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Re: Q21 - Editor: Most of the books of fiction we have published

by smiller Fri Dec 31, 1999 8:00 pm

Question Type:
Inference

Stimulus Breakdown:
For fiction books we published:

most were submitted by literary agents

not submitted by literary agents → submitted by writers after we requested submissions

For nonfiction manuscripts:

given serious attention or published → from renowned figure OR was requested after review of proposal

Answer Anticipation:
It's important to notice that some information in the stimulus is about books of fiction, while some is about nonfiction. Watch out for incorrect answers that try to connect these in a way that isn't supported by the stimulus.

Correct Answer:
(E)

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) Unsupported. Nonfiction manuscripts from renowned authors, and fiction manuscripts submitted by literary agents, could be given serious attention without being requested. These could represent a large percentage of the manuscripts received.

(B) Unsupported. The stimulus tells us about nonfiction works by renowned authors, and about books of fiction, but doesn't compare the two in terms of numbers that are published.

(C) Contradicted. We know that a nonfiction manuscript that is not from a renowned author might be given careful attention if the publisher requests it.

(D) Unsupported comparison. We know that the publishing house publishes works submitted directly by writers, and also publishes ones submitted by agents. Nothing tells us that ones submitted by writers are less likely to receive careful attention.

(E) This is correct. The stimulus states that the publishing house has only published four types of manuscripts: ones that have been requested from fiction writers; ones that have been requested from nonfiction writers; ones that are submitted by agents; and ones from renowned figures. If they published an unrequested manuscript, and it wasn't submitted by an agent, it must be the work of a renowned figure.

Takeaway/Pattern: When an Inference question describes two different groups, keep track of ways in which the groups overlap, and ways in which they don't.

#officialexplanation
 
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Q21 - Editor: Most of the books of fiction we have published

by cew Sat Jun 07, 2014 6:08 pm

I struggled a bit with this question, but I think I have it now -- is this all correct?

First of all, this is an inference question, so we start by evaluating the important information given to us.

The editor gives us information on two categories:

Published Fiction and Published/Seriously Considered Non-Fiction.

For Pub. Fiction, we know that most of it was submitted by literary agents, and the rest was received as a result of direct requests. So we know that any piece of published fiction must fall into one of these categories.

For Pub./SC Non-Fic, we know that some percentage of the manuscripts came from renowned figures, and the rest were requested "after careful review of the writer's book proposal." So we know that anything that falls outside these two categories wasn't seriously considered or published.

On to the answer choices:

(A) Too strong. We don't know whether most unrequested manuscripts are given serious attention or not, because for the entire fiction category, we don't know what manuscripts were seriously considered -- we only know which were published.

(B) Again too strong, we just don't know enough -- we don't know anything about the proportion of renowned authors publishing non-fiction, let alone fiction.

(C) Narrow scope. We know that the editor requests manuscripts after "careful review of the writer's book proposal." So a manuscript can have received careful/serious attention (slight term shift, I don't think it's too bad, but I'd be nervous if I thought this were the right answer) if it is not either fiction or the work of a renowned figure. Also, we don't know anything about what fiction manuscripts receive careful attention.

(D) Unsupported. We know nothing about how likely it is that any one manuscript will be considered.

(E) Finally, the correct answer! It looks a little dangerous, because it does include extreme language--"Any unrequested manuscripts"--but it's talking about published manuscripts, and we know that published manuscripts fall into one of the four categories above. With the two types of requested manuscripts out of the way, and the literary agent-submitted ones ruled out, the only option left is that the manuscript must have been written by a renowned figure.
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Re: Q21 - Editor: Most of the books of fiction we have published

by ohthatpatrick Tue Jun 10, 2014 12:37 pm

GREAT explanation.

I would add for (C), that another way we can detect its wrongness is to think, "if something got careful attention, did it HAVE TO BE fiction or from a renowned figure?" No, there's a third possibility: it could be a nonfiction manuscript requested after careful review of the book proposal.

(Also, it's great that you noticed the shift from 'serious attention' to 'careful attention', but in my opinion LSAT would totally consider those equivalent)

Even though you did a marvelous job of reasoning your way through this WITHOUT resorting to conditional logic, I'll just put in the conditional logic aspect of this question for those who care / want it.

The last sentence creates a conditional.

Nonfiction given serious attention -> Ren Fig or Requested Manu

Contrapositive
~Ren. Fig and ~Request. Manu --> ~Nonfiction given serious attent.

Another weird part of the last sentence is the "let alone been published". It seems to indicate that 'being given serious attention' is a precursor to being published. So it's safe to assume that if a nonfiction manuscript got published, it was given serious attention.

(E) tells us that something was published. It was NOT requested. It was NOT submitted by a literary agent. That eliminates every possibility except for the 'renowned figure' one.

Nice work!
 
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Re: Q21 - Editor: Most of the books of fiction we have published

by ahn2014 Wed Jan 14, 2015 1:27 am

I have trouble to catagorize published and serious attention given non-fiction into 2 catagories one of which was from renowned figure or the other of which we had requested the manuscript after careful review.

