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Tough stimulus.

I took the 'clever' in the stimulus as mischievous or agenda-driven. My analysis: Reporters write clever (mischievous/agenda-driven) headlines and therefore they should not write headlines of their stories.

How do we infer that readers may not understand and therefore may not appreciate the headline ?

Experts, Please help on this one.
"Clever" just means intelligent and original. "Mischievous/agenda-driven" goes a bit too far -- we can't say that the reporters have such devious reasons for writing clever titles. They might just do it for their own amusement, or because they forget that other people might not have the necessary context, or for many other reasons.

As for inferring that readers may not understand and therefore may not appreciate the headline: think about the author's argument as a whole. He/she thinks that reporters shouldn't be allowed to write headlines. Why? Because they write headlines that reference "little-known information," and then they don't write about that information in the rest of the article. So if readers don't know the "little-known information" before they read the article, they're not going to understand the headline. Then, even if they read the article, they're STILL not going to understand headline because the reporter doesn't even include the necessary info in the story.

Including "little-known information" in a headline, and then failing to provide any further details in the story, makes it likely that many readers won't understand the headline.

I hope that helps!
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GMATNinja - should one approach such tough CR questions through process of elimination? Because even after spending 10mins I was not able to make sense of how the right answer is right! Can you please share some insights? Is it that the high scorers are more better at eliminating at wrong choices than they are at selecting the right choices?
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P : reporters allude to information that is familiar to the reporter but does not appear in the story.
S :
C : Editors should not allow reporters to write headlines

A : OOS, Being better placed does not explain the reason why editors should not allow reporters to write headlines.
B : PA, According to the premise, reporters are already familiar with the topic.
C : OOS, Knowing what other reporters have written does not help in strengthening the given conclusion.
D : OOS, In such case, mentioned few people might consider the headline as clever. However, no information is given about the relationship between editor – reporter – story – reader.
E : Correct. This option clearly provides information regarding the editor, reporter, story, and reader.
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GMATNinja - should one approach such tough CR questions through process of elimination? Because even after spending 10mins I was not able to make sense of how the right answer is right! Can you please share some insights? Is it that the high scorers are more better at eliminating at wrong choices than they are at selecting the right choices?
Process of elimination is definitely the way to approach ALL CR questions. We should always look to find reasons that answers are wrong, rather than reasons that answers are right. Perhaps check out our CR guide for beginners or our live verbal videos for more on that.
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Correct Option E

Argument: Newspaper editors should not allow reporters to write the headlines for their own stories.
Support to Argument Reason: while the headlines that reporters themselves write are often clever,
what typically makes them clever is that they allude to little-known information
that is familiar to the reporter but
that never appears explicitly in the story itself.

To Strengthen: Comparison between Editor and Reporter, Editor written headlines are clever than Reporter

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?

(A) The reporter who writes a story is usually better placed than
the reporters' editor is to judge what the story's most newsworthy features are.
Wrong: Strengthen reporter than editor, weaken the argument

(B) To write a headline that is clever, a person must have sufficient understanding of the story that the headline accompanies.
Wrong: No comparison between Editor and Reporter

(C) Most reporters rarely bother to find out how other reporters have written stories and headlines about the same events that they themselves have covered.
Wrong: Comparison between Many reporters to other reporters

(D) For virtually any story that a reporter writes, there are at least a few people who know more about the story's subject matter than does the reporter.
Wrong: gives information about Reporter, his story, known to another reporter

(E) The kind of headlines that newspaper editors want are those that anyone who has read a reporter's story in its entirety will recognize as clever.
Correct: Comparison between Editor and Reporter, Editor written headlines are clever than Reporter
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AjiteshArun sir,
Can you please throw some light why is option B incorrect and E correct?
Not able to decide between the two.

Thanks
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krndatta
AjiteshArun sir,
Can you please throw some light why is option B incorrect and E correct?
Not able to decide between the two.

Thanks
Hi krndatta,

Option B says that only people with sufficient understanding of the story can write a clever headline. But reporters are in a very good position to understand their own stories, so this is the opposite of what we want.

