later becoming VS which would later become

Question

In her 1851 magazine series, later becoming the famous novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe sought to portray the impact of slavery and further the abolitionist cause.

a)later becoming the famous novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe sought to portray the impact of slavery and further the abolitionist cause

b)which would later become the famous novel Uncle Tom’s cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s mission was to portray the impact of slavery further, and the abolitionist cause

c)which would later become the famous novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe sought to portray the impact of slavery and further the abolitionist cause

d)later becoming the famous novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s mission was to portray the impact of slavery, furthering the abolitionist cause

e)which had later become the famous novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe sought to portray the impact of slavery and further the abolitionist cause

options B and D are wrong because subject is wrong after the modifier Harriet Beecher Stowe’s mission, the subject should be Harriet Beecher as modifier contains a pronoun her.

In option E HAD is used wrongly.

Now How to choose between A and C?

If I go with conciseness it should be A.

Confused!!

MartyMurray · Answer

OHHHHH SO CLOOOOOSE.

One tipoff that you could have used is, in A, the comma between series and later.

When a participial phrase modifies the noun preceding it, generally a comma is not used. The use of a comma tends to indicate that the modifier modifies the preceding clause. So the use of the comma does not makes sense.

At the same time, that's a little technical for my taste and I think you are better off seeing the following.

What the modifier is meant to do is modify magazine series.

Let's see which version makes more sense.

In her 1851 magazine series, later becoming the famous novel Uncle Tom's cabin,...

So the magazine series was becoming something? over time? or is the point that it became something?

Now look at the other version.

In her 1851 magazine series, which would later become the famous novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin,...

In this version, the modifier, which would later become..., clearly modifies magazine series and clearly conveys that the magazine series would later become the novel.

Bingo. Choose C.

Marty Murray
Perfect Scoring Tutor With Over a Decade of Experience
MartyMurrayCoaching.com
Contact me at [email protected] for a free consultation.

vishalwin · Answer

In her 1851 magazine series, later becoming the famous novel Uncle Tom's cabin,... So the magazine series was becoming something? over time? or is the point that it became something? So you mean continuous tense becoming doesn't makes sense here. right?

MartyMurray · Answer

vishalwin wrote:In her 1851 magazine series, later becoming the famous novel Uncle Tom's cabin,... So the magazine series was becoming something? over time? or is the point that it became something? So you mean continuous tense becoming doesn't makes sense here. right? Exactly.

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