Passage Summary: Because many hit books are written like news articles and many authors used to be reporters, the author thinks writing like a reporter helps a book succeed.

Conclusion: Adopting a journalistic writing style makes it more likely that a novel will become popular.

Reasoning: Many popular novels use journalistic styles, and many of their authors were former journalists.

Analysis: The argument falls into the classic trap of confusing correlation with causation. Just because two things—popularity and journalistic style—often appear together doesn't mean one caused the other. It is entirely possible that journalists simply have more free time to write or that the subject matter of their books is what drives sales. Look for an answer that identifies this failure to consider alternative explanations for the observed correlation.