Lesson: Introduction to Sentence Correction

Comment on Introduction to Sentence Correction

I am planning for MBA and I would like to prepare myself for Sep'18 session.
gmat-admin's picture

Great. You've come to the right place :-)

Hi Brent ,

I have thoroughly completed and understood your videos , mangattan guide for SC , Aristotle SC and I still fail to apply the concepts in SC questions. Its as though there are so many of them and i get confused everytime to find out the fallacies.

Please advice
gmat-admin's picture

Wow, that's a lot of different resources.

I think you've correctly identified the problem: you now know so many rules of grammar that you're actively searching for a huge range of potential issues with each question. In the process, you are applying rules that don't apply to that question.

My suggestion: each time you incorrectly answer a question, don't just review the correct response. Be sure to identify what was wrong with the reasoning you used to arrive at the incorrect answer. This will help correct any misunderstandings you may have.

Cheers,
Brent

Okay , thanks Brent!

I had one more question, since I am so confused with all the rules. I think I should refer back to one set of notes only. Your videos cover all the rules tested on SC ,right ?
gmat-admin's picture

Your notes (if well taken :-) should be fine.
Yes, my videos cover everything you need to know for SC

Cheers,
Brent

Hi Brent ,

I started practicing ques that are enlisted below the SC module page. I am halfway through it . I have some doubts in them . I couldnt really understand those from the explanations in GMAT club.

1. https://gmatclub.com/forum/for-almost-a-hundred-years-after-having-its-beginning-in-1788-england-82247.html : Why is D wrong here ?

2. https://gmatclub.com/forum/in-1527-king-henry-viii-sought-to-have-his-marriage-to-queen-75516.html : Why is D correct over A and C?

3. https://gmatclub.com/forum/in-a-plan-to-stop-the-erosion-of-east-coast-beaches-the-army-corps-of-22346.html : Shouldnt it be " act like a buffer , absorbing " instead of as .

4. https://gmatclub.com/forum/making-things-even-more-difficult-has-been-general-market-inactivity-220349.html : I really dont understand this question at all

5. https://gmatclub.com/forum/to-attract-the-most-talented-workers-some-companies-are-offering-a-wi-241811.html : Why is themselves wrong here in B ?

6. https://gmatclub.com/forum/to-josephine-baker-paris-was-her-home-long-before-it-was-fashionable-64758.html : Isnt it here ambigious ? Wheres the antecedent to "it"? Could you also please explain why other choices are incorrect ?

Sorry for Bombarding with so many doubts .

Thanks a lot!
gmat-admin's picture

Here are my responses:

1) https://gmatclub.com/forum/for-almost-a-hundred-years-after-having-its-b...

2) https://gmatclub.com/forum/in-1527-king-henry-viii-sought-to-have-his-ma...

3) Mike has a nice article on the "act like" idiom here: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/a-tricky-gmat-idiom-act-like-vs-act-as/

4) https://gmatclub.com/forum/making-things-even-more-difficult-has-been-ge...

5) (B) To attract the most talented workers, some companies are offering a wider range of benefits, letting employees pick the most important of them to themselves.

We use reflexive pronouns (myself, herself, themselves) when a noun is performing a VERB on itself.
Examples:
Joe HIT himself
She CONSIDERS herself funny.
The boys FED themselves.

In answer choice B, the only relevant verb is PICK.
However, the employees are not PICKING themselves; they're PICKING benefits.

6) Consider these two sentences
- Eating ice cream on a hot day is fun
Here the subject is EATING (ice cream)

- IT is fun to eat ice cream on a hot day
Here the subject is the pronoun IT, and IT represents TO EAT (ice cream)

In the correct answer (D), we have:
(D) Long before IT was fashionable to be an expatriate, Josephine Baker made Paris her home, and she remained in France during the Second World War as a performer and an intelligence agent for the Resistance
In this case, the pronoun IT represents TO BE (an expatriate)

I hope that helps.

Cheers,
Brent

Thankyou so much Brent !