Option E says that editors want headlines to make sense to anyone who reads the article. But (as given in the stimulus) reporters use information that they possess, information that isn't there in the story itself. So if editors want people who read the story to understand the headline, but reporters use information that doesn't appear in the story, then editors shouldn't let reporters write headlines for their own stories.
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Hi AndrewN, would you mind providing your analysis of this official question. It took me a long time to break down the argument, and connect the premise with the conclusion, i.e., Newspaper editors should not allow reporters to write headlines for their own stories because while the headlines that reporters themselves write are clever, they are clever only because they allude to little known information that is familiar to the reporter (Inference - Most readers will not be able to appreciate the clever headlines). How to arrive the strengthen framework in cases where one finds difficulty in connecting the premise (including inferences) with the conclusion?
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Hi AndrewN, would you mind providing your analysis of this official question. It took me a long time to break down the argument, and connect the premise with the conclusion, i.e., Newspaper editors should not allow reporters to write headlines for their own stories because while the headlines that reporters themselves write are clever, they are clever only because they allude to little known information that is familiar to the reporter (Inference - Most readers will not be able to appreciate the clever headlines). How to arrive the strengthen framework in cases where one finds difficulty in connecting the premise (including inferences) with the conclusion?
Hello, ritikajuneja. I am not sure why, but I stopped receiving e-mail notifications from GMAT Club earlier today, and I only found your query by checking my messages and replies on the site itself. In any case, it can help, when encountering particularly dense or lengthy sentences, to parse the information so that you can better put the pieces together:

ArgumentNewspaper editors should not allow reporters to write headlines for their own stories
This part is easy to follow. Note the opinionated language in should not. I would not change anything.

Reason (part one)because while the headlines that reporters themselves write are clever
The while clause forces us to put everything about because on hold for a moment, but we can summarize the clause-within-a-clause a little differently: even though reporters write clever headlines...

Reason (part two)[the headlines] are clever only because they allude to little known information that is familiar to the reporter
The headlines are clever for one reason: the reporter knows how to interpret them.

Inference—Since the information in question is little known to others, the headlines will not be appreciated (seen as clever) by many other readers. So, the argument makes sense.

At this point, you would be ready to take on the answer choices. Do not be afraid to break down larger blocks of text into more digestible (linguistic) chunks. Some people label this process pre-thinking, and that is fine. Just make sure you find a way to engage with the passage so that you do not fish around in the answer choices for something that sounds reasonable. You should make understanding the passage a priority before moving on to the answers.

I think several fine analyses have been given above to the question on the whole. If you have further queries, though, feel free to ask.

- Andrew
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BhaveshGMAT
Tough stimulus.

I took the 'clever' in the stimulus as mischievous or agenda-driven. My analysis: Reporters write clever (mischievous/agenda-driven) headlines and therefore they should not write headlines of their stories.

How do we infer that readers may not understand and therefore may not appreciate the headline ?

Experts, Please help on this one.
"Clever" just means intelligent and original. "Mischievous/agenda-driven" goes a bit too far -- we can't say that the reporters have such devious reasons for writing clever titles. They might just do it for their own amusement, or because they forget that other people might not have the necessary context, or for many other reasons.

As for inferring that readers may not understand and therefore may not appreciate the headline: think about the author's argument as a whole. He/she thinks that reporters shouldn't be allowed to write headlines. Why? Because they write headlines that reference "little-known information," and then they don't write about that information in the rest of the article. So if readers don't know the "little-known information" before they read the article, they're not going to understand the headline. Then, even if they read the article, they're STILL not going to understand headline because the reporter doesn't even include the necessary info in the story.

Including "little-known information" in a headline, and then failing to provide any further details in the story, makes it likely that many readers won't understand the headline.

I hope that helps!

GMATNinja
I struggled with this question for similar reasons as the GMATClub member above in that I did not know how "clever" was being defined in this context.

Clever can take on slightly different meanings according to the dictionary (e.g., quick to understand, learn, and devise or apply ideas, intelligent etc.). Based on your response, when approaching these questions, should you exclusively rely on what is in the question to define the word "clever"/use this approach for future Critical Reasoning problems?

