Sentence Correction

A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there.

A) on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there
B) about the books James Baldwin wrote in France
C) into James Baldwin's books written while in France
D) on the books of James Baldwin, written while he lived in France
E) the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France

A - "james baldwin's books that baldwin wrote" is redundant construction. Also the phrase "wrote in France while he was living there" is needlessly lengthy. "while he was living there" already implies that the book was written in France. No need of "in France".

B - "research about" is unidiomatic.

C - the phrase "while in France" does not make it clear who/what was in France. It cannot refer to James Baldwin as the word is in the possessive form.

D - "to research on the books" is not idiomatic. the correct usage is "to research the books".

E - correct answer. Note that here pronoun ambiguity is not an error as the "he" must logically refer to "James Baldwin". Also, note that the "he" refers to the noun closest to it - "James Baldwin".

crackverbal wrote: It cannot refer to James Baldwin as the word is in the possessive form.

Can you please explain this.

Although "he" is apparently ambiguous, there is a principle stated in Manhattan SC guide as follows:
"Proximity: The pronoun should refer to the closest eligible antecedent."
Nonetheless the guide also makes it clear that this principle is "not absolute".

Now in the subject question options A to D can be eliminated because of wrong idiomatic usage of "research". Option E is the best, although there is a slight ambiguity with the pronoun "he" - this ambiguity can be ignored because of the principle stated above.

richachampion wrote:

crackverbal wrote: It cannot refer to James Baldwin as the word is in the possessive form.

Can you please explain this.

Many writers consider it bad form to use apostrophe -s possessives with pieces of furniture and buildings or inanimate objects in general. Instead of "the desk's edge" (according to many authorities), we should write "the edge of the desk" and instead of "the hotel's windows" we should write "the windows of the hotel." In fact, we would probably avoid the possessive altogether and use the noun as an attributive: "the hotel windows." This rule (if, in fact, it is one) is no longer universally endorsed. We would not say "the radio of that car" instead of "that car's radio" (or the "car radio") and we would not write "the desire of my heart" instead of "my heart's desire." Writing "the edge of the ski" would probably be an improvement over "the ski's edge," however.

For expressions of time and measurement, the possessive is shown with an apostrophe -s: "one dollar's worth," "two dollars' worth," "a hard day's night," "two years' experience," "an evening's entertainment," and "two weeks' notice" (the title of the Hollywood movie nothwithstanding).

I hope this will help you to understand the concept.

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one issue at a time, to figure out which option is the correct choice! Here is the original question, with the major differences between each option highlighted in orange:

A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there.

(A) on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there
(B) about the books James Baldwin wrote in France
(C) into James Baldwin's books written while in France
(D) on the books of James Baldwin, written while he lived in France
(E) the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France

After a quick glance over the options, two major differences become clear:

1. How they begin
2. How they end

If we start with how each option begins, we need to focus on the idiomatic structure with the phrase "to research."

Whenever we research something, we have to ask the question: WHAT are we going to research? In English, we follow the structure "to research X," with X being the topic at hand. Let's see which options use the idiomatic structure correctly, and rule out those that don't:

(A) to research on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there --> "to research on X" is INCORRECT
(B) to research about the books James Baldwin wrote in France --> "to research about X" is INCORRECT
(C) to research into James Baldwin's books written while in France --> "to research into X" is INCORRECT
(D) to research on the books of James Baldwin, written while he lived in France --> "to research on X" is INCORRECT
(E) to research the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France --> "to research X" is CORRECT

There you go - option E is the only one that uses the proper idiom structure "to research X."


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