Hi Brent , I have completed the rest of the problems as well , I have quite many doubts regarding 700 level questions and I couldnt seek an explanation to them from the forum . Please assist me with them.

1. When is being correct ? what is the correct usage of being ?

2. https://gmatclub.com/forum/unlike-most-warbler-species-the-male-and-female-blue-winged-wa-201083.html : In option A , warble species ( a noun ) is being compared to blue winged males amd females ( 2 other nouns ) why is it incorrect ?

3. https://gmatclub.com/forum/students-in-the-metropolitan-school-district-lack-math-skills-to-such-79092.html : What is the correct usuage of "so X as to y" idioms?

4. https://gmatclub.com/forum/recent-indications-of-weakness-in-the-economy-have-led-87328.html : Why is B wrong here ?

5. https://gmatclub.com/forum/originally-developed-for-detecting-air-pollutants-a-technique-called-84734.html : I got this one correct , I just want to verify the grounds on which i elimated choice C ,D and E are correct. After the phrase followed by the comma is "called" it should have been the technique or the name of that technique. Correct me if im wrong .

6. https://gmatclub.com/forum/while-most-of-the-earliest-known-ball-courts-in-mesoamerica-date-to-242373.html : Whats wrong w D?

7.https://gmatclub.com/forum/last-week-local-shrimpers-held-a-news-conference-to-take-some-credit-76039.html : Why is protect wrong here and protecting is correct ?

8. https://gmatclub.com/forum/minivans-carry-as-many-as-seven-passengers-and-compared-with-most-spo-97562.html : Why is D incorrect ?

9.https://gmatclub.com/forum/new-techniques-in-thermal-scanning-photography-a-process-73752.html : Isnt "it" ambigous here ? Also , why is A wrong ?

10. https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-first-trenches-that-were-cut-into-a-500-acre-site-at-tell-hamoukar-225551.html : I dont understand the differebce between choices and how to go about this question

11. https://gmatclub.com/forum/while-depressed-property-values-can-hurt-some-large-118738.html : Why is C preferred over A

12. https://gmatclub.com/forum/qotd-over-75-percent-of-the-energy-produced-in-france-derives-from-248127.html : Why is D wrong?

13. https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-olympic-games-helped-to-keep-peace-among-the-pugnacious-states-of-85874.html : I dont understand on what basis to eliminate A

Thankyou so much for all your help !
gmat-admin's picture

Wow, that's a lot of questions.

Here's my first batch of answers:
1: Great question!
Here are two great answers to that question:
1st response here: https://www.beatthegmat.com/where-to-use-being-t165891.html (1st response)
Great article: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/07/25/is-being-always-wrong

2: https://gmatclub.com/forum/unlike-most-warbler-species-the-male-and-fema...
(A) Unlike most warbler SPECIES,
Stop and ask the question “What is unlike most warbler SPECIES?”
Keep reading…, the male and female blue-winged WARBLER are….
So, we’re comparing warbler SPECIES with the male and female blue-winged warblers
Although they SEEM similar, we can’t logically compare warbler SPECIES to MALE AND FEMALE blue-winged warblers

3. https://gmatclub.com/forum/students-in-the-metropolitan-school-district-...
The idiom "SO x AS TO y" tells us that characteristic x is so extreme that y results.
Example: The concert was SO loud AS TO cause permanent hearing loss.

4. https://gmatclub.com/forum/recent-indications-of-weakness-in-the-economy...
This isn’t an official SC question. I suggest you stick with the thousands of official SC questions (which you can find here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmac-official-guides-the-master-directory-lin...)

5. https://gmatclub.com/forum/originally-developed-for-detecting-air-pollut...
Yes, your reasoning is perfect.

6. https://gmatclub.com/forum/while-most-of-the-earliest-known-ball-courts-...
As I see it, the main issue with D is that we’re told the FINDING and the PAINTING ATTESTS. We need the plural form ATTEST to match the plural FINDING AND PAINTING.
Also, “the painting of representations of ballplayers on ceramics” seems incredibly awkward.

