GMAT Sentence Correction: What Can the Underline Tell You?
I ran across the problem below when I was reviewing a GMATPrep test that I took a while back, and as soon as I saw it, I knew I needed to share it with you. There are some really intriguing aspects to this one.
First, try it out. (Note: in the solution, Im going to discuss aspects of our SC Process; if you havent learned it already, go read about it right now, then come back and try this problem.)
* Analyzing campaign expenditures, the media has had as a focus the high costs and low ethics of campaign finance, but they have generally overlooked the cost of actually administering elections, which includes facilities, transport, printing, staffing, and technology.(A) Analyzing campaign expenditures, the media has had as a focus
(B) Analyses of campaign expenditures by the media has been focused on
(C) In analyzing campaign expenditures, the media have focused on
(D) Media analyses of campaign expenditures have had as a focus
(E) In their analysis of campaign expenditures, the media has been focusing on
In my First Glance, the comma in the middle of the underline jumped out at me. Theres probably some kind of modifierIm going to keep an eye out for that when I read the full sentence.
Next, glance down the beginning of each choice. There are some pretty significant differences. Im not sure what they mean yet, but this is reinforcing the idea that I need to get a handle on the core sentence vs. the modifiers.
I also noticed how very long the non-underlined portion is at the endand that immediately made me suspicious. What are they trying to hide from me?
Next, I read the original sentence and realized that Ive got an opening modifier. It sounds a little funny to me. Im not sure why.
Then I thought back to that really long non-underline. Often, this means that theres some word or sequence of words in the non-underlined part that has to connect with something in the underlined part. If I can figure out what that is, I can cross off some wrong answers.
The best way to figure out the possibilities? Scan the answer choices vertically to find the differences.
Boom. Theres a difference between has and have: singular vs. plural. Now I need to choose: do I move forward with this or go back to that opening modifier?
Im going to stick with this; I like subject-verb agreement better. Okay, so the subject isoh. They actually change the sentence structure in some of the answers! The subject is not always media. Hmm. Im going to look first only at choices that use media as the subject (which the original sentence does).
Answers (A), (C), and (E) fit the bill. (A) and (E) use media has. But (C) uses media have. Is media singular or plural?
It depends! Ive heard people use it both ways. So how am I supposed to be able to tell?
Whenever they use a word that could go both ways (media, data, etc.), they will always give me a clue in the non-underlined portion of the sentence. I just have to find it.
Scanning, scanningthere it is!
they have generally overlooked the cost of actually administering elections
The plural pronoun they is referring back to the subject, media, so I have to make the earlier part of the sentence match: media is plural. Answers (A) and (E) are both incorrect.
What about (B) and (D)? They switch up the subject there:
(B) Analyses of campaign expenditures by the media has been focused on(D) Media analyses of campaign expenditures have had as a focus
In both cases, the subject is the plural analyses. Answer (B) pairs that subject with the singular has. Nope.
Okay, so on subject-verb agreement alone, Im down to (C) and (D). Im feeling pretty good.
Lets compare the final two:
(C) In analyzing campaign expenditures, the media have focused on(D) Media analyses of campaign expenditures have had as a focus
The final distinction here is pretty tricky. If you narrowed down to these two and then had to guess, you should still feel good about this problem.
If I were discussing my career, I could say:
In my career, I have had as a focus the GMAT.
I could also say:
In my career, I have focused on the GMAT.
The second construction is the more idiomatic construction. In general, dont say that something had as a focus XYZ (or had XYZ as a focus) when you can just say something focused on XYZ.
Also note the implications for the second part of the sentence:
(C) In analyzing campaign expenditures, the media have focused on(D) Media analyses of campaign expenditures have had as a focus
but they have generally overlooked the cost of actually administering elections
In answer (C), the subject is media, so the second half of the sentence says that the media overlooked certain costs.
In answer (D), the subject is analyses, so the second half of the sentence says that the analyses overlooked certain costs.
The analyses are not animatethey cant actually think for themselves. I could say that your analysis fails to address certain topics, but I would say that you overlooked those topics.
I will admit that I have heard people say something similar to your analysis overlooks blah blah blah, but thats generally because people don't enjoy directly criticizing others (at leastmost of us dont!). Its more confrontational to say that you overlooked iteven though that is more correct.
The correct answer is (C).
I also want to point out a subtle issue at the beginning of answer choice (A). We didnt need to use this to eliminate, but its still something you should know.
The opening modifier in (A) is a comma ing modifier. These kinds of modifiers apply to the subject and verb of the core sentence. In addition, comma ing modifiers imply a certain sequence to the events presented. Take a look at these (correct) examples:
Running as fast as she could, she barely caught the bus.
She ran as fast as she could, barely catching the bus.
The event that is presented first in the sentence is also the one that happens first in the sequence of events. She ran as fast as she could; as a result, she caught the bus.
You would not say:
She barely caught the bus, running as fast as she could.
This implies that she caught the bus, and as a result, she ran as fast as she could. Thats illogical! The sequence is out of order.
So in the original sentence of our GMATPrep problem, we have:
Analyzing campaign expenditures, the media has had as a focus
First, they analyzed campaign expendituresand then, as a result, they had a particular focus?
No! If anything, first they had a focus and then they used that focus to drive their analysis. Or you could say that these things were simultaneous; theyre really the same event.
Answer (C) fixes this by turning that opening modifier into a prepositional phrase:
(C) In analyzing campaign expenditures, the media have focused on
In this kind of construction, think of in as a synonym for while or in the process of. In the process of analyzing this stuff, they focused on blah blah blah.
Key Takeaways for a long, non-underlined block of text
(1) Keep an eye out for this characteristic. Theyre probably trying to hide something from you. Compare the answers (vertically!) to spot the differences. Then, think about what you would need to know to make the call for those various differences.
(2) If they give you a two-way noun (one that can be singular or plural), then they have to give you a clue to tell you which way to go, and that clue is going to be in the non-underlined portion of the sentence. It could be a pronoun (as in this problem) or a verb. Go find it!
(3) Its really important to be able to find the core sentence. Want more practice with that skill? Check out this series.
* GMATPrep questions courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC.