Of late it has become popular among linguists and literary theorists to assert that a work's meaning depends upon the individual reader.  It is readers, we are told, not authors, who create meaning, by interacting with a text rather than simply receiving it.  Thus, a reader transcends the aims of the author, producing their own reading of the text.  Indeed, on this line of thinking, even to speak of "the" text is to commit a conceptual error; every text is in fact many texts, a plurality of interpretations that resist comparative evaluation.  This view is nonsense.  That many otherwise sensible scholars should be attracted to it can perhaps be readily explained, but we should first delineate why the theory goes so far astray....The absurdity of the view can be demonstrated by a practical analogy.  Suppose Smith is conveying his ideas to Jones in conversation (the particular topic is of no consequence).  Afterward, we discover that the men differ in their accounts of what Smith had expressed.  At this point, Jones may decide that he misunderstood Smith, or perhaps that Smith was unclear.  A more complex supposition might be that Smith misused some key term, so his words did not fully match his intentions.  Any of these possibilities would reasonably describe why Jones and Smith possessed different opinions about what Smith had said.What Jones may not justifiably conclude is that his own interpretation is what Smith really meant.  He may not, in effect, say: "Yes, I admit that Smith honestly claims to have been saying something different, but I have formed my own equally correct understanding."  Someone who made such an assertion would be suspected of making a joke; if he proved to be serious, we could only conclude that he was deeply confused or else being deliberately quarrelsome.  For in questions about what Smith meant, it is surely Smith whose answer must be accepted….  [T]his is not a matter of agreeing with a speaker; Jones might judge Smith's ideas to be wrong, unfounded, etc.  But whether Smith's ideas are right or wrong is a different matter from what those ideas are.  On that count, Smith must be the authority.However, this observation is in no way changed if Smith's ideas are written rather than spoken—sent by letter, for instance.  Regardless of any interpretation Jones may produce, the letter's true meaning is whatever Smith intended to convey.  Likewise it is, then, with a book, poem, or whatsoever object of literature a scholar (or ordinary reader) encounters.  The writing down of ideas does not magically imbue them with malleability or render their content amorphous.  From the loftiest tomes of Shakespeare or Milton to the lowliest of yellowed paperbacks, authors produce works with a particular message in mind.  It is readers' task to discern that message, not to superimpose their own volitional perspectives.To think otherwise is to undermine the foundation of literary scholarship.  For what is the purpose of such scholarship, if not to seek understanding of an author's creation?  One examines the text, taking note of style, historical context, allusions to other works, and other factors, in addition, of course, to the surface sense of the words themselves.  If such an enterprise is to be reasonable, it must presume the existence of standards for success: accuracy and inaccuracy, depth or shallowness of analysis, grounds for preferring one interpretation to another.  Different readers may come to different conclusions about a text, it is true.  But to excise authorial intent from the evaluation of those conclusions does a disservice both to individual works and to literary study as a discipline.Passage Title: Meaning: Readers or Authors? Question 16Based on the passage, a poetry student who encounters an established scholar's interpretation of a poem should do which of the following?A.Evaluate the factors that might support or challenge that interpretation.B.Develop their own personal interpretation of the poem.C.Treat the scholar's greater experience as irrelevant to determining the best interpretation of the poem.D.Presume that the scholar's interpretation is probably correct.