writing business letters or memos

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writing business letters or memos

by maihuna » Thu Jan 29, 2009 8:44 am
When writing business letters or memos, it’s not
practical to be personal. Though the first-person
point of view may make the reader feel close to
the writer, it also implies a certain subjectivity.
That is, the writer is expressing a personal view
from a personal perspective.
This paragraph best supports the statement that
a. writing a first-person business correspondence
will prevent the writer from getting
promoted.
b. effective business writing is one of the
most important skills to have in an office
environment.
c. using the first-person point of view in business
correspondence is not a wise choice.
d. the first-person point of view expresses a
personal view and a personal perspective.
e. the first-person point of view is appropriate
when writing a letter of thanks.

not an standard source Q
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by sarika_33 » Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:47 am
Is it D?

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by 4meonly » Thu Jan 29, 2009 12:17 pm
C is my choise
I consder D a premice of a stimulus. I think D is very narrowed to 1 fact.
In C I don't like "wise".
(C)

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by krisraam » Thu Jan 29, 2009 1:41 pm
IMO C

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maihuna wrote:When writing business letters or memos, it’s not
practical to be personal. Though the first-person
point of view may make the reader feel close to
the writer, it also implies a certain subjectivity.
That is, the writer is expressing a personal view
from a personal perspective.
This paragraph best supports the statement that
a. writing a first-person business correspondence
will prevent the writer from getting
promoted.
b. effective business writing is one of the
most important skills to have in an office
environment.
c. using the first-person point of view in business
correspondence is not a wise choice.
d. the first-person point of view expresses a
personal view and a personal perspective.
e. the first-person point of view is appropriate
when writing a letter of thanks.
As always, let's start with the question stem:

"This paragraph best supports the statement that"

Here we have an inference question - we're looking for a choice that MUST be true based on what's stated or implied by the stimulus.

As noted by the other posters, one should be able to quickly narrow it down to (c) or (d), which are the only two answers inside the scope of the passage. For thoroughness:

(a) mentions promotions;
(b) is too extreme ("most important"); and
(e) mentions letters of thanks.

Now let's look at (c) and (d):

(c) using the first-person point of view in business correspondence is not a wise choice.

Well, the stimulus says "it's not practical to be personal" when writing "business letters or memos".

Is "practical" the same as "wise"? Is business correspondence the same as "business letters or memos"?

The answer to the second question is probably yes, but the answer to the first question isn't. While (c) certainly might be what the writer intends for us to take away from her recommendation, it's not a "MUST be true", so it's not the right answer.

(d) the first-person point of view expresses a personal view and a personal perspective.

This answer is supported directly by the last two sentences of the stimulus. A lot of test takers will ignore this answer for the exact reason cited by 4meonly - it seems like an exact paraphrase of what we read. However, if it's an exact paraphrase, then it's definitely supported, so it's the correct answer.

Inference tip: don't look for a particularly deep answer; the correct choice could simply be a restatement of what's in the stimulus.
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by umaa » Thu Jan 29, 2009 4:11 pm
IMO D. It clearly states that the first-person point of view expresses a
personal view and a personal perspective.

OA pls.

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by 4meonly » Fri Jan 30, 2009 9:28 am
Stuart, thank you!

Each Inference question is my pain...

Could ypu please give us some advices about solving inference questions?

Thank you in advance!

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by Brad.C » Fri May 13, 2016 2:31 pm
Answer D seems to be logical one