LR Question 21 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: Editor: Most of the books of fiction we have published…
QUESTION TYPE: Must Be True
FACTS:
- Published book ➞ literary agent submission OR manuscript request
- Serious attention ➞ Renowned figure OR Requested manuscript after review of proposal
Note: The first sentence has a most statement. I didn’t draw it, because it doesn’t link up with anything. Meanwhile, I combined the two facts in the first sentence into fact 1 above.
ANALYSIS: Imagine this as a real world situation. How does a book get published? The publisher gets interested somehow and gets a manuscript. If they like it, they publish it. So, the first step is the manuscript. The second step is publication:
- Manuscript: Renowned, or requested
- Published: Literary agent, or requested
So requests are an important part of the system. You can only sidestep a request by being renowned, and then by having your literary agent submit.
___________
- Hard to say. Maybe most unrequested manuscripts come from renowned figures.
- The first sentence talks about publishing. We’re not told if most books are fiction. The renowned author reference is just there to confuse you: renowned authors were mentioned in the second sentence, and not in reference to publishing.
- The second sentence describes when a book will get careful attention. That sentence never mentions whether fiction is an important factor.
- Literary agents are only mentioned in the first sentence, in reference to publishing. The stimulus doesn’t say whether literary agents are a major factor in attracting careful attention. If the publishing house requested a manuscript from a writer then the publishing house might give it very serious attention even without an agent.
- CORRECT. A manuscript needs serious consideration to be published. If the manuscript was unrequested, the the author needs renown to get attention.
More Resources for Must Be True Questions
- Conditional Reasoning Article: Learn about conditional statements on the LSAT.
- LR Diagrams Guide: Learn how to draw LR diagrams.
- Intro to Conditional Reasoning: This intro course lesson covers conditional reasoning basics.
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Must Be True questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers must be true questions.
Since we know that if a manuscript is given serious attention it is either from a renowned figure or a it is a requested manuscript, is the contrapositive that if something is NOT from a renowned figured AND is an UNrequested manuscript , then it is NOT given serious attention? If yes, why cannot we not derive a most statement from that (like in answer choice A)? Or is A wrong because it doesn’t address both of the sufficient conditions to be not be given serious attention?
You’re right about the contrapostive. If a nonfiction manuscript is not from a renowned figure AND not request, it won’t get serious attention.
But A goes too far. It talks about most unrequested manuscripts in general (not just fiction), and adds a “most” claim we don’t have evidence for. The editor never said how many unrequested manuscripts come from renowned figures or how many are fiction, so it’s possible most unrequested manuscripts actually do come from renowned figures (like Graeme wrote in his explanation). That’s why we can’t conclude A.
Hope that helps! Let me know if you have more questions.
Do you have any advice on how to get faster at Must Be True questions like these with lots of conditional statements (besides doing lots of questions to practice)? I attempted to draw a diagram for this but found it to be very time-consuming and was wondering if you have advice on when we should diagram vs do our best to understand what the stimulus is saying conceptually. If diagramming is the best way to go, how do you decide which parts are important to include in the diagram? Thank you!
Diagramming can indeed be time-consuming, but for this specific question, I’d say a student who is comfortable and skilled at diagramming would generally do it quite quick. This might indicate that you haven’t practiced diagramming enough, so unfortunately the advice is indeed to practice diagramming until it becomes intuitive. You can find some tips for MBT in the guide here and Graeme also discusses how to diagram at length in the LSAT Intro Course and LR Mastery Course.
In MBT, generally most of the stimulus will be important because the answer choice may be an inference from any of the facts given. So, you want to make short-forms for any information identified.
Arrows like Graeme has written out at the top of the explanation may not always be the most intuitive to you. These indicate conditional reasoning, but you may find it quicker and more intuitive to write it out like the (1) and (2) steps in the analysis section. Either works for this question as long as you have a clear overview of the possibilities. In statements that are more clearly “If, then” statements, it’s usually best to use arrows to indicate this conditional relationship.
I wouldn’t recommend making it a habit to always try to understand it conceptually. That being said, you definitely don’t need to diagram all MBT questions. Some will be understandable just by reading them, in which case it’s more efficient to just solve the question directly when doing PrepTests. However, when practicing and for stimulus’ where you don’t immediately understand all the statements and their relationships by reading, diagramming can be the difference between a right and wrong answer. Without clearly having the options written out, it’s much easier to fall for the tricks in the answer choices or miss a correct answer that could’ve been obvious.
So, in short, I’d say practice diagramming until it becomes intuitive instead of dismissing it because it’s difficult now. It’s definitely a skill that needs to be built, but it can provide a lot of use in the real test! When things become stressful, it’s much more efficient to rely on good diagramming skills than to hope you understand it by just reading.
If the LSATHacks courses aren’t feasible for your budget right now, I’d recommend diagramming any MBT you come across and then comparing yours against Graeme’s explanation until they start to become quick and accurate. Periodically come back to those questions to diagram them again to practice further and increase your speed. If you have LSAC’s LawHub Pro, they also have some resources on diagramming and conditional reasoning.
I didn’t pick E because it didn’t mention the alternative of editors requesting the manuscript after careful review of the writer’s book proposal. Can you explain why this doesn’t matter?
It does: E talks about *unrequested* manuscripts only.
Does “fiction” and “nonfiction” books play an important role in this? I found myself juggling all these characteristics: literary agents, requests, non fiction, fiction, serious attention, published, renowned figures, etc.
Yes, fiction and non-fiction are distinguished in the stimulus.