Q1

[pex434]

Can someone explain how E is the correct choice? Paying authors more isn't mentioned until the last paragraph and even then its very brief. Answer B seems to express the main point much closer to the way I understood the passage.
Thanks

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Good question and thanks for bringing this one to the forum!

The short explanation against answer choice (B) is that it has the passage wrong. The passage does not state that social and economic pressures are hindering the acceptance of digital publishing. Instead the passage states that traditional publishing companies are less willing to bid on digital manuscripts and that this creates an opportunity for upstart digital publishers.

Both answer choices (B) and (E) start off well, but in their attempts to capture the thrust of the final paragraph, answer choice (E) does a better job.

Incorrect Answers
(A) is true (lines 51-52), but does not represent the "main idea."
(B) is unsupported in its interpretation of the final paragraph.
(C) is unsupported. The passage does not suggest that this will lead to a great deal of movement between publishing houses. Rather digital publishers will have an initial advantage in bidding for digital manuscripts.
(D) is unsupported. The passage does not state what the consumers' preference will be.

[jones.mchandler]

I'm just not sure how B is wrong. You say it's bc of the "social and economic" factors aspect. But clearly the issue with paying authors more money is an economic reason (along with a host of other economic reasons discussed)...in fact the whole argument is that these new machines will make the entire process of publishing easier and less expensive.

I think E is reversed, uses much too strong of language, and is way too narrow. As for the reversal, the correct answer in 6 (C), states that the demands of agents will be the cause for completing the transition to the new model. E in Q1 states that digital publishing will create certain pressure to pay authors a greater % of the publishers net revenue.

So, in 6 it's that these pressures will cause the change, while in 1 the economics castes the literary agents to get more money for authors. Is there something I'm missing??

As for the language issue: E states that digital publishing WILL transform the economics of the publishing business...however, in lines 23-29 it simply states that "[this new model] IS LIKELY to eventually supplant or at least rival..." So it seems to me that there is a huge discrepancy there. That seems to be a pretty hard and fast rule of RC that you need to at least match the language from passage to ACs, and likely =\= will.

Now, as for the scope--it seems to me like the authors point is expressed in lines 6-10. The third paragraph, which the correct answer choice hinges on, is almost entirely a prediction. It has no substantive fact behind it, it's pure conjecture from the author. The author is basically saying if this happens, we can then expect this to happen.

All in all I think E is a very poor answer choice and conflicts with some basic principles of MP questions.

[judy.kang020]

I'm just not sure how B is wrong. You say it's bc of the "social and economic" factors aspect. But clearly the issue with paying authors more money is an economic reason (along with a host of other economic reasons discussed)...in fact the whole argument is that these new machines will make the entire process of publishing easier and less expensive.

I think E is reversed, uses much too strong of language, and is way too narrow. As for the reversal, the correct answer in 6 (C), states that the demands of agents will be the cause for completing the transition to the new model. E in Q1 states that digital publishing will create certain pressure to pay authors a greater % of the publishers net revenue.

So, in 6 it's that these pressures will cause the change, while in 1 the economics castes the literary agents to get more money for authors. Is there something I'm missing??

As for the language issue: E states that digital publishing WILL transform the economics of the publishing business...however, in lines 23-29 it simply states that "[this new model] IS LIKELY to eventually supplant or at least rival..." So it seems to me that there is a huge discrepancy there. That seems to be a pretty hard and fast rule of RC that you need to at least match the language from passage to ACs, and likely =\= will.

Now, as for the scope--it seems to me like the authors point is expressed in lines 6-10. The third paragraph, which the correct answer choice hinges on, is almost entirely a prediction. It has no substantive fact behind it, it's pure conjecture from the author. The author is basically saying if this happens, we can then expect this to happen.

All in all I think E is a very poor answer choice and conflicts with some basic principles of MP questions.

I think I read the passage differently. The first paragraph starts off with a little bit of background and then we are given the authors opinion right away. The author believes that the internet will not displace the print books, but instead this will lead to what he calls a "digital publishing" model. (The book will be digitalized, but still printed as needed)

So everything after this sentence is pretty much support for this claim.

1. It will allow for a "limitless digital catalog"
2. It will be less expensive because we would save on retail costs
3. The third point here is a causal assertion. The expenses eliminated will produce a further benefit - increased profit for the author.
4. Then this in turn will pressure the traditional publishing model.

In AC (E), the word "economics" probably refers to the reduced expenses that will result from transitioning into the digital publishing model.

While usually the word "will" is too strong for TCR, the opinion presented in this passage is very strong. The author is very much present, and the main point of any passage will align with the author's opinion.

Also, I eliminated (b) on the basis of the phrase" hindering its acceptance." This seems to be outside information and unsupported by the passage.

Hope that helps!

[ohthatpatrick]

Well, I agree with both of the last two excellent posts.

(E) is definitely the best answer, and it is definitely a crappy answer that seems to go against some time honored RC "rules".

(Welcome to modern RC, by the way. Most questions still have that 'tight' correspondence between correct answer and proof text, but in every new RC section there are at least a few correct answers that are NOT quite what we're used to out of correct answers. However, they are still objectively the best of what's there. We'll have at least SOME support for the correct answer, even if the answer seems a little stronger than what we can prove. We'll have NO support for at least one idea in each of the wrong answers)

I agree that lines 6-10 seem to give us the author's main point. However, point of sale machines are not brought up in every paragraph, so it actually turns out that 6-10 is a little too narrow to qualify as "the umbrella underneath of which the rest of the passage falls".

