Critical Reasoning

Johnson is on firm ground when he asserts that the early editors of Dickinson’s poetry often distorted her intentions. Yet Johnson’s own, more faithful, text is still guilty of its own forms of distortion. To standardize Dickinson’s often indecipherable handwritten punctuation by the use of the dash is to render permanent a casual mode of poetic phrasing that Dickinson surely never expected to see in print. It implies that Dickinson chose the dash as her typical mark of punctuation when, in fact, she apparently never made any definitive choice at all.

Which of the following best summarizes the author’s main point?

(A) Although Johnson is right in criticizing Dickinson’s early editors for their
distortion of her work, his own text is guilty of equally serious distortions.
(B) Johnson’s use of the dash in his text of Dickinson’s poetry misleads readers about the poet’s intentions.
(C) Because Dickinson never expected her poetry to be published, virtually any attempt at editing it must run counter to her intentions.
(D) Although Johnson’s attempt to produce a more faithful text of Dickinson’s poetry is well-meaning, his study of the material lacks sufficient thoroughness.
(E) Dickinson’s editors, including Johnson, have failed to deal adequately with the problem of deciphering Dickinson’s handwritten manuscripts.

I will go with A whats the right answer. Below is reasoning ..

Passage says
1. he is on FIRM ground that others distorted poets intentions
2. By putting a dash he himself has changed meaning and distorted poets intentions .

I am between B and E.

B is very attractive but it talks only about Johnson and the use of dash. For me thats an example of how J distorted and not the summary.

E talks about J and other E's and broadly says that they failed to deal with Dickinson's manuscripts. uses adequately which makes me feel doubtful but over all I feel its the better choice.

A, IMO gets too negative by saying that "his own text is guilty of equally serious distortions". We only know one. correct?

C is totally out of scope to me

D's first part looks good but we cant say that "his study of the material lacks sufficient thoroughness."

My answer E

E can not be true becuase it assumes that other editors also distorted Dickinsos's poetry only due to her handwriting. May be it waw due to wrong interpretation on words or any other reaosn. We dont know.

This is from 1000CR Test A, I selected A and got it wrong. Lets hear more from others before giving the OA

As I said, I was torn between B & E. Durgesh brought up a good point that I thought about as well. How ever the first sentence of the stimulus says that many other editors fiddled with her intentions.

Probably E is going a step too far in concluding that those editors also distorted her handwriting.

Re reading the conclusion " It implies " makes me move towards B, which is a better para phrase.

OA is B

Whats the best approach in such a case?

Narrowing it down to A and B was fairly easy. I went with "A" but now, thinking about it, I am guessing the bit about "equally serious distortions" should be a bit of a red flag and hence can be ruled out. That would narrow the answer down to B. Does anyone else agree with this?

Pranav

i feel it's B