Question

Which choice is an example of an incorrect or illogical comparison?

A. This magazine has longer articles than that magazine does.

B. Our school newspaper is produced more frequently than is the middle school newspaper.

C. The survey reports that newspaper journalists have less job satisfaction than other journalists.

D. This newspaper’s reporters are better writers than that magazine.

Answer 1

The answer is indeed letter D) This newspaper’s reporters are better writers than that magazine.

Step-by-step explanation:

We have an illogical comparison when we compare two things that do not belong in the same category, two things that aren't of the same type. Even though the sentence that has an illogical comparison is understandable, it is easy to tell there is something wrong or lacking.

Let's analyze the options given in the question:

A. compares a magazine to another magazine. --> OK

B. compares a school newspaper to another school newspaper. --> OK

C. compares journalists to other journalists. --> OK

D. compares newspaper's reporters to a magazine. --> NOT OK

The problem with sentence D is that it is not actually comparing a newspaper's reporters to a magazine's reporters. The way the sentence is structured does not imply that reporters are being compared to reporters, but to the magazine itself. We could easily change that to make it a logical comparison:

This newspaper's reporters are better writers than that magazine's.

There is no need to repeat the word "reporters" to make it clear. By adding the apostrophe to "magazine", we make it clear that we are talking about the reporters that belong to that magazine, not the magazine itself.

Answer 2

D. This newspaper’s reporters are better writers than that magazine.

Step-by-step explanation:

A Magazine can't be a writer, so you can't really compare the writers of a newspaper or the reporters of it to the magazine itself. The magazine might have writers of its own and their writers might be better or worse than the writers or reporters of the newspaper, which would be a correct comparison.