Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Héctor Tobar has built a multifaceted career as both a journalist and an author of short stories...
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Héctor Tobar has built a multifaceted career as both a journalist and an author of short stories and novels. In an essay about Tobar's work, a student claims that Tobar blends his areas of expertise by applying journalism techniques to his creation of works of fiction.
Which quotation from a literary critic best supports the student's claim?
For one novel, an imagined account of a real person's global travels, Tobar approached his subject like a reporter, interviewing people the man had met along the way and researching the man's own writings.
Tobar got his start as a volunteer for El Tecolote, a community newspaper in San Francisco, and wrote for newspapers for years before earning a degree in creative writing and starting to publish works of fiction.
Many of Tobar's notable nonfiction articles are marked by the writer's use of techniques usually associated with fiction, such as complex narrative structures and the incorporation of symbolism.
The protagonist of Tobar's third novel is a man who wants to be a novelist and keeps notes about interesting people he encounters so he can use them when developing characters for his stories.
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| 'Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Héctor Tobar has built a multifaceted career as both a journalist and an author of short stories and novels.' |
|
| 'In an essay about Tobar's work, a student claims that Tobar blends his areas of expertise by applying journalism techniques to his creation of works of fiction.' |
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Part B: Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: A student argues that Héctor Tobar combines his journalistic and fiction-writing expertise by using journalism techniques when creating fiction.
Argument Flow: The passage first establishes Tobar's credentials in both journalism and fiction writing, then presents a student's specific claim about how he blends these two areas of expertise by applying journalistic methods to fiction creation.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
What's being asked? We need to find a quotation from a literary critic that provides the best evidence for the student's claim.
What type of answer do we need? Evidence that shows Tobar specifically using journalism techniques when creating fiction works.
Any limiting keywords? 'Best supports' means we need the strongest evidence that directly demonstrates the claimed behavior.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The student claims that Tobar uses journalism techniques in his fiction writing
- The correct evidence should show Tobar employing specific journalistic methods—like interviewing, researching, fact-checking, or investigative approaches—when creating works of fiction
- We need to see the crossover from his journalism background into his fiction process
For one novel, an imagined account of a real person's global travels, Tobar approached his subject like a reporter, interviewing people the man had met along the way and researching the man's own writings.
- Shows Tobar 'approached his subject like a reporter' for a novel
- Demonstrates specific journalism techniques: 'interviewing people' and 'researching' used specifically for fiction writing
- This directly matches our prethinking about using journalism techniques in fiction creation
Tobar got his start as a volunteer for El Tecolote, a community newspaper in San Francisco, and wrote for newspapers for years before earning a degree in creative writing and starting to publish works of fiction.
- Describes Tobar's career progression from journalism to fiction writing but doesn't demonstrate using journalism methods in fiction - just career sequence
Many of Tobar's notable nonfiction articles are marked by the writer's use of techniques usually associated with fiction, such as complex narrative structures and the incorporation of symbolism.
- Describes the opposite direction: fiction techniques used in nonfiction
- Shows him using 'techniques usually associated with fiction' in his journalism
- This is backwards from what the claim states
The protagonist of Tobar's third novel is a man who wants to be a novelist and keeps notes about interesting people he encounters so he can use them when developing characters for his stories.
- Describes a character within one of Tobar's novels
- About what a fictional character does, not what Tobar himself does as a writer