Emily Dickinson

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Emily Dickinson

by sk8ternite » Mon Jul 20, 2009 11:11 am

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Emily Dickinson�s letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan�s marriage to Emily�s brother and ending shortly before Emily�s death in 1886, outnumbering her letters to anyone else.

A. Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan�s marriage to Emily�s brother and ending shortly before Emily�s death in 1886, outnumbering
B. Dickinson were written over a period that begins a few years before Susan�s marriage to Emily�s brother and ended shortly before Emily�s death in 1886, outnumber
C. Dickinson, written over a period beginning a few years before Susan�s marriage to Emily�s brother and that ends shortly before Emily�s death in 1886and outnumbering
D. Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan�s marriage to Emily�s brother, ending shortly before Emily�s death in 1886, and outnumbering
E. Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan�s marriage to Emily�s brother and ending shortly before Emily�s death in 1886, outnumber

OA is E


The only reason I stayed away from E was because of "which". I thought it had to refer to the preceding noun, in this case, Susan Huntington Dickinson. This question is from the official guide, can anyone provide an explanation?

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by shibal » Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:38 pm

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two things:
beginning and ending must be parallel (u can find this in D & E)
the letters outnumber not outnumbering (it gives the idea that it's still happening), hence E is the only option....

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by jba05d » Mon Jul 20, 2009 5:40 pm

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As long as the pronoun "which" clearly refers to an antecedent noun than it does not exactly matter what word is directly before the comma. In this case, "which" clearly refers to the noun letters. It does not refer to Susan Huntington because she is a person. Therefore, the pronoun would have to be "who." Moreover, "which" does not refer to Emily Dickinson's because pronouns cannot refer to possessive nouns.

To give some other examples if the sentence was "Emily Dickinson wrote letters to Susan Huntington, who," than the pronoun "who" would be ambiguous since if could refer to either Emily or Susan. If the sentence was "Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington, who" then the pronoun "who" would not be ambiguous since "who" clearly refers to Susan Huntington.

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by vineetbatra » Sat Aug 15, 2009 5:02 pm

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I am facing exactly the same problem, I understand your point that which cannot be referred to a person, but GMAT can test this also i.e. when they try to refer a person using which in another question.

My thought was also that which always as a rule of law refers to the noun preceding it, no exceptions.

This is also in the MGMAT SC guide

Any thoughts on this.

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by gmat740 » Sat Aug 15, 2009 7:23 pm

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First of all, we must realise that Subject of the sentence is Emily Dickinson’s letters

Please note the Possessive form."Which" clearly refers to Letters.

I solved this question using another approach(in case during exam if I get confused with the usage of which, I always look for other errors)

The entire underlined part(except outnumbering) is descriptive phrase, so we can cut that part to make the sentence simple.

Emily Dickinson’s letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson outnumbering her letters to anyone else.

Now you tell me, outnumbering is correct here?? NO
So, left with B and E

B has Verb Tense problem.
B. Dickinson were written over a period that begins a few years before Susan’s marriage to Emily’s brother and ended shortly before Emily’s D€@th in 1886, outnumber



Instead of Begins => Began.

Left with E

Hope this Helps

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by real2008 » Mon Aug 17, 2009 12:40 am

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can anybody say why A is wrong?

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by sidceg » Tue Apr 09, 2013 1:30 am

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real2008 wrote:can anybody say why A is wrong?
IMHO, the essential part of the sentence is 'Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson outnumber her letters to anyone else'. The non essential part is 'which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886'.

If you substitute Option E, the sentence will read: Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumber her letters to anyone else.

Option A fails to put this clearly. When substituted in original sentence, it says 'Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumbering her letters to anyone else.'

I hope I made my point.

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by hazelnut01 » Wed Apr 05, 2017 5:50 pm

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sk8ternite wrote:Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumbering her letters to anyone else.

A. Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumbering
B. Dickinson were written over a period that begins a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ended shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumber
C. Dickinson, written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and that ends shortly before Emily's death in 1886 and outnumbering
D. Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother, ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, and outnumbering
E. Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumber

OA is E
Could verbal expert please help to explain why answer choice D is incorrect? What is the adjectival phrase set off by commas as explained in OG?

