Critical Reasoning

Literary critics are concerned by a recent trend in book publishing. The sales of genre books—-lowbrow fare, such as romance novels, that critics contend have little literary value—-have increased dramatically over the last five years. In fact, an analysis of the books stocked in bookstores shows that the ratio of titles in the classic literature category-—which includes books with high literary value by such authors as Dickens, Dostoyevsky, and Faulkner-—to titles in the genre category has decreased over the same period. In addition, average sales per title in the genre category have increased greatly over the last five years. Critics fear that if current trends continue, genre books will dominate the market for fiction books, signaling a lamentable decrease in the quality of literature to which the average reader is exposed.

Which of the following pieces of information would be most useful in evaluating the validity of the critics claim about genre books potential domination of the market for fiction books?


1. the likelihood that current trends in the sales of books in the genre and classic literature categories continue


2. the amounts of sales, in dollars, for books in the genre and classic literature categories over the last five years


3. a comparison of sales revenues for nonfiction books and genre books over the last five years


4. sales revenues over the last five years both for genre books and for fiction books other than those in the genre or classic literature categories


5. a numerical estimate of the literary value contained in each of several representative titles of the genre book category





OA : D-- how sales revenues over the last five years of genre books and fiction books(except genre and lit) can help evaluating this?

if evaluate can both strenthen or weaken..how does this answer choice achieve this..?plz clarify.

Source:Princeton

With an Evaluate question, you're looking for an answer that resolves a gap in the argument. The answers are in general terms (they don't give you specific data), so you won't know if the new evidence strengthens or weakens the conclusion, but it will always fill in a cap. To break down this argument:

Premise: Sales of genre books have increased dramatically over the last 5 years.
Premise: The ratio of classics:genre has decreased.
Premise: Average sales per title of genre books have increased greatly.

Conclusion: if trends continue, genre books will dominate the market for fiction books

For me, we have a disconnect between the premises and conclusion. All of the facts given are about genre books and classic books, but the conclusion jumps to fiction books in general. Are classics and genre books the only types of fiction books?

That's where D fits. You're comparing sales revenues for genre books and non-genre, non-classic fiction books. There are two possible situations:

Sales revenue for non-genre, non-classic books has seen greater increases than sales revenue for genre books: This contradicts the idea that genre books will dominate the fiction book market because there's another market segment outperforming them.

Sales revenue for for genre has seen greater increases than sales revenue for non-genre, non-classic books : This supports the idea that genre books will dominate the market because it is outperforming all other types of fiction books.

borntobreaktherecord wrote:Literary critics are concerned by a recent trend in book publishing. The sales of genre books—-lowbrow fare, such as romance novels, that critics contend have little literary value—-have increased dramatically over the last five years. In fact, an analysis of the books stocked in bookstores shows that the ratio of titles in the classic literature category-—which includes books with high literary value by such authors as Dickens, Dostoyevsky, and Faulkner-—to titles in the genre category has decreased over the same period. In addition, average sales per title in the genre category have increased greatly over the last five years. Critics fear that if current trends continue, genre books will dominate the market for fiction books, signaling a lamentable decrease in the quality of literature to which the average reader is exposed.

Which of the following pieces of information would be most useful in evaluating the validity of the critics claim about genre books potential domination of the market for fiction books?


1. the likelihood that current trends in the sales of books in the genre and classic literature categories continue


2. the amounts of sales, in dollars, for books in the genre and classic literature categories over the last five years


3. a comparison of sales revenues for nonfiction books and genre books over the last five years


4. sales revenues over the last five years both for genre books and for fiction books other than those in the genre or classic literature categories


5. a numerical estimate of the literary value contained in each of several representative titles of the genre book category

This is a SAMPLING CR.
In a sampling CR, the premise is about PART OF THE GROUP, while the conclusion is about the WHOLE GROUP.
Here:
The premise offers sales data for two kinds of books: GENRE and CLASSIC.
The conclusion makes a prediction about the ENTIRE MARKET for fiction books: that it will be dominated by genre books.

We need to EVALUATE whether this conclusion is valid.
The correct answer choice will either STRENGTHEN or WEAKEN the conclusion.
Which piece of information would be useful?
Answer choice D: sales revenues...for fiction books other than those in the genre or classic literature categories.
If sales of these OTHER CATEGORIES have been very high, then the conclusion that genre books will dominate the book market is weakened.

The correct answer is D.

One thing is clear that genre and literature are forms of genre category.However,there may be other categories other than the two mentioned.
We are required to strengthen that genre dominates the market for fiction.We just need a bit of cross-check if there are other categories in fiction for which the sales have increased.And if that has happened,is genre still leading the pack?