The stimulus says;
~ renowned figure or ~we had requested the manuscript after careful review --> ~ serious attention nor let alone been published.

When we make countrapositve of this, then

Serious attention or let alone been published --> Renowed figure and we had requested the manuscript after careful review


Where do I be lost in my way?


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Re: Q21 - Editor: Most of the books of fiction we have published

by jewels0602 Sat May 30, 2015 7:29 pm

I chose A because I thought manuscript applied only to the non-fiction category (per the stimulus) and the stim said

manuscript given serious attention --> renowned figure or requested

... while writing this I see where I went wrong, is it because the contrapositive of this conditional is:
~requested AND ~renowned figure --> ~manuscript given serious attention... so even if it is unrequested, it could've gotten serious attention if it was by a renowned figure.

not diagramming kicked my butt on this one :|
 
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Re: Q21 - Editor: Most of the books of fiction we have published

by daijob Sat Aug 29, 2015 4:29 pm

Are "No nonfiction manuscript has been given serious attention" and "let alone been published" the same thing? Why is it sandwiched between 2 commas?
Feels like grammar becomes trickier in LR these days...

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Re: Q21 - Editor: Most of the books of fiction we have published

by tommywallach Mon Aug 31, 2015 10:13 pm

Not sure I understand. The two pieces of the sentences have totally different meanings. It's an idiomatic usage "let alone." It's used in the following form:

Q: Does Steve have a girlfriend?

A: Steve? That total loser? A girl has never even LOOKED at him, let alone DATED him.

Hope that makes sense! :)

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twallach@manhattanprep.com
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Re: Q21 - Editor: Most of the books of fiction we have published

by phoebster21 Sun Mar 13, 2016 5:16 pm

jewels0602 Wrote:I chose A because I thought manuscript applied only to the non-fiction category (per the stimulus) and the stim said

manuscript given serious attention --> renowned figure or requested

... while writing this I see where I went wrong, is it because the contrapositive of this conditional is:
~requested AND ~renowned figure --> ~manuscript given serious attention... so even if it is unrequested, it could've gotten serious attention if it was by a renowned figure.

not diagramming kicked my butt on this one :|



I was also thrown off by this slight detail. I kept thinking, "well the stimulus distinguishes between "books of fiction" and "nonfiction manuscripts." But I think the trick with answer E is that the category of books that E is referencing ELIMINATES fiction and is just in reference to NONFICTION.

It eliminates the category of fiction via the contrapositive.

Fiction Published ---> Lit Agent OR Req
Contrapositive: ~Lit Agent AND ~Req ---> ~Fiction Published
(Notice that ~lit agent AND ~Req are the 2 sufficient terms of answer E)

Then, we deduce that whatever "manuscripts" they are referring to in E is in regards to Nonfiction. At which point, you made the skillful deduction of realizing they can still be by renowned figures.
 
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Re: Q21 - Editor: Most of the books of fiction we have published

by fadams Tue Oct 04, 2016 6:55 pm

Fiction published –m-> submitted by agents
Fiction published –rest-> request authors
Nonfiction attention given or published -> from a renowned figure or request author

A. Unrequested manuscripts –m-> not given serious attention. Nothing inferable from unrequested manuscript.
B. Published (not renowned authors) -> fiction. Not inferable from not renowned
C. If attention -> fiction or by renowned figure. No, if attention and nonfiction, then something can be inferred from it
D. Discuss likeliness
E. Any unrequested manuscripts that is published
(could be fiction published where submitted by agents or
(nonfiction published from renowned author)
That is not submitted by literary agents
(can’t be fiction published then
(can still be nonfiction published from a renowned figure)
were written by renowned figures.

X – A or B;
Y – C or B;
If within X or Y, but not B, not A, then must be C.
 
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Re: Q21 - Editor: Most of the books of fiction we have published

by can_I_ever_reach_a_170? Tue May 15, 2018 12:50 am

I have one question.
Since this is an inference question, we need to make some connection between sentences.

Is it correct that this question assumes manuscripts being published are turning into books, instead of just a published version of manuscripts?

There is an obvious distinction between fiction and non-fiction.
But, I feel like this question kind of equates manuscripts with books in terms of understanding and getting to the correct answer.
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Re: Q21 - Editor: Most of the books of fiction we have published

by ohthatpatrick Wed May 16, 2018 2:31 pm

I think in the context of the publishing world, "manuscript" kinda means "an early draft".

It would be edited / revised / added to, etc. before it was finally published in its final "book" form.

However, as you implied, sometimes publishers will publish a manuscript (often when the author died before she had a chance to finish the book).

In that sense, if there's a manuscript, there MIGHT be a book later, but maybe not.

If there's a book, then there was DEFINITELY a manuscript earlier.

The first sentence is letting us know that ALL fiction books that were published came from request or from a literary agent.

Does that mean that ALL fiction manuscripts that were published came from request or from a literary agent? Basically.