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by Ali Tariq » Wed Apr 05, 2017 10:34 pm

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Could verbal expert please help to explain why answer choice D is incorrect?
D is not even a sentence: there is no verb in the main clause( independent clause ).
What is the adjectival phrase set off by commas as explained in OG?
phrase lacks verb.
adjectivials modify nouns or noun equivalents.
that which is set off by commas is called non essential modifier, whose emission from the sentence has no major bearing on the meaning communicated by sentence.

Connect these three pieces of information and reach the conclusion by yourself.
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by GMATGuruNY » Thu Apr 06, 2017 3:29 am

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ziyuenlau wrote:Could verbal expert please help to explain why answer choice D is incorrect?
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by [email protected] » Fri Mar 22, 2019 3:18 pm

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Hello Everyone!

This looks like a complicated question that mainly deals with modifiers, so let's dive in! First, let's take a close look at the original question, and highlight any major differences between the options in orange:

Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumbering her letters to anyone else.

(A) Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumbering
(B) Dickinson were written over a period that begins a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ended shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumber
(C) Dickinson, written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and that ends shortly before Emily's death in 1886 and outnumbering
(D) Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother, ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, and outnumbering
(E) Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumber

After a quick glance over the options, a few things jumped out that we can focus on:

1. were written / ,written / ,which were written
2. beginning / that begins
3. ,outnumbering / ,outnumber / and outnumbering / ,and outnumbering


One thing we can easily see in options C, D, and E is the use of a non-essential clause. Non-essential clauses are placed between commas, and they provide extra details that are "non-essential" to the overall meaning of the sentence. To make sure non-essential clauses are used properly, you can do this quick test:

1. Cross out/remove the non-essential clause

2. Read what's left over. If the leftover part can still work as a complete sentence, it's a good use of a non-essential phrase. If the leftover part isn't a complete sentence, the non-essential phrase doesn't work.


Example:
My brother, who loves to spend his weekends at farmer's markets, prefers organic vegetables.
My brother, [spoiler]who loves to spend his weekends at farmer's markets[/spoiler], prefers organic vegetables.
My brother prefers organic vegetables. --> GOOD

Halloween, which is my favorite holiday, more than Christmas or Easter.
Halloween, which is my favorite holiday, more than Christmas or Easter.
Halloween more than Christmas or Easter. --> BAD

So let's take a closer look at the options to make sure their non-essential clauses work. To make this easier, I've added the entire sentence to each option:

(A) Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumbering her letters to anyone else. --> No non-essential clause (save for later)

(B) Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written over a period that begins a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ended shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumber her letters to anyone else. --> No non-essential clause (save for later)

(C) Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson, [spoiler]written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and that ends shortly before Emily's death in 1886 and outnumbering her letters to anyone else[/spoiler].

This is INCORRECT because if we cross out the non-essential phrase / modifier, what's left over cannot stand alone. Connecting the non-essential phrase to the modifier left us with no verb!

(D) Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson, [spoiler]which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother, ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886[/spoiler], and outnumbering her letters to anyone else.

This is INCORRECT because if we cross out the non-essential phrase, what's left over doesn't make sense on its own. This tells us the non-essential phrase isn't being used properly here. In fact, this option is also missing a verb thanks to a bad non-essential clause!

(E) Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson, [spoiler]which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886[/spoiler],outnumber her letters to anyone else.

This is OKAY for now! If we remove the non-essential phrase, what's left over still works as a complete sentence!

We can rule out options C & D because they are missing a verb, thanks to incorrect use of non-essential phrases!

Now that we only have 3 options left, let's take a closer look at them to find any other problems:

(A) Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumbering her letters to anyone else.

This option is INCORRECT because the modifier "outnumbering her letters to anyone else" is so far away from what it's modifying (Emily Dickinson's letters). The GMAT prefers that modifiers are directly before or after what they're modifying, so they are less confusing for readers.

(B) Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written over a period that begins a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ended shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumber her letters to anyone else.

This is INCORRECT because we have two competing verbs here! The phrase "outnumber her letters to anyone else" doesn't work here because it's supposed to be a modifier, but it was rewritten to be a verb phrase?? This doesn't work, so let's rule it out too.

(E) Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumber her letters to anyone else.

This is CORRECT! The modifier (highlighted here in green) is clearly directly after what it's modifying (Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickens). It's also punctuated properly to indicate that the modifier is "non-essential," and could be removed without changing the original meaning.

There you have it - option E is the correct choice! This was a tricky question, but if you know how to check modifiers and non-essential clauses for correct wording and punctuation, it's a lot easier to spot problems!


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