Critic: A novel cannot be of the highest quality unless most

My approach -
The conclusion is that a novel cannot be of the highest quality unless most readers become emotionally engaged with the imaginary world it describes.

Thought process- maybe if a reader focuses on the author.. he/she does not become emotionally involved.

only C matches..

I think a lot of CR questions,which test assumptions, have answer options that have a judgment and opinion.. plz steer clear from such options

Pre-thinking:

Conclusion: Shifts of narrative point of view within a novel detract from the merit of the work.

Premise on which it is based:
i) A novel cannot be of the highest quality unless most readers become emotionally engaged with the imaginary world it describes.
ii) Shifts of narrative point of view within a novel tend to make most readers focus on the author.

We can clearly observe a subtle language shift between the premises and the conclusion. While the premises talk about the readers becoming emotionally engaged with the novel's world and their focus shifting to the author, the conclusion talks the novel being worse off (the latter two in the event of shifts of narrative). Therefore, we need an assumption that links the quality of the novel or the emotional engagement of the reader (since the quality is decided by that), with the shift in focus to the author. Let us examine the answer options:

(A) Most readers become emotionally engaged with the imaginary world described by a novel only if the novel is of the highest quality. This talks about the reverse causality of the premise given. Cannot be an underlying assumption for the conclusion. Eliminate.

(B) A novel is generally not considered to be of high quality unless it successfully engages the imagination of most readers. This appears to be a restatement of the premise and not an underlying assumption. Eliminate.

(C) Most readers cannot become emotionally involved with a novel’s imaginary world if they focus on the author. Correct answer. Links the focus on author to emotional engagement as discussed in our pte-thinking.

(D) Most readers regard a novel’s narrative point of view as representing the perspective of the novel’s author. This, if anything, weakens the conclusion as the readers are already focused on the author for a good novel. Eliminate.

(E) Shifts in narrative point of view serve no literary purpose. This does not link the premises to the conclusion in any way. Irrelevant. Eliminate.

Hope this helps.
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Hi honey1

We are not looking to negate any single word of the assumption (or the answer option) but the statement as a whole. For instance, option (C) states:

Most readers cannot become emotionally involved with a novel’s imaginary world if they focus on the author.

The negation of this statement is: Most readers can become emotionally involved with a novel’s imaginary world even if they focus on the author. (The negation of
"If X then Y" is "Not Y even if X").

If this negated statement is true, then the conclusion of the stimulus fails since, even with their focus on the author, most readers can stay emotionally engaged with the novel. Hence, narrative shifts do not impede the merit of the novel (since what is required for a good novel is for the readers to be emotionally engaged).

Hope this clarifies.
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can someone explain,why its not E?

Sorry guys but if you picked E is perhaps the worst scenarion for this question.

Why ?? simply becasue is the choise the most distant from home.

E Shifts in narrative point of view serve no literary purpose.

Analyzing the phrase: first of all is too extreme i.e. NO literary purpose

Secondly, we have no information in the stimulus to assert that. The critical point of the argument is a reader that is distracted and doesn't have a full immersion in the story.

No where is mentioned what E says

Thirdly, in a more general way: who says that ?? even considering our experience from the outside world is almost impossible that something written have no purpose, much less a shift in some argument that we are reading.

For instance: I like X for this reason. However, ......and bla bla bla. this is a shift right ?? and also have a reason for that ?? right ?? so a shift has always a sort of meaning of why ??

Hope is clear.

Ask if something is unclear to you.

regards
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Clearly C & D are the only choices are in scope. C is my choice as well.

in this question, the answer is an assumption that connects the first sentence and the sentence in the argument.
There is a little confuse here. The merit or the work = the highest quality = the conclusion. -> we have to find an assumption that connects premise 1 and premise 2. -> C

Critic: A novel cannot be of the highest quality unless most readers become emotionally engaged with the imaginary world it describes. Thus shifts of narrative point of view within a novel, either between first and third person or of some other sort, detract from the merit of the work, since such shifts tend to make most readers focus on the author.