To believe otherwise would be to think that the publishing house happened to publish an unfinished (i.e. non-book) fiction manuscript that was neither submitted by an agent nor requested by the publishing house.

I'd admit that it's seemingly POSSIBLE for that to be true, but it's really going against the current of common sense.

Hope this helps.
 
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Re: Q21 - Editor: Most of the books of fiction we have published

by JorieB701 Mon Jun 25, 2018 4:53 pm

This is kind of embarrassing but I'll admit that at first glance I wasn't pleased with any answer choices because I was thinking to myself, well I know about these two different classifications of books but I have not been told that there may or may not be a third option (although in hindsight, fiction and nonfiction are much binary options, right?). But this brings up something I've been tricked by before.

When can I be sure that the "categories" presented are all that exist? Here, for example, we're provided with information regarding fiction and NONfiction, so the prefix 'non' (assuming you didn't know what it meant by itself) puts these two things in two opposing categories where something must exist in either one or the other, correct? Something is either fiction or not, and presumably there is no possible third category that could exist.

But suppose the stimulus didn't contain categories with this prefix marker to show that they are indeed the only categories available. How can I be sure in a stimulus that there's nothing else that exists that could prevent me from arriving at inferences such as E?

Not a perfect example but one that comes to mind now is PT 65 section 4, #9.
Here, we learn about how birds and mammals can become infected with west nile, it's got to be from a mosquito, and humans are incapable of infecting the mosquito, so here we can infer that the humans (infected persons) are not the ones responsible for bringing west nile to north america. But "birds and mammals" don't necessarily encompass everything that exists in NA, a human could have brought the virus here and given it to a reptile, who in turn gave it to a mosquito and so on.

Do I assume that what is presented in the stimulus is all that exists? Are there exceptions?
 
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Re: Q21 - Editor: Most of the books of fiction we have published

by DiarraP31 Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:07 pm

Does anyone have suggestions for inference problems similar to this in difficulty I can drill? I initially choose E but talked myself out of it because I thought there was no way "Any unrequested manuscripts" would be okay. Despite diagramming, I have a bad habit of steering away from language like this in answer choices as being correct in inference problems.
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Re: Q21 - Editor: Most of the books of fiction we have published

by ohthatpatrick Wed Feb 13, 2019 6:51 pm

Sorry, I wish we did, but we don't. (Even I don't personally, and I have a lot of weird lists of problems)

It's a great idea for a list. What I would call "this type" is ...
- pretty long and dense stimulus, with a grab bag of facts / rules
- no clear momentum for where this is all going, even though some things seem to overlap/connect
- correct answer choice don't sound like something you've already figured out, so you have to kind of process them "fresh"

The three that come to mind are McElligott's juices, the rules of capitalization, and fish stores:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/lsat/foru ... -t875.html
https://www.manhattanprep.com/lsat/foru ... t1387.html
https://www.manhattanprep.com/lsat/foru ... t3892.html
 
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Re: Q21 - Editor: Most of the books of fiction we have published

by JeremyK686 Wed Aug 19, 2020 6:33 pm

Breakdown:
I’m looking for conditional reasoning / causal reasoning / quantifier propositions. I’m interested in synthesizing the information to form a valid inference.

A universal/affirmative disjunction can be woven together from the claims made in the first premise:
Some (published books of fiction) are (those that were submitted by agents)
Remaining (published books of fiction) are (those that were requested upon)
All (published books of fiction) are (either submitted by agents or requested upon)

The second premise is the more fruitful one. It makes two universal/negative claims; one of them is a compound disjunction:
No (nonfiction manuscript) are (those that have been given serious attention)
No (nonfiction manuscript) are (ones that have been published) unless (nonfiction manuscript’s writer is renowned OR the manuscript had been requested upon careful review)

The last premise is in the form of: ‘not-P unless F or R’ this is logically equivalent to ‘some P only if F or R’. The last premise can also look like this:
Some (nonfiction manuscripts) are (manuscripts that have been published) only if (nonfiction manuscript’s writer is renowned OR the manuscript had been requested upon careful review).

The propositions compiled in symbols NM (nonfiction manuscript); PN (nonfiction manuscripts that have been published); RF (renowned figure); RC (requested upon careful review); PF (published fiction books); SA (submitted by agents); RS (requested submission):
PF only if SA or RS
PN only if RF or RC

Answer Choices:
(A) This distributes the term ‘unrequested manuscripts’ by adding the ‘most’ quantity. This term in the stimulus is undistributed because it consists of a particular ‘some’ quantity.

(B) Again, a term that is implicated to be undistributed is taken to be distributed: ‘most of the books that are published’ while I really know about only ‘some of the books that are published’.

(C) The logic feels flipped. The statements tell me that ‘careful attention’ is an exclusive requirement for a nonfiction book to be published. Taking this term in its converse only leads to uncertainty.

(D) These are descriptive, categorical claims while this answer is suggest of evaluative claims.

(E) If a manuscript is published & not requested & not submitted by an agent, then it’s not a published fiction book, so it must be a published nonfiction book. A published nonfiction book can be published only if it were written by a renowned figure.