Johnson is on firm ground when he asserts that the early editors of Di

Question

Johnson is on firm ground when he asserts that the early editors of Dickinsons poetry often distorted her intentions. Yet Johnsons own, more faithful, text is still guilty of its own forms of distortion. To standardize Dickinsons often indecipherable handwritten punctuation by the use of the dash is to render permanent a casual mode of poetic phrasing that Dickinson surely never expected to see in print. It implies that Dickinson chose the dash as her typical mark of punctuation when, in fact, she apparently never made any definitive choice at all.

Which of the following best summarizes the authors main point?

A. Although Johnson is right in criticizing Dickinsons early editors for their distortion of her work, his own text is guilty of equally serious distortions.

B. Johnsons use of the dash in his text of Dickinsons poetry misleads readers about the poets intentions.

C. Because Dickinson never expected her poetry to be published, virtually any attempt at editing it must run counter to her intentions.

D. Although Johnsons attempt to produce a more faithful text of Dickinsons poetry is well-meaning, his study of the material lacks sufficient thoroughness.

E. Dickinsons editors, including Johnson, have failed to deal adequately with the problem of deciphering Dickinsons handwritten manuscripts.

dwivedys · Accepted Answer

aurobindo · Answer

I am not able to accept B as answer.

The question asks us to find out an option that best summarizes the authorтАЩs main point.

The main point seems to be: Johnson is on firm ground when he asserts that the early editors of DickinsonтАЩs poetry often distorted her intentions. Yet JohnsonтАЩs own, more faithful, text is still guilty of its own forms of distortion. 

B seems to be a sort of example given to illustrate Jhonson's mistake.

I do not see any problem with "decipher" in E. Because the statement says "To standardize DickinsonтАЩs often  indecipherable  handwritten punctuation"

dwivedys · Answer

Aurobindo - without gainsaying (denying) whatever you've said - you're on pretty solid ground - inasmuch as B does seem like a particular example meant as an illustration of Johnson's mistake. 

However, SEMANTICS of what B looks like or not aside - the problem with E is a bit more fundamental - E says PROBLEM OF DECIPHERING DICKINSON'S HANDWRITTEN MANUSCRIPTS. I don't think the sentence deals with the PROBLEM OF DECIPHERING Dickinson's manuscript.

The sentence only says TO STANDARDIZE DickinsonтАЩs often indecipherable handwritten punctuation is to render permanent etc... that doesn't mean these authors were tasked with DEALING WITH THE  PROBLEM  of dickinson's handwriting.

remember PROBLEM is the keyword - there was no such PROBLEM and hence the SHIFT OF FOCUS OF E.

Hope this helps. I have a tendency to oversimplify and overexplain - so please bear with me and pardon me if I have gone overboard explaining.

Saurabh.

abhinava · Answer

Is dwivedys an engilsh teacher or what :lol:

javed · Answer

Saurab thanks for the lucid explanation. Well i dont think you have everexplain the problem i think you have done a very good job. And on behalf of everybody i thank you for walking us through your explanation.I think i have learned something and i am sure that everybody else have learned something or the other form you.

So keep up the good work and i can already see the doors of havard opening for you.

Javed.

Cheers!

EBITDA · Answer

Johnson is on firm ground when he asserts that the early editors of Dickinson’s poetry often distorted her intentions. Yet Johnson’s own, more faithful, text is still guilty of its own forms of distortion. To standardize Dickinson’s often indecipherable handwritten punctuation by the use of the dash is to render permanent a casual mode of poetic phrasing that Dickinson surely never expected to see in print. It implies that Dickinson chose the dash as her typical mark of punctuation when, in fact, she apparently never made any definitive choice at all.

Which of the following best summarizes the author’s main point?

A) Although Johnson is right in criticizing Dickinson’s early editors for their distortion of her work, his own text is guilty of equally serious distortions.
 The author never states that Johnson’s texts  equally  distort Dickinson’s work.
 
B) Johnson’s use of the dash in his text of Dickinson’s poetry misleads readers about the poet’s intentions.

C) Because Dickinson never expected her poetry to be published, virtually any attempt at editing it must run counter to her intentions.
 The text is more focused on the limitations of Johnson’s texts than on Dickinson’s intentions or the possibility to adequately edit his work.
 
D) Although Johnson’s attempt to produce a more faithful text of Dickinson’s poetry is well-meaning, his study of the material lacks sufficient thoroughness.
 The author does not say anything about the thoroughness of Johnson’s study of the material.
 
E) Dickinson’s editors, including Johnson, have failed to deal adequately with the problem of deciphering Dickinson’s handwritten manuscripts
 The author says that editors often distorted Dickinson’s intentions. However, he does not say whether these editors managed to decipher adequately Dickinson’s manuscripts or not.
Another reason to discard this option could be that both editors and Johnson had a problem to decipher Dickinson’s  punctuation , not  manuscripts . Here, however, we could argue whether the concept “punctuation” is part of a broader concept “manuscripts”.

I only found easy to discard options A and D.

A tough question, indeed.

abhimahna · Answer

Answer should be B for the reasons highlighted above.

carouselambra · Answer

If I were to summarize the difference b/w the main point vs conclusion vs the main purpose of the author, what should be my approach?

reynaldreni · Answer

The problem with option E "failed to adequately deal with problem of deciphering" - the real issue is only with punctuation mark that distorts poets intension, rest of deciphering seems to be fine. Hence option B is more appropriate.

Pranavb1302 · Answer

(A) Although Johnson is right in criticizing Dickinsonâ€™s early editors for their distortion of her work, his own text is guilty of equally serious distortions.

Equally Serious?? The passage only says Johnson's text is still guilty of its own forms of distortion ..... discard.

