James Porter

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsLocal PurposeHumanities

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Passage

James Porter (1905–1970) was the first scholar to identify the African influence on visual art in the Americas, and much of what is known about the cultural legacy that African-American artists inherited from their African forebears has come to us by way of his work. Porter, a painter and art historian, began went on to establish clearly the range of the cultural territory inherited by later African-American artists.

An example of this aspect of Porter’s research occurs in his essay “Robert S. Duncanson, Midwestern Romantic-Realist.” The work of Duncanson, a nineteenth-century painter of the Hudson River school, like that of his predecessor in the movement, Joshua Johnston, was commonly thought to have been created by a Euro-American artist. Porter proved genre portrait with evidence of an extensive knowledge of the cultural history of various African peoples.

In his later years, Porter wrote additional chapters for later editions of his book, constantly revising and correcting his findings, some of which had been based of necessity on fragmentary evidence. Among his later achievements were his definitive reckoning of the birth year of the painter Patrick Reason, long a point of of the Western world generally, a body of research whose riches scholars still have not exhausted.

What this question is testing

Local Purpose

Your task

Identify why the author included the referenced detail at that point in the passage — its function, not its content.

Common trap

Answers that merely repeat or summarize the topic of the detail instead of describing the role it plays.

Winning move

Ask what job the detail does for the paragraph, then for the passage's broader point.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question

The discussion of Locke’s books is intended

Answer choices

Too Strong: depended upon1% picked this
argue that Porter’s book depended upon Locke’s
The author never stresses such a strong causal relationship as this. This answer is saying that "if it hadn't been for Locke's pioneering scholarship, then Porter wouldn't have written his book", and we have no evidence for that.
1%
Correct91% picked this
highlight an important way in which Porter’s work differed from previous work
Why this is right
On Local Purpose, we want our correct answer to sound like either/both of the "bookend" ideas (the Framing Idea preceding a detail or the Takeaway that follows it). The only previous work in Porter's field was by Locke. And whereas Locke didn't address African precursors, Porter's book addressed this issue. This answer nicely reinforces the author's overall Highlight Noteworthy purpose in writing about Porter.
Skill tested: Local Purpose · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
91%
Out of Scope0% picked this
suggest an explanation for why Porter’s book was little known outside
Out of Scope: little known Detail-Sentence Bait Nothing in the 2nd paragraph indicates that Porter's book was "little known outside academic circles". The sentence in which Locke is first mentioned says that he was a professor where Porter also taught, so this answer is trying to get students to react to that and pick something that says "academic circles". There is often a trap answer or two using something from the detail-sentence itself (when what we're really being tested on is the surrounding context).
0%
Wrong Claim6% picked this
support the claim that Porter was not the first to notice African influences
We could say that the info on Locke supports the claim that Porter was not the first to publish a book on the accomplishments of African American artists. But no one was ever talking about whether Porter was the first to notice African influences. He actually was the first to write about African influences (i.e. precursors), so if anything this answer is opposite. But the passage is only talking about the first people to write on certain subjects, not the first to notice.
6%
Too Strong: major influence2% picked this
argue that Locke’s example was a major influence on Porter’s decision to
It would be hard to pick this over (A), or vice versa, so the two kind of cancel each other out. They are both taking the fact that Locke and Porter are mentioned near each other and trying to turn that into a crucial causal relationship. The author is merely telling us that when Porter's book came out it was almost the first of its kind, and it was the first of its kind when it came to talking about African precursors.
2%

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