ ███ ████ ████ █ ███████ ██ ██████████ ███████
This is potentially a community, because there’s no reason to think the soldiers were able to select their battalion, or that the specific battalion is attracting soldiers who self-selected into it.
b
a group of ██████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ █████████ ████████████ ███ ███ ████ ████ ███████ █████████ █████████████ ███████████
This is potentially a community, because there’s at least some socioeconomic diversity, and there’s likely to be diversity of career and personal interests among the students. Joining the same campus political organization might suggest self-selection, but this isn’t as clear evidence of self-selection as what we get in (C).
c
a group of ███████ ███ ████ ██ █ ██████ ██ █████████ █████████ ███ ███ ████ ██ █ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██ █████ ██████████
This is least likely to be a community, because the group of doctors is a self-selecting group drawn together by professional interest. Even though you might think some other answers involve groups that probably aren’t communities, either, (C) provides the strongest evidence that the group self-selects based on a shared interest. In addition, there’s nothing in (C) that suggests there’s genuine diversity along any of the dimensions the author mentions. No other answer both provides evidence of self-selection and lacks diversity. That’s why the author would think (C) is the least likely to be a community.
d
a group of ████████ ███ ████ ████████████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ███ ████ ████████ ███ ███ ████ ██ █ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ █████████████
This is potentially a community because there’s no reason to think the teachers self-selected to work in the same school because of some shared interest.
e
a group of ██████████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ █████████ ███████████ ███ ███ █████████ █ ████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ████████ █████████
This is potentially a community because there’s at least a high degree of economic and cultural diversity.