Social Science Passages · Lesson 2

Whose view is it?

Social science passages are crowded with voices. Besides the author, you may meet researchers, critics, supporters, residents, or some economists, and many questions ask exactly who holds a view: According to the critics, The author would most likely agree, Which position does the author reject?

Track voices with signal phrases. According to, X argue, in their view, supporters point out, critics note, and many assumed all hand a claim to someone other than the author. The author’s own view shows up in the first person (I find, seems to me), in judging words (fair, least convincing, the real question), and in the conclusion.

Add the speaker to your margin map. Next to each claim, note who owns it: R for researchers, Cr for critics, A for the author. When a question names a group, go to that group’s paragraph. When it asks about the author, look for the judging words.

Pen or Keyboard?

This passage is from an essay about how students take notes in class.

1When students began bringing laptops to lectures, many assumed the change could only help. A student who types can record far more of what a lecturer says than one who writes by hand, and for a time that seemed to settle the matter. More words, the reasoning went, meant better notes, and better notes meant better learning.

2A group of education researchers challenged that assumption. In a typical study of the kind they describe, students watch a short lecture, some taking notes on laptops and some on paper, and then answer two sorts of questions: some asking for facts and some asking students to explain or apply an idea. According to these researchers, the two groups tend to do about equally well on the factual questions, but the students who wrote by hand often do better on the questions that require understanding. Their explanation is that handwriting is slow. Because a writer cannot keep up with the speaker, he or she must decide what matters and put it in fewer words, and that act of choosing is itself a kind of learning.

3Not everyone accepts this account. Critics argue that the problem lies not in the keyboard but in how students use it. If typists summarized rather than copied, the critics suggest, much of the gap between the groups might shrink, and some later studies have found little gap at all. Others point out that typed notes are easier to search, revise, and share, advantages that a single test given soon after a lecture cannot measure.

4I find the original assumption the least convincing of the three positions. The number of words a student records says little about how well he or she understood them; a perfect transcript of a lecture is no more useful than a recording of it. Yet I am not persuaded that students should give up their laptops either. The critics’ argument about summarizing seems to me the most important point in this whole debate, because it suggests that the real difference is between copying and thinking, not between pen and keyboard.

5For students, the practical lesson is simple, even if the research is not. Whatever the tool, the notes worth keeping are the ones that put a lecture into the student’s own words.

Worked example Easy

Show the whole passage

Pen or Keyboard?

This passage is from an essay about how students take notes in class.

1When students began bringing laptops to lectures, many assumed the change could only help. A student who types can record far more of what a lecturer says than one who writes by hand, and for a time that seemed to settle the matter. More words, the reasoning went, meant better notes, and better notes meant better learning.

2A group of education researchers challenged that assumption. In a typical study of the kind they describe, students watch a short lecture, some taking notes on laptops and some on paper, and then answer two sorts of questions: some asking for facts and some asking students to explain or apply an idea. According to these researchers, the two groups tend to do about equally well on the factual questions, but the students who wrote by hand often do better on the questions that require understanding. Their explanation is that handwriting is slow. Because a writer cannot keep up with the speaker, he or she must decide what matters and put it in fewer words, and that act of choosing is itself a kind of learning.

3Not everyone accepts this account. Critics argue that the problem lies not in the keyboard but in how students use it. If typists summarized rather than copied, the critics suggest, much of the gap between the groups might shrink, and some later studies have found little gap at all. Others point out that typed notes are easier to search, revise, and share, advantages that a single test given soon after a lecture cannot measure.

4I find the original assumption the least convincing of the three positions. The number of words a student records says little about how well he or she understood them; a perfect transcript of a lecture is no more useful than a recording of it. Yet I am not persuaded that students should give up their laptops either. The critics’ argument about summarizing seems to me the most important point in this whole debate, because it suggests that the real difference is between copying and thinking, not between pen and keyboard.

5For students, the practical lesson is simple, even if the research is not. Whatever the tool, the notes worth keeping are the ones that put a lecture into the student’s own words.

According to paragraph 2, the education researchers explain the handwriting advantage by saying that:

  1. paper notes are easier than typed notes to search, revise, and share with classmates after a lecture.
  2. students who type are usually told in advance to copy every word that the lecturer says.
  3. writing slowly forces students to decide what matters and to put it in fewer words.Answer
  4. students who write by hand remember more facts than typists do.

