Logical Reasoning

PT129 · S2 · Q17 Poetry journal patron: Everybody

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Poetry journal patron: Everybody who publishes in The Brick Wall Review has to agree in advance that if a poem is printed in one of its regular issues, the magazine also has the right to reprint it, without monetary compensation, in its annual anthology.

Evidence

The Brick Wall Review makes enough money from sales of its anthologies to cover most operating expenses.

Most poems published in your magazine are very similar to those published in The Brick Wall Review.

Conclusion

So, if your magazine also published an anthology of poems first printed in your magazine, you could depend less on donations.

Evaluate

Given that ... The BWR makes enough from its anthology to cover operating expenses,

How could we argue that ... if our magazine copied BWR's idea and published an anthology of poems first printed in our magazine, it wouldn't help us raise money (which would make us less dependent on donations?

The argument assumes that what is true for the Brick Wall Review will also be true for the magazine under discussion. We need a way to argue that even though this anthology has been a successful revenue raising plan for Brick Wall Review, it wouldn't be for our magazine.

The only similarity the argument has established is that our poems are similar to their poems. But maybe their marketing team is better. Maybe their readership is more interested in anthologies. Maybe buying a copy of the anthology is required to see one of the poets give a live reading.

If there's something that makes this plan a success for BWR that we wouldn't necessarily be able to do if we were doing an anthology, then that weakens the assumption that we will see similar success from this plan.

Goal

Look for answer that would help us to argue that .

17.

Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the patron's argument?

  1. Neither The Brick Wall Review

    Too Weak

    This limits the amount that the magazine under discussion can reduce its dependence on donations, but does not make it less likely that the magazine could depend less on donations.

    12% picked this

  2. Many of the poets whose

    Too Weak / Out of Scope

    This could be just two or three poets. Furthermore, that the magazine rejected several poems by authors whose work appears in the Brick Wall Review is not relevant. The works rejected did not even necessarily appear in the Brick Wall Review. The poets could have submitted different poems to each magazine.

    4% picked this

  3. The only compensation poets receive

    Too Weak

    This does not provide a material difference between the two magazines.

    5% picked this

  4. The Brick Wall Review depends

    Strengthen

    This makes the two magazines more similar and thereby more comparable.

    23% picked this

  5. Correct

    The Brick Wall Review's annual

    Why this is right

    This is a pretty brutally thin answer, but something that raises doubt can be the strongest weakener if everything else does nothing or goes the wrong way. The argument's reason for thinking that our anthology would do well, like BRW's has, was that most of our published poems are similar to BRW's. The author is therefore assuming that people are predominantly buying these BRW anthologies in order to have access to a collection of poems similar to what's published in our magazine and in regular editions of BRW. This answer is suggesting a possible line of objection, "Yo, author -- the only reason people are buying the BRW anthology is for the poems by famous poets that weren't published in the regular issues! I don't think the anthology would work for us, since we don't have famous poets contributing cool stuff that's worth buying." This is a pretty big leap for a correct answer. For this answer to have impact, we have to assume a significant of people who buy the anthology do so for the sake of the "bonus poems" from famous poets. And we have to assume that our magazine wouldn't have this same option of luring people into buying our anthology by dangling "bonus poems" from famous poets. But both of those ideas are pretty conservative. It's reasonable to think that bonus poems from famous people could be a compelling reason why people would both to buy a compilation of previously published poems. And it's reasonable to think that your run of the mill poetry magazine doesn't have a number of famous poets that they can easily get to contribute to their anthology. As we said at the top --- this doesn't come close to proving that an anthology wouldn't work well for our magazine, but it creates doubt about whether we really do have the matching ingredients that make BRW's anthology a success.

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

    57% picked this

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