#27 - Must Be True, Author's Perspective

[reop6780]

#27)

It seems as if answer E presents the overall answer, but I do not see why neither B nor C is not regarded correct. They are both described in the stimuli (lines of 27--)


I have never struggled this much with RC... I feel like I should start studying all over again how to attack RC...

[David Boyle]

#27)

It seems as if answer E presents the overall answer, but I do not see why neither B nor C is not regarded correct. They are both described in the stimuli (lines of 27--)


I have never struggled this much with RC... I feel like I should start studying all over again how to attack RC...

Hello,

I see you are noting your struggling again! Sorry to hear.
Anyway, B and C, "Juries usually overestimate the value of visual evidence such as photographs" and "Jurors have preconceptions about the behavior of defendants that prevent them from making an objective analysis of the evidence in a criminal trial", are things that *may* happen, not things that always happen.

David

[reop6780]

Oh wow! good point. Thanks!

[TZHUUMD22]

Hello,

I don't understand why E can be the correct answer since it is not based on the text, whereas C is both accurate and reflects the main point of the passage.

I have made similar mistakes in this type of questions. Is there anyway to determine when an answer is correct because it is text based, and when it is correct because of reasons that outweigh the former?

Thanks,

Thomas

[Christen Hammock]

Hi TZHUUMD22!

First, we're not looking for the main point of the passage in this question; it just asks which generalization the author would be most likely to agree with! You're right that the specific example of prior crimes influencing the jury appears in the passage, but (C) doesn't describe a broad enough generalization. Instead, (C) describes a specific instance of Answer Choice (E)--that the jury may overestimate how important that prior crime is!

Christen

[TZHUUMD22]

Thank you for your explanation Christen. Does that mean "generalizations" can be seen in the LSAT context a global conclusion?

[Paul Marsh]

Hi TZHUUMD22! I'm not quite sure what you mean by "global conclusion", feel free to follow up on what you mean by that.

Here, "generalization" is just used to mean "a general descriptive statement". So the question is asking something like, "the author would agree with which one of the following general descriptive statements about how juries act?".

Answer choice (C) is probably too strong - it's unlikely the author would agree that juries typically have preconceptions about defendants that prevent them from being objective (the passage only talks about the jury having preconceptions in the unique circumstance where evidence of previous convictions is presented).

Whereas (E) is a nice general statement that the author would probably agree with, since it lines up nicely with what the author says in this sentence from the second paragraph of the passage: "Also, a jury may give more probative weight than objective analysis would allow to vivid photographic evidence depicting a shooting victim's wounds, or may underestimate the weight of defense testimony that is not delivered in a sufficiently forceful or persuasive manner."

Hope that helps!

[TZHUUMD22]

Hello Paul,

That makes total sense now! I think I am just intimidated by terminologies like "generalizations" in the LSAT context since it usually uses these terms by their more specialized meanings. But I understand the point now.

Thanks a lot!

T