From what I understood based on your response, you defined "clever" exclusively based on what is mentioned in the question stem in that clever is "little-known information" that is "familiar to the reporter" and "is not mentioned in the story below the headline".
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BhaveshGMAT
Tough stimulus.

I took the 'clever' in the stimulus as mischievous or agenda-driven. My analysis: Reporters write clever (mischievous/agenda-driven) headlines and therefore they should not write headlines of their stories.

How do we infer that readers may not understand and therefore may not appreciate the headline ?

Experts, Please help on this one.
"Clever" just means intelligent and original. "Mischievous/agenda-driven" goes a bit too far -- we can't say that the reporters have such devious reasons for writing clever titles. They might just do it for their own amusement, or because they forget that other people might not have the necessary context, or for many other reasons.

As for inferring that readers may not understand and therefore may not appreciate the headline: think about the author's argument as a whole. He/she thinks that reporters shouldn't be allowed to write headlines. Why? Because they write headlines that reference "little-known information," and then they don't write about that information in the rest of the article. So if readers don't know the "little-known information" before they read the article, they're not going to understand the headline. Then, even if they read the article, they're STILL not going to understand headline because the reporter doesn't even include the necessary info in the story.

Including "little-known information" in a headline, and then failing to provide any further details in the story, makes it likely that many readers won't understand the headline.

I hope that helps!

GMATNinja
I struggled with this question for similar reasons as the GMATClub member above in that I did not know how "clever" was being defined in this context.

Clever can take on slightly different meanings according to the dictionary (e.g., quick to understand, learn, and devise or apply ideas, intelligent etc.). Based on your response, when approaching these questions, should you exclusively rely on what is in the question to define the word "clever"/use this approach for future Critical Reasoning problems?

From what I understood based on your response, you defined "clever" exclusively based on what is mentioned in the question stem in that clever is "little-known information" that is "familiar to the reporter" and "is not mentioned in the story below the headline".
As you point out, the word "clever" can have different shades of meaning in different situations. So how can we know which exact meaning "clever" has in this passage?

As you suggest, it's all about the context. Notice, the author doesn't describe the headlines as "clever" and leave it at that. In fact, the author specifies exactly what makes the headlines clever: "they allude to little-known information that is familiar to the reporter but that never appears explicitly in the story itself." In fact, the argument hinges less on the word "clever" than the fact that these headlines "allude to little-known information..."

In other words, the author's description of the headlines ("alluding to little-known information...) is more important to the argument than the fact that the author considers the headlines "clever."

Generally speaking, the context of a passage will tell you everything you need to know about any unusual vocabulary (or somewhat-unusual definitions of relatively common words). So instead of worry about every possible shade of meaning of a certain word, it's better to focus on how the author is using it, and how it functions in the argument.

I hope that helps!
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Newspaper editors should not allow reporters to write the headlines for their own stories. The reason for this is that, while the headlines that reporters themselves write are often clever, what typically makes them clever is that they allude to little-known information that is familiar to the reporter but that never appears explicitly in the story itself.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?


(A) The reporter who writes a story is usually better placed than the reporters' editor is to judge what the story's most newsworthy features are.

(B) To write a headline that is clever, a person must have sufficient understanding of the story that the headline accompanies.

(C) Most reporters rarely bother to find out how other reporters have written stories and headlines about the same events that they themselves have covered.

(D) For virtually any story that a reporter writes, there are at least a few people who know more about the story's subject matter than does the reporter.

(E) The kind of headlines that newspaper editors want are those that anyone who has read a reporter's story in its entirety will recognize as clever.

The question wants us to find the answer that strengthens the argument. So we need to clearly define the purpose of the argument before looking at the options. The argument focuses on not allowing reporters to write their own headlines, because the reporters use information that isn't mentioned in the story and people reading wouldn't know. So we should find an option that enforces the argument we found.

A, and D don't mention the argument, which is that "reporters should not write their own headline".

B mentions the headline but doesn't strengthen the argument, B weakens it.

C is out of scope, while it mentions the headline it doesn't strengthen or weaken it.

