A finding question about competing causes tests whether you can tell which evidence favors one explanation over another. Put the claim in a few words, including both the cause it names and the cause it rejects. Then ask what would tell the causes apart, and predict a finding that does that. A cause must come before its effect, so check the order of events. Evidence that fits both explanations can't settle which caused the result.
Hints
- Hint 1
Reread the last sentence and identify the two explanations for the suspenseful endings. What does each explanation say caused the match between endings and installment boundaries?
- Hint 2
The passage says publishers set installment lengths while writing was still underway. Ask when the limits were set in relation to the writing of the endings.
- Hint 3
For a conflict near a scheduled boundary, trace how its ending developed across versions. What would a change, or no change, tell you about the scholar's argument?
Step-by-step
Trace when the endings changed
Step 1Separate the two causes
Chapters at scheduled installment boundaries were more likely to end with unresolved action. Why doesn't that settle what caused the suspense? Authors might have written suspense to meet the schedule, or publishers might have chosen already suspenseful points for breaks. Since the question asks us to support the scholar's argument, we need evidence that the schedule changed what authors wrote.
- Step 2
Predict the needed change
How could an archive show the schedule changing an ending? Because limits were set while novels were still being written, let's trace the same conflict through versions of a manuscript. A cause must come before its effect, so we predict a change toward suspense after the limits are announced, at a boundary those limits set. An ending that was already suspenseful would fit publishers selecting existing endings instead.
- Step 3
Test the archival records
The Correspondence finding reports revisions without telling us whether the endings changed, so it can't show the predicted change. Letters praising suspense and comparing different novels don't track what happened to an ending after a limit was announced. The Dated drafts finding puts the suspense before the limits, which fits endings the authors had already created.
- Step 4
Link the change to the schedule
Which finding shows that the ending itself changed? The Dated outlines finding shows conflicts being resolved, but drafts written after the limits were announced leave those same conflicts open at the resulting boundaries. The authors changed how those conflicts ended, which supports the claim that schedules led them to construct suspenseful endings at those points. Choice B.