BTGmoderatorDC wrote:Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were solely oral narratives recorded by missionaries or anthropologists now understand this body of work to consist of both oral literatures and the written works of Native American authors, who have been publishing since 1772.
A) Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were soley oral narratives
B) Scholars thinking of Native American listeratures once solely as oral narratives, and
C) Scholars who once had thought of Native American literatures solely as oral narratives and
D) Native American literatures, which some scholars once thought were solely oral narratives
E) Native American literatures, which some scholars once, thinking they were soley oral narratives
This sentence is correct as written.
Choice B introduces a number of errors.
Time Clues: the original sentence describes a change in the thought of scholars over time. In the past, scholars thought that Native American literature consisted solely of oral narratives, but in the present, those scholars understand Native American literature to include written works as well. Choice B introduces the present participle 'thinking', which suggests that scholars currently think of Native American literature as consisting solely of oral narratives, thereby changing the meaning of the sentence.
Modifier errors: the original sentence employs the construction "Scholars who once thought...", which is used to identify a group of scholars who formerly held a view they no longer hold. Choice B replaces this construction with "Scholars thinking of Native American literatures once...", which identifies a different group of scholars - namely, those scholars who think one time ("scholars thinking...once" rather than "scholars who once thought").
Clauses and Connectors: the introduction of a comma robs the non-underlined portion of the sentence of its subject. The subject of the verb "recorded" is no longer clear.
Choice C introduces a number of errors.
Time Clues: choice B replaces the original past tense "thought" with the past perfect "had thought". The past perfect is used to identify the first of two actions or events that happened in the past. However, the original sentence points out a difference between an action in the past and an action in the present (scholars formerly thought one way, but now they think another way).
Clauses and Connectors: the introduction of the coordinating conjunction "and" robs the non-underlined portion of the sentence of its subject. The subject of the verb "recorded" is no longer clear.
Choice D introduces a number of errors.
Grammatical subject: the subject of the original sentence is "scholars who once thought Native American literatures were solely oral narratives recorded by missionaries or anthropologists". According to the original sentence, this specific group of scholars now believes something different about Native American literature. Choice D changes the subject of the sentence, which is no longer about the scholars, but is now about "Native American literatures". Scholars might have changed their views about Native American literature over time, but it doesn't make sense that Native American literatures "now understand this body of work...".
Clauses and Connectors: choice D introduces a relative clause, "which some scholars once thought were solely oral narratives...". A relative clause should be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. In choice D, the comma before the relative pronoun "which" is used correctly, but there is no second comma to mark the end of the relative clause, so it isn't clear how much of the information in the non-underlined portion of the sentence is related to "Native American literatures".
Choice E introduces a number of errors. Like choice D, choice E changes the
grammatical subject of the sentence, which is now about "Native American literatures" instead of "Scholars who once thought Native American literatures were solely oral narratives recorded by missionaries or anthropologists". Thus, choice E also makes the mistake of attributing a new understanding to the literature itself, rather than to the scholars of that literature.
Modifier errors: choice E introduces a participial phrase, "thinking they were solely oral narratives...". A participial phrase, which acts as a modifier, should be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. The comma before the participle "thinking" is used correctly, but there is no second comma to mark the end of the participial phrase.
The correct answer is choice
A.
