A finding question tests whether evidence backs up a claim, especially when the text offers another explanation. Start by putting the proposed cause and effect in a few words. Then split the claim into its parts and ask what result would show each one. Predict what would support the claim and what would help rule out the other cause. A finding can be about the same topic without showing that the proposed cause led to the result.
Hints
- Hint 1
Start with Morad’s proposal rather than the earlier researchers’ view. Put her claim in a few words.
- Hint 2
In Morad’s proposal, who is supposed to adjust their spelling? Look closely at the subject of that sentence.
- Hint 3
The catalog records several details besides spelling. Ask which details could supply another cause for a spelling pattern.
Step-by-step
Separate correspondence from other causes
Step 1Put Morad’s claim in a few words
Morad proposes that individual scribes adjusted their spelling, so our evidence needs to show a change within a writer’s work. What determines spelling in her view? She predicts full forms in messages to civic authorities but shortened forms in routine exchanges among dockworkers, so the proposed cause is the kind of correspondence.
- Step 2
Use the catalog to test other causes
What could explain the pattern besides correspondence? The earlier view ties spelling to stable dialect groups, while the catalog gives approximate date, findspot, intended recipient when known, and probable scribal hand. A scribal hand is handwriting that helps identify a writer, so we can look for change within one writer’s work. Spellings could also change with time or place, so similar dates and findspots limit other causes.
- Step 3
Check writer and recipient
Does each finding show that individual scribes adjusted their spelling for different recipients? The pattern across nonoverlapping groups of scribes could reflect differences between writers, since it doesn't show each writer changing spelling. Fragments from civic archives and harbor warehouses were found in different places, and we may not know who received the messages. So the pattern need not follow the kind of correspondence.
- Step 4
Check the timing
The earlier in each scribe's career finding still leaves time as another cause because spelling habits may change with age. Which finding avoids that problem? The one matched by decade and findspot shows each writer favoring full forms in messages to civic authorities and shortened forms in routine exchanges among dockworkers. Spelling follows correspondence within each writer’s matched sets. Choice C.