Sentence Correction

Reviewing the concerns pointed out in this thread, I decided to post a detailed solution for this question and hence the extensive length of this post!

First of all I would like to point out that there are two versions of this question in this thread.

Version 1 is as posted by the author (Komal) of this thread.
Version 2 is as posted on the MGMAT forum at https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/an- ... t1071.html

There are distinct differences between the two versions. Please find attached word document which highlights the differences between the two versions and also includes the detailed explanation (with appropriate formatting).

IMO E is the correct answer for Version 1 and C is the correct answer for Version 2.

Below is the detailed review of version 2.

An economic recession can result from a lowering of employment rates triggered by a drop in investment, which causes people to cut consumer spending and starts a cycle of layoffs leading back to even lower employment rates.

Since the correct answer should always communicate the intended and logical meaning of the sentence, we should begin by understanding the meaning of the sentence.
Also, as this sentence has numerous modifiers, lets first analyze the modifiers since this analysis will help us in understanding the meaning of this sentence.

1. An economic recession can result from a lowering of employment rates triggered by a drop in investment,
2. which
"¢ causes people to cut consumer spending
"¢ and starts a cycle of layoffs leading back to even lower employment rates.

Relative pronoun modifier 'which...' refers to 'drop in investment'
Verb-ed modifier 'triggered by drop in investment' modifies 'lowering of employment rates'
Verb-ing modifier 'leading back...' modifies 'a cycle of layoffs'

Thus the Intended Meaning is:
1. Economic recession caused by lowering of employment rates.
2. Lowering of employment rates is triggered by drop in investment
3. Drop in investment causes people to cut consumer spending
4. Drop in investment starts a cycle of layoffs
5. Cycle of layoffs lead to even lower employment rates

Errors in Original Choice
1. Awkward - people to cut consumer spending
2. Meaning - The original choices establishes a cause and effect which does not make complete logical sense. Collating all the causes and effects, it appears that all the results happen because of drop in investment. This is illogical because drop in investment cannot lead to cutbacks in consumer spending or cycle of layoffs.

Thus, the correct answer choice should establish a meaningful and logical cause and effect relationship.

Since there are no grammatical errors in Choice A, we will need to analyze all the choices one by one in greater detail to determine which choice communicates logical meaning.

Choice B
An economic recession can result from a lowering of employment rates triggered by dropping investment, which cause people to cut consumer spending and starts a cycle of layoffs leading back to even lower employment rates.

Choice B has similar errors as in Choice A. It has additional errors - Awkward and SV-Number errors - as highlighted in red color. Dropping investment is weird construction. "Drop in investment" in choice A is better and more precise way of communicating the idea. Furthermore, which refers to "dropping investment" which is singular and hence "cause" should be singular - "causes"

Choice C

An economic recession can result from falling employment rates triggered by a drop in investment, causing cutbacks in consumer spending and starting a cycle of layoffs that lead to even lower employment rates

This choice communicates logical meaning with the use of verb-ing modifiers separated by commas. For e-GMAT users, this concept is explained in the concept titled "Modifiers - Verb-ing".

Communicated meaning
1. Economic recession caused by lowering of employment rates.
2. Lowering of employment rates is triggered by drop in investment
3. The action of economic recession being caused by lowering of employment rates
a. causes cutbacks in consumer spending
b. starts a cycle of layoffs
4. Cycle of layoffs lead to even lower employment rates

This choice communicates a logical cause and effect and has no grammatical errors and hence is the correct answer.

For version 1, the correct answer is E, which is similar to choice C of version 2.
Version 1 - Choice E

An economic recession can result from falling employment rates that are triggered by a drop in investment, causing cutbacks in consumer spending and starting a cycle of layoffs leading to even lower employment rates.

The differences between version 1- Choice E and Version 2-Choice C are highlighted in green color. These differences do not introduce any meaning based errors or grammatical errors.

Choice D

An economic recession can result from falling employment rates that are triggered by a drop in investment, causing people to cut consumer spending and starting a cycle of layoffs that lead back to even lower employment rates.
This choice communicates same meaning as Choice C does. But it uses awkward construction as underlined. Hence this choice is not correct.

Choice E

An economic recession can result from falling employment rates that are triggered by a drop in investment, that cause cutbacks in consumer spending and the start of a cycle of layoffs leading to even lower employment rates.

This choice communicates illogical meaning as does Choice A and hence is incorrect.

e-GMAT Users can access this information in the following concept files:
Modifiers - Relative Pronouns
Modifiers - Verb-ing and Verb-ed
Application Files which contain such SC questions with meaning based errors.