LSAT 34, Logical Reasoning I, Q20, LSATHacks

QUESTION TEXT: Which one of the following principles most…

QUESTION TYPE: Principle – Strengthen 

ARGUMENTS: Chan argues that the literature department should only study literary works and that it should avoid studying advertisements. 

Professor Wigmore isn’t sure if ads are literary works. But he is sure that they influence society because people can’t figure out their true messages. The literature department trains people to understand what they read. Therefore it should train people to understand ads. 

ANALYSIS: Sure, the literature department teaches students to understand texts. But there are a lot of texts that we don’t study in literature classes. Wigmore’s argument needs help to show that ads should be studied as literature.

The right answer gives us a specific reason to study ads: they can harm society and literature classes should study any text that can harm society.

___________

1. This would actually ruin Professor Wigmore’s argument. He wanted to study ads only because people can’t figure them out.
2. Ads do affect people’s thoughts and actions but we don’t know if they are subtly constructed. So this can’t help.
3. All of the literature department’s courses already teach students critical skills. This ads nothing.
4. CORRECT. Ads are texts that can affect society, and presumably they can therefore harm it. So students must be taught how to understand ads. 
5. This weakens Wigmore’s argument. He’s arguing that teachers shouldn’t be able to choose: they must have a course that teaches ads. 

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