Newspaper editors should not allow reporters to write the headlines for their own stories. The reason for this is that,...

GMAT Critical Reasoning : (CR) Questions

Source: Official Guide

Critical Reasoning

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Newspaper editors should not allow reporters to write the headlines for their own stories. The reason for this is that, while the headlines that reporters themselves write are often clever, what typically makes them clever is that they allude to little-known information that is familiar to the reporter but that never appears explicitly in the story itself.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?

The reporter who writes a story is usually better placed than the reporters' editor is to judge what the story's most newsworthy features are.

To write a headline that is clever, a person must have sufficient understanding of the story that the headline accompanies.

Most reporters rarely bother to find out how other reporters have written stories and headlines about the same events that they themselves have covered.

For virtually any story that a reporter writes, there are at least a few people who know more about the story's subject matter than does the reporter.

The kind of headlines that newspaper editors want are those that anyone who has read a reporter's story in its entirety will recognize as clever.

Solution

Passage Analysis:

Text from Passage	Analysis
Newspaper editors should not allow reporters to write the headlines for their own stories.	What it says: Editors shouldn't let reporters create headlines for articles they wrote What it does: Opens with a clear directive about newsroom policy What it is: Author's main claim/recommendation
The reason for this is that, while the headlines that reporters themselves write are often clever, what typically makes them clever is that they allude to little-known information that is familiar to the reporter but that never appears explicitly in the story itself.	What it says: Reporter-written headlines are clever because they reference insider info that doesn't actually appear in the article What it does: Provides the reasoning behind the opening claim by explaining the problem with reporter-written headlines What it is: Author's supporting premise/explanation Visualization: \(\mathrm{Reporter\ knows\ 10\ background\ facts} \rightarrow \mathrm{Only\ 3\ facts\ make\ it\ into\ the\ article} \rightarrow \mathrm{Headline\ cleverly\ references\ the\ other\ 7\ facts\ that\ readers\ can't\ see}\)

Argument Flow:

The argument starts with a clear recommendation, then immediately explains why this policy makes sense by identifying a specific problem with the current practice.

Main Conclusion:

Newspaper editors should not allow reporters to write headlines for their own stories.

Logical Structure:

The conclusion is directly supported by one main premise: reporter-written headlines rely on insider knowledge that readers don't have access to, making the headlines less effective for the intended audience.

Prethinking:

Question type:

Strengthen - We need to find information that makes us more confident that newspaper editors should NOT allow reporters to write their own headlines

Precision of Claims

The argument focuses on the quality issue that reporter-written headlines reference information not in the actual story, making them less accessible to readers

Strategy

We need to find statements that either show why headlines referencing unavailable information is problematic, or that demonstrate negative consequences of this practice. We should look for information that highlights reader confusion, communication failures, or other downsides of clever but inaccessible headlines.

Answer Choices Explained

The reporter who writes a story is usually better placed than the reporters' editor is to judge what the story's most newsworthy features are.

This choice actually weakens the argument rather than strengthens it. If reporters are better positioned to judge what's most newsworthy about their stories, this would support letting reporters write their own headlines, which goes against the author's recommendation that editors should not allow this.

To write a headline that is clever, a person must have sufficient understanding of the story that the headline accompanies.

This doesn't help the argument because it just states a general requirement for clever headlines. The argument already acknowledges that reporter-written headlines are clever - the problem isn't whether reporters understand the story enough to be clever, but that their cleverness relies on information readers can't access.

Most reporters rarely bother to find out how other reporters have written stories and headlines about the same events that they themselves have covered.

This is irrelevant to the argument. Whether reporters research how others have covered similar events doesn't address the core issue about headlines referencing unavailable information. This choice doesn't connect to the problem of insider knowledge making headlines less accessible to readers.

For virtually any story that a reporter writes, there are at least a few people who know more about the story's subject matter than does the reporter.

This choice is also irrelevant. The argument isn't about who knows the most about a story's subject matter overall. The issue is specifically about headlines referencing information that doesn't appear in the article itself, regardless of anyone's total knowledge about the topic.

The kind of headlines that newspaper editors want are those that anyone who has read a reporter's story in its entirety will recognize as clever.

This directly strengthens the argument by establishing what newspaper editors actually want - headlines that readers can recognize as clever after reading the complete story. This creates a perfect contrast with the current problem: if editors want headlines that are clever based on information available to readers, then reporter-written headlines (which are clever based on unavailable information) fail to meet this standard. This choice provides the missing link that explains why the identified problem matters to editors.

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