Which one of the following is an assumption necessary for the critic’s conclusion to be properly drawn?

(A) Most readers become emotionally engaged with the imaginary world described by a novel only if the novel is of the highest quality.
(B) A novel is generally not considered to be of high quality unless it successfully engages the imagination of most readers.
(C) Most readers cannot become emotionally involved with a novel’s imaginary world if they focus on the author.
(D) Most readers regard a novel’s narrative point of view as representing the perspective of the novel’s author.
(E) Shifts in narrative point of view serve no literary purpose.

Correct Answer is C

Critic: A novel cannot be of the highest quality unless most readers become emotionally engaged with the imaginary world it describes. Thus shifts of narrative point of view within a novel, either between first and third person or of some other sort, detract from the merit of the work, since such shifts tend to make most readers focus on the author.

Which one of the following is an assumption necessary for the critic???s conclusion to be properly drawn?

(A) Most readers become emotionally engaged with the imaginary world described by a novel only if the novel is of the highest quality.
(B) A novel is generally not considered to be of high quality unless it successfully engages the imagination of most readers.
(C) Most readers cannot become emotionally involved with a novel???s imaginary world if they focus on the author.
(D) Most readers regard a novel???s narrative point of view as representing the perspective of the novel???s author.
(E) Shifts in narrative point of view serve no literary purpose.
can you plz help me with this question
in option C there are two words 1st MOST and 2nd CANNOT which can be negated. which word we should negate as if we negate MOST then it supports our conclusion but we negate CANNOT then it weakens are conclusion how can we know which word we should negate?

GMATNinja VeritasKarishma egmat please help me assess the conclusion of this question.

According to me, the conclusion is in first line and the second line works as an intermediate conclusion.
Although I picked the right choice C, according to MGMAT forum the conclusion is "shifts in POV detract from the merit of the work"

Please help, Thanks!

Critic: A novel cannot be of the highest quality unless most readers become emotionally engaged with the imaginary world it describes. Thus shifts of narrative point of view within a novel, either between first and third person or of some other sort, detract from the merit of the work, since such shifts tend to make most readers focus on the author.

Which one of the following is an assumption necessary for the critic’s conclusion to be properly drawn?

(A) Most readers become emotionally engaged with the imaginary world described by a novel only if the novel is of the highest quality.

Restated the critic's conclusion, not the assumption

(B) A novel is generally not considered to be of high quality unless it successfully engages the imagination of most readers.

Same as A

(C) Most readers cannot become emotionally involved with a novel’s imaginary world if they focus on the author.

Correct - underlying assumption of critic - without this assumption, his conclusions fall apart

(D) Most readers regard a novel’s narrative point of view as representing the perspective of the novel’s author.

Not mentioned / relevant

(E) Shifts in narrative point of view serve no literary purpose.

Not mentioned / relevant

Posted from my mobile device

Hi Rounak

The conclusion is a final decision which is arrived at based on a set of facts (or premises). Therefore, we need to asses what sounds like a logical, reasoned out decision and what is it based on.

The first line of the stimulus states: A novel cannot be of the highest quality unless most readers become emotionally engaged with the imaginary world it describes.

If you analyze, there is nothing in the rest of the stimulus that acts as the basis on which this statement is made. Therefore, this statement cannot be the conclusion of the passage. It is only a point of view which stands independently - a premise. The next statement, that "shifts in POV detract from the merit of the work", acts as the conclusion because it is based on two other facts/premises presented in the stimulus:

i) A novel cannot be of the highest quality unless most readers become emotionally engaged with the imaginary world it describes.
ii) Shifts of narrative point of view within a novel tend to make most readers focus on the author.

The author arrives at the statement based on these two statements, and hence that is the conclusion. We can also use the word "Thus", which is a conclusion marker, appearing before the conclusion to guide us.

Hope this helps.
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