A question about two texts tests whether you can use one author's view to respond to the other's concerns. Read the question to find who answers whom, since either author can be the one responding. Put the concern in a few words, then find the responding author's main point and its reason. Ask how that point applies to the concern, and use the author's own reason. A response can sound sensible yet rely on an idea neither text supports.
Hints
- Hint 1
Check who is responding in the question. Use that author's ideas to judge the concern in the other text.
- Hint 2
In Text 1, look for why historians can use the diaries today. Which earlier steps made that possible?
- Hint 3
Compare how the records are kept in each text. What does Text 1's experience suggest about Text 2's concern?
Step-by-step
Trace the author's reason
Step 1Find who answers and what they answer
Start with author of Text 1 in the question: we're using that author's view to answer Text 2's concerns. What are those concerns? Blogging platforms shut down, hyperlinks break, and images can be lost. Future scholars could lose useful records, because today's online travel accounts may not survive long enough to be studied.
- Step 2
Find Text 1's point and reason
Why can historians do so much with the diaries now? They were donated to libraries and carefully cataloged, and that archiving lets historians compare accounts, trace routes, and correct later errors. Text 1 links their usefulness to organized preservation, so the response should use that connection as its reason.
- Step 3
Name the stance
Do the texts describe opposing views, or the same issue at different stages? Both concern travel accounts that scholars could study, but the diaries have been kept safe while the blogs are at risk. Text 2's phrase Without a coordinated effort names work that hasn't been done for blogs but has helped preserve diaries. The author can apply an idea to a new case, using an earlier success to address a present-day problem.
- Step 4
Match the reason and strength
How strong a claim can the response make? A model that could be adapted offers a starting point, not a promise that diaries and blogs need the same methods. It answers Text 2's need to preserve online posts by drawing on Text 1's successful archiving. The wording allows for different methods while carrying the preservation idea forward. Choice C.