A finding question tests whether new evidence backs up the whole claim. Read the claim and split it into parts, including who did what and when. Ask how much support a finding gives each part, so predict what would show them together. If the passage offers another possible cause, ask what would separate the causes. A finding can be about the same topic without supporting the claim, so judge what it shows rather than how familiar it sounds.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read the sentence beginning “She argues.” Separate who wrote the editorials from who changed their spellings.
- Hint 2
The last sentence explains why printed spellings aren't enough. Check who could have made the change.
- Hint 3
Focus on replaced in Mireles’s claim. Check what each finding tells you about Ward’s spellings.
Step-by-step
Trace who made the spelling change
Step 1Separate writing from revising
Mireles says Ward wrote the editorials and deliberately replaced his usual spellings with metropolitan forms. What does that ask the finding to show? We need evidence that Ward wrote the text and then changed its spellings before the text reached the typesetter. Writing an editorial and revising its spellings are separate parts of the claim.
- Step 2
Account for the typesetter
Why don't the printed spellings settle this? The passage says typesetters commonly regularized spelling, meaning they changed spellings to follow a standard. So the printed forms could be Ward’s work or the typesetter’s. Let's predict evidence that connects Ward to the editorial and shows his spellings changing before typesetting.
- Step 3
Test what each finding shows
The letter’s should follow metropolitan spelling conventions shows Ward’s wish, not that he wrote or revised these editorials. Does the ledger saying the editorials required no regularization settle the claim? It rules out changes by the typesetter but leaves the author and any earlier spellings unknown. The manuscript in Ward’s handwriting links him to the text, but all the words already have metropolitan spellings, so it doesn't show that he replaced regional spellings.
- Step 4
Find the spelling change
The two pre-typesetting drafts in Ward’s handwriting connect Ward to passages that later appeared word for word in print. What does comparing those drafts show? Before the typesetter received the text, Ward systematically changed regional spellings into metropolitan ones, so the finding shows his own deliberate spelling change. Choice D.