Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Hard

PT120 S4 Q12 Explanation

Novelist: Any author who thinks

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

TopicsFlaw

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Stimulus

Novelist: Any author who thinks a sentence is ungrammatical will not write it down in the first place, and thus will have no need to use a grammar book. On the other hand, any author who is sure a sentence she or he has written is grammatical will not grammar books are useless as reference sources for authors.

What this question is testing

Flaw

Your task

Describe the reasoning error the argument actually commits.

Common trap

Answers that name a real logical flaw the argument doesn't actually make.

Winning move

Articulate the gap in the reasoning yourself, then match it to the choice that describes that gap.

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

The question
12.

The reasoning in the novelist’s argument is flawed because

Answer choices

  1. Bad Evidence Match4% picked this

    infers, from the claim that authors should not consult grammar books, that they will not

    Does the conclusion say that authors will not consult grammar books? Yeah, basically. He says that grammar books will be useless as reference sources, so that pretty much implies authors won't consult them. But does the evidence say "authors should not consult grammar books"? Not at all. There's no normative language in the evidence. It's just two descriptive conditional rules.

  2. Bad Conclusion Match10% picked this

    infers, from the claim that an author does not mistakenly think that a sentence is ungrammatical, that the author will feel

    Does the author conclude that an author "will feel sure a sentence is grammatical"? Nope. He concludes that "grammar books are useless as reference sources to authors". The evidence is also off, should we keep reading, since the evidence never deals with the potential of mistakenly thinking a sentence is ungrammatical.

  3. Out of Scope: non-authors3% picked this

    overlooks the possibility that grammar books are useful as reference sources for people who

    The conclusion is only about whether these books are useful for authors.

  4. Out of Scope15% picked this

    presumes, without providing justification, that grammar books cannot have any use except

    Out of Scope: not used as reference source The conclusion is only about whether these books are useful as reference sources.

  5. Correct69% picked this

    ignores the possibility that there is a middle ground between being sure that a sentence is grammatical and

    Why this is right

    This points out the False Choice between the triggers of the author's two conditionals. It's not like in every single case you choose between "sure it's correct" and "think it's wrong". There could be middle degrees, such as "think it's correct" or "not really sure in either direction", for which an author might consult that grammar book as a reference.

    Skill tested: Flaw · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

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