When you look at the transition sentences for P2 and P3, they start with "Also" and "Moreover". These, of course, are continuation words, but they indicate we're hearing a NEW point that is along the same lines as the theme of what we heard before.

P1 - digital books (printed at little kiosks) will be the new model

P2 - digital publishing eliminates lots of the costs associated with the old printing publishing model (but the revenue side of the printing kiosks isn't there yet, so we have to wait a bit for it to come to fruition)

P3 - when you get rid of costs, you need to pay the author more. This will initially favor small publishers, and as more authors switch to small publishers to get a bigger cut, the big publishers will be forced to come around to the new model.

To address some of the previous poster's qualms:

- The Reversal (does digital publishing cause higher payments for the author or vice versa?)

Both! Digital publishing leads to elimination of many costs associated with traditional publishing. Elimination of costs leads to bigger author payments. Bigger author payments leads to more authors going to small publishers. More authors going to small publishers leads to big publishers giving in and joining the digital publishing game.

That's why the phrase "complete the transition" is so key. It indicates that the transition had already started to digital publishing, but the author payment situation has some effect on finalizing the transition.

- "social and economic factors" in B.

You're definitely right that economic factors are mentioned that are currently keeping us from already having the digital model (lines 26-29, for example). But what social factors are mentioned as "hindering" the acceptance of the digital model?

We got nothing there. To me, that's the broken, unforgivable word in B.

- the strength of WILL in (E).

I agree, it's probably a little too strong. This goes back to my parenthetical at the beginning. We have SOME support for the author thinking digital publishing will change the game. By contrast, we had NO support for "hindering social factors" in (B).

You cited lines 23-29 as the match for that claim, but they are addressing two slightly different things.

Lines 23-26 are addressing whether digital publishing will replace printed publishing. The author thinks that is LIKELY, but not certain.

(E) is addressing whether digital publishing will transform the economics of the publishing business. The author lists several ways in P2 that illustrate how the economics of digital publishing ARE different from those of printed publishing.

People could disagree over whether digital will supplant printed but still agree that it's certain that digital publishing will transform the economics of the publishing business (simply because digital publishing has a different business model, so if ANY digital publishing is happening, then we have transformed, at least somewhat, the economics of the publishing business).

The second part of (E) is "in doing so will likely ___", and that's where they match the more specific predictions of the author.

Hope this helps.

[ganbayou]

Well, I agree with both of the last two excellent posts.

(E) is definitely the best answer, and it is definitely a crappy answer that seems to go against some time honored RC "rules".

(Welcome to modern RC, by the way. Most questions still have that 'tight' correspondence between correct answer and proof text, but in every new RC section there are at least a few correct answers that are NOT quite what we're used to out of correct answers. However, they are still objectively the best of what's there. We'll have at least SOME support for the correct answer, even if the answer seems a little stronger than what we can prove. We'll have NO support for at least one idea in each of the wrong answers)

I agree that lines 6-10 seem to give us the author's main point. However, point of sale machines are not brought up in every paragraph, so it actually turns out that 6-10 is a little too narrow to qualify as "the umbrella underneath of which the rest of the passage falls".

When you look at the transition sentences for P2 and P3, they start with "Also" and "Moreover". These, of course, are continuation words, but they indicate we're hearing a NEW point that is along the same lines as the theme of what we heard before.

P1 - digital books (printed at little kiosks) will be the new model

P2 - digital publishing eliminates lots of the costs associated with the old printing publishing model (but the revenue side of the printing kiosks isn't there yet, so we have to wait a bit for it to come to fruition)

P3 - when you get rid of costs, you need to pay the author more. This will initially favor small publishers, and as more authors switch to small publishers to get a bigger cut, the big publishers will be forced to come around to the new model.

To address some of the previous poster's qualms:

- The Reversal (does digital publishing cause higher payments for the author or vice versa?)

Both! Digital publishing leads to elimination of many costs associated with traditional publishing. Elimination of costs leads to bigger author payments. Bigger author payments leads to more authors going to small publishers. More authors going to small publishers leads to big publishers giving in and joining the digital publishing game.

That's why the phrase "complete the transition" is so key. It indicates that the transition had already started to digital publishing, but the author payment situation has some effect on finalizing the transition.

- "social and economic factors" in B.

You're definitely right that economic factors are mentioned that are currently keeping us from already having the digital model (lines 26-29, for example). But what social factors are mentioned as "hindering" the acceptance of the digital model?

We got nothing there. To me, that's the broken, unforgivable word in B.

- the strength of WILL in (E).

I agree, it's probably a little too strong. This goes back to my parenthetical at the beginning. We have SOME support for the author thinking digital publishing will change the game. By contrast, we had NO support for "hindering social factors" in (B).

You cited lines 23-29 as the match for that claim, but they are addressing two slightly different things.

Lines 23-26 are addressing whether digital publishing will replace printed publishing. The author thinks that is LIKELY, but not certain.

(E) is addressing whether digital publishing will transform the economics of the publishing business. The author lists several ways in P2 that illustrate how the economics of digital publishing ARE different from those of printed publishing.

People could disagree over whether digital will supplant printed but still agree that it's certain that digital publishing will transform the economics of the publishing business (simply because digital publishing has a different business model, so if ANY digital publishing is happening, then we have transformed, at least somewhat, the economics of the publishing business).

The second part of (E) is "in doing so will likely ___", and that's where they match the more specific predictions of the author.

Hope this helps.

When do you think new RC started?