Professor Chan: The literature departments undergraduate courses shou

Question

Professor Chan: The literature department’s undergraduate courses should cover only true literary works, and not such frivolous material as advertisements.

Professor Wigmore: Advertisements might or might not be true literary works but they do have a powerfully detrimental effect on society—largely because people cannot discern their real messages. The literature department’s courses give students the critical skills to analyze and understand texts. Therefore, it is the literature department’s responsibility to include the study of advertisements in its undergraduate courses.

Which one of the following principles most strongly supports Professor Wigmore’s argument?

(A) Advertisements ought to be framed in such a way that their real messages are immediately clear.

(B) Any text that is subtly constructed and capable of affecting people’s thought and action ought to be considered a form of literature.

(C) All undergraduate students ought to take at least one course that focuses on the development of critical skills.

(D) The literature department’s courses ought to enable students to analyze and understand any text that could have a harmful effect on society.

(E) Any professor teaching an undergraduate course in the literature department ought to be free to choose the material to be covered in that course.

sebo08 · Accepted Answer

excuse me but how does this comment help at all?? we already know which one is correct! what interests us is WHY?

tsatomic · Answer

This is a good tricky question because it tempts you to bring your own idea about advertising. Let's break it down. In essence, Prof. Wigmore says: Ads are detrimental to society because people don't understand their messages We teach students to understand texts Hence ads should be included in our courses The answer is either B or D for sure. Let's use critical skills to analyze and understand the texts.

(B) Any text that is subtly constructed and capable of affecting people’s thought and action ought to be considered a form of literature. Incorrect. Remember Prof. Wigmore talks only about "understanding" messages. But this option brings in the idea that ads affect "thought" and "action" which the professor does not mention. We know that many advertisements affect thought and action in the real world but that is external knowledge that should not be brought in. This trap makes this question a good one. In GMAT you do come across such tempting choices. (D) The literature department’s courses ought to enable students to analyze and understand any text that could have a harmful effect on society. Correct. From the arguments alone we don't know if the department should also be concerned about what is bad for society. But Prof. Wigmore starts off his argument with the concern about how ads are detrimental to society. So this option connects the dots and strengthens Prof. Wigmore's argument by saying that the department's courses also need to include what impacts society.

GDT · Answer

Professor Chan: The literature department’s undergraduate courses should cover only true literary works, and not such frivolous material as advertisements.

Professor Wigmore: Advertisements might or might not be true literary works but they do have a powerfully detrimental effect on society—largely because people cannot discern their real messages. The literature department’s courses give students the critical skills to analyze and understand texts. Therefore, it is the literature department’s responsibility to include the study of advertisements in its undergraduate courses.

Which one of the following principles most strongly supports Professor Wigmore’s argument?

(A) Advertisements ought to be framed in such a way that their real messages are immediately clear.  Incorrect 
(B) Any text that is subtly constructed and capable of affecting people’s thought and action ought to be considered a form of literature.  Incorrect 
(C) All undergraduate students ought to take at least one course that focuses on the development of critical skills.  Incorrect 
(D) The literature department’s courses ought to enable students to analyze and understand any text that could have a harmful effect on society   Correct  
(E) Any professor teaching an undergraduate course in the literature department ought to be free to choose the material to be covered in that course.  Incorrect

abhik1502 · Answer

Bunuel

Will you pls elaborate how come D is correct answer and B is wrong ?

Isn't option D repetition of information given in argument already and it don't present any new information ?
WHat is the justification of mark B as wrong when it somewhere qualifies such advertisement a candidate of literary curriculum. And helpful in study, so it should be added.

Pls suggest !

haithamnimer · Answer

Conclusion:
Advertisement must include in the literature studies because The literature department’s courses give students the critical skills to analyze and understand texts.
Therefore, we need to strengthen the argument, let us check answer choice one by one.

(A) Advertisements ought to be framed in such a way that their real messages are immediately clear.  Incorrect, in fact, it weakens the argument. As the argument mentioned that Advertisements have a powerfully detrimental effect on society—largely because people cannot discern their real messages.

(B) Any text that is subtly constructed and capable of affecting people’s thought and action ought to be considered a form of literature.  Incorrect, I think this answer choice is very tempting. Because it is agreed with the text "The literature department’s courses give students the critical skills to analyze and understand texts." BUT, the problem here that it is so EXTREME because it stated that ANY TEXT

(C) All undergraduate students ought to take at least one course that focuses on the development of critical skills. ---  Irrelevant to the conclusion at all, it re-states the argument.

(D) The literature department’s courses ought to enable students to analyze and understand any text that could have a harmful effect on society.  Here is the right answer, argument conclusion is to include the advertisement in the literature courses because if people don't understand them very well, they will have a detrimental effect

(E) Any professor teaching an undergraduate course in the literature department ought to be free to choose the material to be covered in that course.  -- Incorrect, irrelevant at all

abhik1502 · Answer

1. If you reject option B just for extreme text such as "ANY TEXT" then so is there in option D as well.

2. Moreover as I said earlier isn't option D mere restatement of information already given in argument ? It doesnt give my new info.

3. Conclusion says "it is responsibility of department to include advertisement". So can we say just because students are capable of analyzing something so same should be include in curriculum. Even though it supports somewhere then it sounds far fetched.

ravigupta2912 · Answer

Between B and D, here is how I went about choosing D.

(B) Any text that is subtly constructed and capable of affecting people’s thought and action ought to be considered a form of literature. -- Okay. That does counter Chan's argument that undergrads should only be taught true literary works. But the question stem asks us to support prof wigmore's argument and not counter chan's argument (subtle difference between the two). If we are to support prof W's argument, we need to be clear about his line of argument. He says  "advertisements might or might not be true literary works"  but  they do have a powerfully detrimental effect on society" . We can discern from this line that he places importance on their (advertisements) impact on the society rather than on whether they are true works of literature or not. Hence, B is eliminated since it is not strengthening Prof W's argument.

(D) The literature department’s courses ought to enable students to analyze and understand any text that could have a harmful effect on society. -- Taking our discussion from the analysis of previous choice, notice how perfectly this argues and supports the line of argument of Prof W. Correct answer.

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Professor Chan: The literature departments undergraduate courses shou

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