(B) Johnsonâ€™s use of the dash in his text of Dickinsonâ€™s poetry misleads readers about the poetâ€™s intentions.

Exactly

(C) Because Dickinson never expected her poetry to be published, virtually any attempt at editing it must run counter to her intentions.

That's going too far. We don't have evidence to believe Dickinson never expected her poetry to be published. Irrelevant.

(D) Although Johnsonâ€™s attempt to produce a more faithful text of Dickinsonâ€™s poetry is well-meaning, his study of the material lacks sufficient thoroughness.

Out of scope and irrelevant

(E) Dickinsonâ€™s editors, including Johnson, have failed to deal adequately with the problem of deciphering Dickinsonâ€™s handwritten manuscripts.

This shifts the focus from analyzing distortions created by Dickinson's editors to deciphering Dickinson's handwritten manuscripts -- out of scope and irrelevant

carouselambra · Answer

Hi experts  VeritasKarishma   yashikaaggarwal   carcass   Bunuel   chetan2u

Could you please help here? I am just going through the error to find this.

yashikaaggarwal · Answer

Okay so, as much as I know, The main point states what the whole passage is talking about. Like summarizing the whole passage in one single word or sentence.
The conclusion is what the author is trying to make others believe, by giving evidence.
Main purpose what the author wants to convey. and here's the author's conclusion.

For the question,

The last sentence of the passage: Implies that Dickinson chose the dash as her typical mark of punctuation when, in fact, she apparently never made any definitive choice at all.

We can say that the use of the dash in Jonnson writing is misleading
So the option best summarizes the author's main point will be surrounding the mistaking of the dash and misleading quality.

A. Although Johnson is right in criticizing Dickinson's early editors for their distortion of her work, his own text is guilty of equally serious distortions. (Nope! Johnson didn't really made a serious crime by using the dash, neither it was intentionally) INCORRECT

B. Johnson's use of the dash in his text of Dickinson's poetry misleads readers about the poet's intentions. (Yes, the dash is definitely misleading, Let's keep this)

C. Because Dickinson never expected her poetry to be published, virtually any attempt at editing it must run counter to her intentions. (Well she did give her poetry for publishing, so this is out of option) INCORRECT

D. Although Johnson's attempt to produce a more faithful text of Dickinson's poetry is well-meaning, his study of the material lacks sufficient thoroughness. (As stated in option A, Johnson used only dash as a symbol of indecisiveness, not to intentionally mess with poetry) INCORRECT

E. Dickinson's editors, including Johnson, have failed to deal adequately with the problem of deciphering Dickinson's handwritten manuscripts. (Yes, I did choose this. But now when I think, this option is blaming editors, while Johnson dash use was misleading itself, so editors are innocent) INCORRECT
Therefore, the answer is B.

KarishmaB · Answer

They are all the same - the thing that the author wants to tell you, the reason for which he wrote the argument/passage.

Bambi2021 · Answer

Between B and E.

I think E is wrong because we are never told about deciphering any "handwritten manuscripts", but only about "handwritten punctuation".

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Fdambro294 · Answer

The key to finding the main conclusion in passages such as these is to ask yourself which statement is supported by the other statements.

The statement that is supported by the other sentences in the passage will be the author’s main conclusion. One way is to continually ask yourself, while reading the stimulus, why is this author telling me this?

Is the purpose of the argument to tell you that Johnson has good reason to question other people’s interpretations of Dickinson’s writing? (I.e., sentence 1)

If this is the author’s main conclusion, then there should be some supporting evidence in favor of this statement.

However, the next sentences go on to discuss how Johnson, himself, has distorted Dickinson’s intention. We are then told why using a hyphen may distort Dickinson’s original intent.

After reading the stimulus, you can see that the the other sentences really do not support the 1st sentence. Thus, the first sentence can not be the main conclusion.

The actual conclusion made by the author is that Johnson has himself distorted Dickinson’s intent by inserting the use of a certain type of punctuation: a hyphen. The use of this hyphen changes and wrongly interprets the original intent of Dickinson’s writing.

The second half of the stimulus discusses reasons WHY the hyphen distorts her original intent, and these sentences are used by the author to make the conclusion about Johnson.

-A- the answer seems to start okay, but veers off in the wrong direction at the end. We can not say that the author’s main point is to argue that Johnson has made “equally serious distortions.” We know the author believes Johnson has distorted Dickinson’s intent, but the author’s main reason for writing the argument is not to compare which distortion is more serious. Although it is mentioned briefly that Johnson’s interpretation may be more “faithful”, the author’s main focus is not on a comparison.

-B- perfectly sums up the author’s main reason for writing this argument. The author believes Johnson’s use of this specific punctuation (the hyphen) conveys a meaning that Dickinson herself would never have intended.

-C- the author’s focus is on Johnson’s distortion of Dickinson’s writing. The author does not mention that any attempt to interpret Dickinson’s writing is doomed to failure.

-D- the author does not discuss Johnson’s “study of Dickinson’s material” and the extent of its thoroughness. The author is instead focused on the author’s use of the hyphen and it how distorts Dickinson’s original intent. The author is focused on the use of a punctuation mark and how it distorts Dickinson’s original intent. Whether Johnson’s study is thorough is not up for discussion.

(B) best summarizes the main point of the argument.

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CountingBack · Answer

and B is wrong because there is no mention of johnson using dash

venkatesh_sd · Answer

Shouldn't it be "his intentions" instead of "her intentions"?

PALAKRATNANI · Answer

WHY OPTION B ?
THERE IS NO SUCH MENTION THAT JHONSONS USE OF DASH IN HIS TEXT!

APram · Answer

In premise, it says that Johnson has done his own fault 
What is that fault? It's the dash which he is accusing of distortion of his intention

Hence B is true

Johnson is on firm ground when he asserts that the early editors of Di

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