Critical Reasoning

The management of a magazine recently divided its staff of writers into two groups based on whether the writers took more than six breaks daily. A higher percentage of those writers who took more than six breaks a day had problems producing article ideas than did the writers who took six breaks or fewer. The management of the magazine concluded that taking more than six breaks per day causes writers to be less productive.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion above?


The writers who took more than six breaks daily produced, on average, more articles than did the other writers who took less than six breaks daily.

Some of the writers who took fewer than six breaks daily produced large numbers
of article ideas.

A diminished output of article ideas was the reason that some of the writers who
took fewer than six breaks daily lowered the amount of breaks that they took per day.

Some writers took breaks of only one minute each, while other writers took breaks
of up to twenty minutes each.

Frustration over the low production of article ideas caused some of the writers already taking more than six breaks a day to take even more frequent breaks.

IMO:C

Answer is E, cause effect relationship reversed ?

IMO C

IMO E.Please post the OA

OA: A.

My answer was C.

1> This indicates that although the frequent break takers produce fewer ideas, they are actually more productive. Correct

2>This does not weaken the conclusion, since this information is consistent with what is given in the argument.

3> This answer has no impact on the argument that taking more than six breaks causes writers to be less productive. It is possible that both this answer and the argument are true and valid.

4> The length of the breaks is not relevant to the argument.

5> This talks about differences within the group of frequent break-takers.

I dont agree with A because it is trying to change what the question says.
I think E and C are serious contenders and i would pick E

Passage says : more than 6 breaks causes diminished idea
Option C says : diminished idea was caused by ppl to take fewer than 6 breaks..

Option C does not seem to weaken the conclusion.

this que was on one of my online tests(PR).
According to them answer is A

Guys can anyone give a decent reason why A is not right.