#14 - Franklin: The only clue I have as to the identity of

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Flaw in the Reasoning. The correct answer choice is (A)

Since the handwriting on the note is not Miller’s, Franklin concludes that the joker is someone else. His argument makes a number of unwarranted assumptions: (1) that Miller did not deliberately alter her handwriting when writing the note; (2) that she did not have someone else write it; and (3) that there was only one practical joker. Answer choice (A) is therefore correct.

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. See discussion above.

Answer choice (B): No two handwriting samples are compared, and no conclusion is made about them being attributable to the same source. This answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (C): Logically speaking, Franklin is under no obligation to explain why Miller was the prime suspect. Still, he does mention that Miller has always been jealous of him, which should suffice as an explanation as to why Miller was a prime suspect. This answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (D): Franklin is under no obligation to explain why only one piece of evidence was obtained. This answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (E): Franklin argues that since the handwriting isn’t Miller’s, the joker is not Miller. This answer choice offers a Mistaken Negation of this conclusion (if the handwriting had been Miller’s, the joker would have been Miller). It would be illogical for Franklin to take for granted the Mistaken Negation of his own conclusion. This answer choice is incorrect.

[Jaeyoung]

In the stimulus, it says “the practical joker”. Doesn’t it mean there is only one joker?

[Malila Robinson]

Hi Jaeyoung,
Yes, the mistake that Franklin made is that there was only one practical joker, which is what that phrase means. BUT we have no proof that there was only one person involved. For example, maybe one person wrote the note and another person planned the prank.
Hope that helps!
-Malila

[lsatstudying11]

Hello,

Before diving into the answer choices, I predicated that the answer would say something like Franklin pays too much attention to handwriting when that might not itself be very telling. I focused on the part that says 'the only clue I have is' and thought to myself that maybe, even though this is Franklin's only clue, it might not be very telling and it might even be tricking him, like a red herring. That is, just because it's his only clue, doesn't mean that's the key to solving the mystery. And so, this would jeopardize the conclusion because maybe it is actually Miller. Is it fair to view this as a flaw, even though the correct answer didn't get at this? TIA

[Robert Carroll]

lsat,

Isn't that what answer choice (A) does? The only clue Franklin has weakens the case that it's Miller. But like you said, if you have only one piece of information as a clue, you might come to conclusions that would seem erroneous if you had more information. So making any kind of firm conclusion from one piece of information is bad.

Applying that to this case, the clue Franklin does have weakens the case that Miller is involved. So how could Miller be involved if the single piece of information shows pretty strongly that Miller didn't write the note? For Franklin to be wrong, we'd need evidence to show something like "Miller is involved, but didn't write the note." Doesn't that require multiple people? So answer choice (A) is the answer.

The note can't be a red herring unless other people are involved - it's not Miller's handwriting. So I think what you're saying requires answer choice (A) anyway.

Robert Carroll

[rightway1566]

I understand why A is correct, but am not understanding why B is wrong. In order to determine that the handwriting was not Miller's, Franklin must have compared the handwriting on the note to Miller's previous handwriting.

[Adam Tyson]

The reason B doesn't hurt the argument, rightway1566, is that the author tells us in no uncertain terms that the handwriting is NOT Miller's. Not just that they don't think it is, or that in their opinion it doesn't look enough like Miller's. No, they seem to have established that it is definitely not Miller's, and we should accept that premise as true when analyzing the argument. Our focus should not be on whether that premise is true, but on whether that premise proves the conclusion, which it does not.

A great prephrase here would be along the lines of "Miller could have gotten someone else to write it," which would make the argument fall apart. Failing to consider that she could still be the practical joker even if she herself did not write the note is the fatal flaw here, rather than any problem with handwriting analysis!

In the real world, we challenge premises all the time, but on the LSAT we almost never do. Whether in a Flaw question like this one, or a Weaken question, you should generally accept the truth of the premises, and look instead at why the premises aren't good evidence for the conclusion. That's almost always what the LSAT is really testing!

[AJScott2022]

Hello,

I am having trouble ruling out answer choice B. I was able to come up with a very similar pre-phrase to the one that was posted in the explanation. My thought is that Franklin’s argument doesn’t rule out two possibilities: 1) Miller altered his or her handwriting 2) there were 2 jokers. I see why answer choice A is correct, since it addresses the 2nd possibility that I listed. But I initially chose B, because it addresses that first possibility of Miller altering his or her handwriting, by saying the argument fails to indicate the degree to which handwriting samples should look alike in order to be from the same source. Franklin’s argument doesn’t rule out the possibility that although the note does not match Miller’s handwriting, it could still have been written by Miller, because maybe Miller altered his or her handwriting. So in this case, the handwriting would not need to look like Miller’s typical handwriting, in order to be considered of the same source (Miller). This is why I still can’t rule out answer choice B.

[Jeff Wren]

Hi AJ,

First, I'll refer you to Adam's post above, as he specifically addresses the problem of Answer B.

To reiterate what Adam states, the key is that Franklin's premise here isn't that the note doesn't look like Miller's handwriting (which would allow the possibility that Miller altered her handwriting). Instead Franklin states that the handwriting is not hers. Now we have no idea exactly how or why Franklin knows for certain that the handwriting is not hers, but for the purposes of analyzing the logic of the argument, we should accept that premise as true. (Maybe Franklin is a handwriting expert and would be able to recognize Miller's handwriting even if she tried to disguise it? Maybe Franklin did a DNA analysis of the letter, who knows?)

The real flaw, which is addressed in Answer A, is that even if the handwriting isn't Millers, that doesn't mean that she's not the practical joker because she could have an accomplice.