E pretty much recycles the reason mentioned in the paragraph but enforces why reporter's shouldn't write their own headline by addressing "allude to little-known information that is familiar to the reporter but that never appears explicitly in the story itself". Editors want a headline that ANY person will think is clever after reading the story, not just people familiar with information not in the story. Correct!
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Original Argument in Standard Form:

(1) What makes headlines written by reporters often clever is that they allude little-information that is familiar to the reporter but never appears in the story itself.
(2) ................. [Strengthener Missing]
___________
(3) Therefore, Editors should not allow reporters to write the headlines for their own stories.



I hope this helps
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Missing "in its entirety" was what stumped me.
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Situation
Observation:
✔ Reporters often write clever headlines for their own stories.
✔ These headlines are clever because they refer to little-known information.
✔ The problem: This little-known information is not explicitly mentioned in the stories themselves.

Issue:
✔ Readers might not understand or appreciate these headlines since they don’t have access to the little-known information that makes them clever.

Reasoning

1- Conclusion of the Argument:
✔ Newspaper editors should not allow reporters to write headlines for their own stories.

2- Explicit Premise (stated reasoning):
✔ Reporters’ headlines are clever only because they refer to little-known information that does not appear in the stories.

3- Gap in the Argument:
✔ The premise explains that reporters’ headlines rely on inaccessible information, but it does not explain why this is a problem.

To strengthen the argument, we need:
✔ A reason why headlines alluding to little-known information are problematic.
✔ An explanation of how this practice negatively affects readers, the newspaper’s purpose, or overall communication.

Option A
The reporter who writes a story is usually better placed than the reporter's editor to judge what the story's most newsworthy features are.

Evaluation:
This weakens the argument because it implies that reporters are better equipped than editors to understand their stories and, therefore, might be better suited to write the headlines.
Why it’s incorrect: The argument seeks to support why reporters should not write their own headlines, but this option suggests the opposite—that reporters might be the best choice for the task.

Weakens the argument by suggesting reporters are better suited to write headlines.

Option B
To write a headline that is clever, a person must have sufficient understanding of the story that the headline accompanies.

Evaluation:
This does not directly address why reporters’ headlines relying on little-known information are problematic. It simply states that understanding the story is necessary to write a clever headline.
Why it’s incorrect: The issue is not whether reporters understand the story, but whether their headlines effectively communicate to the audience. This option does not advance the argument about why reporters shouldn’t write their own headlines.

Irrelevant to the issue of why reporters’ headlines are problematic.

Option C
Most reporters rarely bother to find out how other reporters have written stories and headlines about the same events that they themselves have covered.

Evaluation:
This might explain why reporters don’t improve their headline-writing skills but doesn’t strengthen the argument against allowing reporters to write their own headlines.
Why it’s incorrect: The argument isn’t about reporters’ skill levels or professional habits but about the effect of headlines on readers. This option does not provide additional support for the argument's conclusion.

Explains reporters’ habits but does not strengthen the argument against them writing headlines.

Option D
For virtually any story that a reporter writes, there are at least a few people who know more about the story's subject matter than does the reporter.

Evaluation:
This weakens the argument slightly because it suggests that some readers (those with more knowledge than the reporter) might understand the clever allusions in a headline. If some readers can understand these headlines, the argument that such headlines are ineffective becomes weaker.
Why it’s incorrect: Instead of supporting the conclusion, this option provides a reason to believe that some clever headlines do achieve their intended effect.

Slightly weakens the argument by suggesting some readers might understand clever headlines.

Option E
The kind of headlines that newspaper editors want are those that anyone who has read a reporter's story in its entirety will recognize as clever.

Evaluation:
This directly supports the argument by aligning the editors’ goals with the argument’s premise. If editors prioritize headlines that readers can understand and appreciate, and reporters’ headlines fail to meet this criterion, then editors have a clear reason to disallow reporters from writing their own headlines.
Why it’s correct: It ties the premise (that reporters’ headlines are often not understood by readers) to the conclusion (that editors should not let reporters write their own headlines), making it the best choice

Correctly supports the argument by connecting the premise about reader comprehension to the conclusion about editorial control.
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