7. https://gmatclub.com/forum/last-week-local-shrimpers-held-a-news-confere...
The key here is to determine the subject that must agree with the verb PROTECT.
So, let’s ask “Who or what is doing the protecting?”
The COMPLIANCE is doing the protecting.
If we take answer choice A and remove the fluff, we get: …their COMPLIANCE PROTECT adult sea turtles.
We have singular COMPLIANCE matched with the plural PROTECT.
No good.

Now take answer choice B (the correct answer) and remove the fluff. We get: …their COMPLIANCE IS PROTECTING adult sea turtles.
Perfect!

8. https://gmatclub.com/forum/minivans-carry-as-many-as-seven-passengers-an...
If answer choice D were “Minivans, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less, get better gas mileage…” then that would be fine, since we are comparing minivans with sport utility vehicles.
When we add “carrying as many as seven passengers” in between we are creating two problems:
1) We seems to be comparing the minivan’s seating capacity with sport utility vehicles’ many features.
2) It’s unclear what “compared with most sport utility vehicles” is referring to. Is it minivans or passengers?

9. https://gmatclub.com/forum/new-techniques-in-thermal-scanning-photograph...
I’d say that the use of IT here is somewhat idiomatic.
Answer choice A is incorrect because the plural subject TECHNIQUES does not agree with the singular verb MAKES

I'll answer the remaining questions shortly.

Cheers,
Brent

gmat-admin's picture

My remaining answers (sorry for the delay):

10. https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-first-trenches-that-were-cut-into-a-500-a...
Here’s my full solution: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-first-trenches-that-were-cut-into-a-500-a...

11. https://gmatclub.com/forum/while-depressed-property-values-can-hurt-some...
C isn’t preferred over A.
The correct answer is A

12. https://gmatclub.com/forum/qotd-over-75-percent-of-the-energy-produced-i...
We have an ambiguity issue with D
D) Over 75 percent of the energy produced in France derives from nuclear power, whereas just over 33 percent of THE ENERGY comes from nuclear power in Germany.
Once we get to THE ENERGY, there are no references to any other countries. So, it seems that THE ENERGY is still referring to the energy produced in France. This means that 33% of the energy produced in France is produced in Germany.
Makes no sense.

13. https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-olympic-games-helped-to-keep-peace-among-...
FESTIVAL’S MONTH sounds like the festival owns the month.
I’m also not crazy about IN THAT (a better fit would be BECAUSE)

Cheers,
Brent

Thankyou so so much Brent ! I am currently stuck at V28 with Q47 , I am really struggling with verbal and I have my exam in 2nd week august.
gmat-admin's picture

For Verbal, I suggest that you rank SC, CR and RC in order of difficulty (e.g., CR is your hardest topic, then, SC and then RC) and then spend about 50% of your Verbal study time on your hardest topic, 30% of your time on your 2nd hardest topic, and 20% on your easiest topic.

Hi Brent, could you explain this question for me please? Thank you x

In laboratory rats, a low dose of aspirin usually suffices to block production of thromboxane, which is a substance that promotes blood clotting, but not seriously interfering with the production of prostacyclin, which prevents clotting.
(A) which is a substance that promotes blood clotting, but not seriously interfering
(B) a substance that promotes blood clotting, but not seriously interfering
(C) a substance that promotes blood clotting, but does not seriously interfere
(D) which is a substance to promote blood clotting, but does not seriously interfere
(E) which is a substance that promotes blood clotting, but not a serious interference
gmat-admin's picture

First off, we have a parallelism issue.

The general structure of the sentence is: "..a low DOSE (subject) SUFFICES..., but DOES NOT SUFFICE (or some other verb)..."
As such, we can eliminate A, B and E

We're left with C and D.
Although it appears that answer Choice D is superior because it uses WHICH (and the end of the sentence also uses WHICH), the appositive phrase "a substance that promotes blood clotting" is more concise.
Additionally, "a substance TO PROMOTE" is an idiomatic.

For these reasons, answer choice C is best.

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