A question about how two authors’ views differ tests whether you can compare their judgments of the same work. Start with the question to see what you’re comparing, then put each author’s main claim and reason in a few words. Separate the main judgment from side comments by asking which points explain the author’s overall view. Ask how their views differ, and check each half against its own text. A choice can get one author right while changing the other’s view.
Hints
- Hint 1
Find each author’s main judgment of the biography, then ask what evidence the author gives for that judgment.
- Hint 2
What do Despite in Text 1 and While in Text 2 tell you about the role of the comments on writing style?
- Hint 3
Check the judgment and the reason for each author separately. Can you point to words in the matching text that support each part?
Step-by-step
Compare the claims and their reasons
Step 1Find Text 1’s claim and reason
Text 1 says the biography overstates Lovelace’s originality, giving us the first view to compare. Why does this author object? The book overlooks notebook annotations that attribute crucial algorithmic steps to other collaborators and repeats later accounts that celebrate Lovelace. So the book gives Lovelace too much credit by making work done with others seem like hers alone.
- Step 2
Find Text 2’s claim and reason
Does Text 2 share that objection? It says the book’s close engagement with manuscript evidence supports its central claim, which is that Lovelace understood computation differently from her contemporaries. Unlike Text 1’s author, this author trusts the book’s use of evidence to support its account of what makes Lovelace’s thinking distinct.
- Step 3
Separate the prose comments from the main judgments
The comments on writing style could blur this difference, so what do the words introducing them do? Despite its lively narration sets aside praise of the storytelling before Text 1’s criticism. While the opening chapters sometimes lapse into melodrama sets aside a fault before Text 2’s support for the book’s use of evidence. The authors’ main disagreement is about Lovelace’s originality and the evidence for it, not whether the writing is dramatic.
- Step 4
Match both halves to their texts
Now match both halves of a choice to those judgments and reasons. Neglecting evidence of others’ contributions describes what Text 1 calls overlooking marginal annotations, while well supported matches Text 2’s supports its central claim. Even if shows that the complaint about the writing doesn’t change the author’s support, so the whole contrast matches both authors’ views. Choice C.