How to solve it

  1. The stem names the researchers and paragraph 2. Find their signal phrase: “Their explanation is that handwriting is slow.”
  2. Say it yourself: slow writing forces students to choose and condense, and the choosing is the learning.
  3. C matches. A and B belong to voices in paragraph 3, and D contradicts the result on factual questions.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Incorrect. Paragraph 3 says the opposite, and it comes from a different group: others note that “typed notes are easier to search, revise, and share.”
  • B. Incorrect. Summarizing versus copying comes up only in the critics’ argument in paragraph 3, and they suggest that typists summarize, not copy every word.
  • C. Correct. The researchers say “handwriting is slow,” so a writer “must decide what matters and put it in fewer words, and that act of choosing is itself a kind of learning.”
  • D. Incorrect. On the factual questions, “the two groups tend to do about equally well.” The handwriters’ edge is on the questions that require understanding.

Worked example Medium

Show the whole passage

Pen or Keyboard?

This passage is from an essay about how students take notes in class.

1When students began bringing laptops to lectures, many assumed the change could only help. A student who types can record far more of what a lecturer says than one who writes by hand, and for a time that seemed to settle the matter. More words, the reasoning went, meant better notes, and better notes meant better learning.

2A group of education researchers challenged that assumption. In a typical study of the kind they describe, students watch a short lecture, some taking notes on laptops and some on paper, and then answer two sorts of questions: some asking for facts and some asking students to explain or apply an idea. According to these researchers, the two groups tend to do about equally well on the factual questions, but the students who wrote by hand often do better on the questions that require understanding. Their explanation is that handwriting is slow. Because a writer cannot keep up with the speaker, he or she must decide what matters and put it in fewer words, and that act of choosing is itself a kind of learning.

3Not everyone accepts this account. Critics argue that the problem lies not in the keyboard but in how students use it. If typists summarized rather than copied, the critics suggest, much of the gap between the groups might shrink, and some later studies have found little gap at all. Others point out that typed notes are easier to search, revise, and share, advantages that a single test given soon after a lecture cannot measure.

4I find the original assumption the least convincing of the three positions. The number of words a student records says little about how well he or she understood them; a perfect transcript of a lecture is no more useful than a recording of it. Yet I am not persuaded that students should give up their laptops either. The critics’ argument about summarizing seems to me the most important point in this whole debate, because it suggests that the real difference is between copying and thinking, not between pen and keyboard.

5For students, the practical lesson is simple, even if the research is not. Whatever the tool, the notes worth keeping are the ones that put a lecture into the student’s own words.

Of the positions discussed in the passage, the author says the least convincing is the view that:

  1. recording more of a lecture’s words leads to better learning.Answer
  2. handwriting helps by forcing students to summarize.
  3. the gap between the groups might shrink if typists summarized.
  4. typed notes have advantages that a single quick test cannot measure.

How to solve it

  1. The stem asks for the author’s own judgment, so look for first person and judging words: paragraph 4 begins “I find the original assumption the least convincing.”
  2. Trace “the original assumption” back to paragraph 1: more words mean better notes, and better notes mean better learning.
  3. A states that view. B and C are views the author treats more kindly, and D is never judged.

Why each choice is right or wrong

  • A. Correct. The author writes, “I find the original assumption the least convincing of the three positions,” and the original assumption is the one in paragraph 1: “More words, the reasoning went, meant better notes, and better notes meant better learning.”
  • B. Incorrect. This is the researchers’ explanation from paragraph 2. The author’s complaint is aimed at “the original assumption,” not at the researchers.
  • C. Incorrect. The author praises this argument: “The critics’ argument about summarizing seems to me the most important point in this whole debate.”
  • D. Incorrect. This point comes from “Others” in paragraph 3, and the author never judges it at all.

Trap The view the author reports but rejects

Authors often state a popular view plainly and confidently before taking it apart. Paragraph 1 says that more words meant better notes and better learning, and nothing in those sentences sounds doubtful. But the view belongs to the people who assumed it, and in paragraph 4 the author calls it the least convincing position.

Before you credit a claim to the author, look for the signal phrase in front of it. The reasoning went, many assumed, and some believe all mean that someone else is talking.