Good Day Guru
i read you explanation at this link: https://www.beatthegmat.com/confusing-oa-t274922.html

i somehow have a different view about this question

you have said that:

The conclusion makes a prediction about the entire BOOK MARKET: that it will be dominated by genre books.

in the question stem we are asked: evaluate the validity of the critics claim about genre books potential domination of the market for fiction books

this means that we NEED to concentrate ONLY on the market of FICTION BOOKS and NOT on COMPLETE BOOK market. we have to evaluate the dominance of the so called "genre" books in the market of "fiction" books

please NOTE that i also fail to understand as why this CR has used the word "genre books"? the literal meaning of "genre" is "sorts", or "kinds", of any art. i mean we can say that there are various genres of literature such as "lowbrow", fiction, nonfiction, little literary value etc. BUT we CANNOT say: "Critics fear that if current trends continue, genre books will dominate the market for fiction books, signaling a lamentable decrease in the quality of literature to which the average reader is exposed. -----> the moment i read this i asked myself as "genre books" of what type? , people can argue that as per passage we can conclude "genre books" as being "romantic novels" BUT don't you think that in doing so we are flouting some very basic literal meaning?

aditya8062 wrote:you have said that:

The conclusion makes a prediction about the entire BOOK MARKET: that it will be dominated by genre books.

in the question stem we are asked: evaluate the validity of the critics claim about genre books potential domination of the market for fiction books

this means that we NEED to concentrate ONLY on the market of FICTION BOOKS and NOT on COMPLETE BOOK market. we have to evaluate the dominance of the so called "genre" books in the market of "fiction" books

Correct.
In my original post, I used the phrase entire market to refer to the entire market discussed in the passage (the market for fiction books).
I've edited my post to make it clear that the conclusion is not about the entire book market but about only the market for FICTION BOOKS.

please NOTE that i also fail to understand as why this CR has used the word "genre books"? the literal meaning of "genre" is "sorts", or "kinds", of any art. i mean we can say that there are various genres of literature such as "lowbrow", fiction, nonfiction, little literary value etc. BUT we CANNOT say: "Critics fear that if current trends continue, genre books will dominate the market for fiction books, signaling a lamentable decrease in the quality of literature to which the average reader is exposed. -----> the moment i read this i asked myself as "genre books" of what type? , people can argue that as per passage we can conclude "genre books" as being "romantic novels" BUT don't you think that in doing so we are flouting some very basic literal meaning?

The passage clearly defines "genre books" as LOWBROW FARE, SUCH AS ROMANCE NOVELS, THAT CRITICS CONTEND HAVE LITTLE LITERARY VALUE.
Other usages of the word genre are not relevant.

Thanks Guru for your reply
Guru i would still like to understand option D from you. I am having a different interpretation about option D
D days: sales revenues over the last five years both for genre books and for fiction books other than those in the genre or classic literature categories ----------->i get a feeling that "sales revenue" CANNOT solely, even in real world, explain OR EVALUATE the DOMINANCE of any particular "breed" of writing style. i will elaborate my point as follows: imagine a situation of a market where by a "high literary" book costs some $100 and a "lowbrow" book costs around $10. under such a situation even if "lowbrow" books outsells the "high literary" book then also we might have a situation where the "REVENUE" of "lowbrow" is less than that of "high literary"

ALSO the THIRD CATEGORY that option D is trying to put in picture might give some skewed results if we just compare the revenue of these books
honestly i had ruled out option B for precisely this reason
kindly explain as what am i missing

Thanks and regards

aditya8062 wrote:Thanks Guru for your reply
Guru i would still like to understand option D from you. I am having a different interpretation about option D
D days: sales revenues over the last five years both for genre books and for fiction books other than those in the genre or classic literature categories ----------->i get a feeling that "sales revenue" CANNOT solely, even in real world, explain OR EVALUATE the DOMINANCE of any particular "breed" of writing style. i will elaborate my point as follows: imagine a situation of a market where by a "high literary" book costs some $100 and a "lowbrow" book costs around $10. under such a situation even if "lowbrow" books outsells the "high literary" book then also we might have a situation where the "REVENUE" of "lowbrow" is less than that of "high literary"

ALSO the THIRD CATEGORY that option D is trying to put in picture might give some skewed results if we just compare the revenue of these books
honestly i had ruled out option B for precisely this reason
kindly explain as what am i missing

Thanks and regards

The correct answer choice to an EVALUATE CR must provide information that could WEAKEN or STRENGTHEN the conclusion.

Premise: Genre books are selling much better than classic books.
Conclusion: If this trend continues, genre books will dominate the market for fiction books.

What about all of the OTHER TYPES OF BOOKS that make up the fiction market (horror, science fiction, mysteries, etc.)?
If any of these other types of books are selling better than genre books, then the conclusion that genre books will dominate the fiction market is WEAKENED.
If genre books are selling better than all of these other types of books, then the conclusion that genre books will dominate the fiction market is STRENGTHENED.
Clearly, sales figures for these other types of books -- as discussed in the OA -- could weaken or strengthen the conclusion that genre books will dominate the fiction market.