A critical consensus has emerged that Mary McCarthy will be remembered primarily as an essayist rather than as a novelist. But despite her formidable gifts as a polemical and discursive writer, and for all her reputation as an intellectual who sacrificed feeling to intelligence, what powers McCarthy’s best essays are her fictional rather than strictly intellectual gifts. She makes her points by telling stories or by way of vivid description, arresting images and subtle characterization. And for all her exacting sense of fact, McCarthy’s greatest contribution was to blur the distinctions between different kinds of prose writing: to show how fiction could be opened up to the thinking mind and how essays could profit from the techniques of fiction.

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A critical consensus has emerged that Mary McCarthy will be remembered primarily as an essayist rather than as a novelist. But despite her formidable gifts as a polemical and discursive writer, and for all her reputation as an intellectual who sacrificed feeling to intelligence, what powers McCarthy’s best essays are her fictional rather than strictly intellectual gifts. She makes her points by telling stories or by way of vivid description, arresting images and subtle characterization. And for all her exacting sense of fact, McCarthy’s greatest contribution was to blur the distinctions between different kinds of prose writing: to show how fiction could be opened up to the thinking mind and how essays could profit from the techniques of fiction.

For the following question, consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.

The author of the passage suggests that Mary McCarthy’s writing is characterized by

A. The use in her essays of devices more typical in works of fiction

B. A narrowing of the differences between narrative and expository prose

C. Careful attention to factual accuracy

A. The use in her essays of devices more typical in works of fiction

B. A narrowing of the differences between narrative and expository prose

Explanation:

The author claims that Mary McCarthy’s essays not only use storytelling to develop her intellectual ideas but also, by doing so, she reveals that there´s no need to strictly differentiate intellectual essays from fictional writing.

The proof relies on her essays using literary devices usually found in fictional writing, such as rich descriptions and captivating images, in a way that benefits her expository work.

a question like this requires the excerpt to be included in order to answer the question.

i believe the answer is inference