Self-study
Critic: Support A novel cannot be of the highest quality unless most readers become emotionally engaged with the imaginary world it describes. ████ ██████ ██ █████████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ █ ██████ ██████ ███████ █████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ██ ████ █████ █████ ███████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ████ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ███████
Summary
Shifts in narrative lower the quality of novels. Why? Because the shifts make the reader focus on the author, and most readers need to be emotionally involved with the novel for it to be of the highest quality.
Notable Assumptions
The critic implies that focusing on the author is a negative thing, but why? There is a gap between “focusing on the author is bad” and “readers need to be emotionally involved.” We need to know that focusing on the author means that you can’t be emotionally involved.
12.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ █████████ ███ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██ ██ ████████ ██████
a
Most readers become ███████████ ███████ ████ ███ █████████ █████ █████████ ██ █ █████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ██ ███ ███████ ████████
(A) is switching sufficient and necessary conditions of the first sentence in the argument. Unnecessary.
b
A novel is █████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ██ ██ ████ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████ ████████
We can’t assume imagination = emotional engagement. Also, we are discussing the highest quality, not just high quality.
(B) almost restates the critic’s first sentence (which would also be an incorrect answer), but it changes the wording enough that it means something different.
c
Most readers cannot ██████ ███████████ ████████ ████ █ ███████ █████████ █████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ███ ███████
If this is negated, and most readers can emotionally engage whether or not they focus on the author, then the argument is ruined.
d
Most readers regard █ ███████ █████████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ████████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████
It doesn’t matter how the readers interpret the narrative. We were told that the effect of shifting narrative is the reader focusing on the author; that’s what matters, not the interpretation of the reader.
e
Shifts in narrative █████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ████████
Purpose is not the same as impact. The argument evaluates the effect of shifts on quality, and that is independent from purpose.
If negated, (E) is saying that these shifts do serve a literary purpose, but it doesn’t matter, because they can still lower the quality of a novel.