Sentence Correction

Turning away from literary realism to write romantic stories about the peasant life and landscape of northern Sweden, in 1909 Selma Lagerlöf was the novelist who became the first woman and was also the first Swedish writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

A. Turning away from literary realism to write romantic stories about the peasant life and landscape of northern Sweden, in 1909 Selma Lagerlöf was the novelist who became the first woman and was also the first Swedish writer to win

B. She turned away from literary realism and wrote romantic stories about the peasant life and landscape of northern Sweden, and novelist Selma Lagerlöf in 1909 became the first woman as well as the first Swedish writer that won

C. Selma Lagerlöf was a novelist who turned away from literary realism to write romantic stories about the peasant life and landscape of northern Sweden, and in 1909 she became the first woman in addition to the first Swedish writer winning

D. A novelist who turned away from literary realism to write romantic stories about the peasant life and landscape of northern Sweden, Selma Lagerlöf became in 1909 the first woman and also the first Swedish writer to win

E. As a novelist, Selma Lagerlöf turned away from literary realism and wrote romantic stories about the peasant life and landscape of northern Sweden, in 1909 becoming the first woman and also the first Swedish writer that won

I wanted to understand what can be my take aways from this sentence correction question?
Can someone please provide an explanation for each answer choice why its wrong/right (especially for the last option E)?

april24 wrote:Turning away from literary realism to write romantic stories about the peasant life and landscape of northern Sweden, in 1909 Selma Lagerlöf was the novelist who became the first woman and was also the first Swedish writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

I wanted to understand what can be my take aways from this sentence correction question?
Can someone please provide an explanation for each answer choice why its wrong/right (especially for the last option E)?

It looks as if getting the right answer to this is going to be largely about noticing the meaning being conveyed.

A. Turning away from literary realism to write romantic stories about the peasant life and landscape of northern Sweden, in 1909 Selma Lagerlöf was the novelist who became the first woman and was also the first Swedish writer to win

This one can be eliminated because of this, in 1909 Selma Lagerlöf was the novelist who became the first woman and was also the first Swedish writer to win.

That conveys that she was a novelist who became the first woman, yup the first woman to exist. Also, the placement of in 1909 does not clearly convey that she won in that year, more that during that year she was the novelist who... That meaning does not make sense.

B. She turned away from literary realism and wrote romantic stories about the peasant life and landscape of northern Sweden, and novelist Selma Lagerlöf in 1909 became the first woman as well as the first Swedish writer that won

That She at the very beginning of the sentence is awkwardly placed, unless maybe this is an introduction for the Oscars. Also, the use of that won does not convey the same meaning as to win. When that is used, we get a restrictive modifier that seems to convey that she is one of many "first Swedish writers" whatever that means, and of those "first Swedish writers" she is the "first Swedish writer" that won.

C. Selma Lagerlöf was a novelist who turned away from literary realism to write romantic stories about the peasant life and landscape of northern Sweden, and in 1909 she became the first woman in addition to the first Swedish writer winning

The portion before the comma is ok if not optimally expressed, but then after the comma she once again became the first woman. Also, when there is no comma between a participle modifier and a noun, that modifier, in this case winning, modifies the noun before it, in this case Swedish writer.

What was that Swedish writer doing? Writing novels? Maybe but, also, because winning, unlike won, indicates something someone does on an ongoing basis, it sounds as if she were winning on an ongoing basis.

The point is that in 1909 she won, or was the first to win, not that in 1909 she was winning.

D. A novelist who turned away from literary realism to write romantic stories about the peasant life and landscape of northern Sweden, Selma Lagerlöf became in 1909 the first woman and also the first Swedish writer to win

This works. The portion before the comma is a concise modifier that correctly modifies Selma Lagerlöf, the way in 1909 is placed makes the timing clear, and the way the first woman and also the first Swedish writer to win is structured clearly conveys what she did.

E. As a novelist, Selma Lagerlöf turned away from literary realism and wrote romantic stories about the peasant life and landscape of northern Sweden, in 1909 becoming the first woman and also the first Swedish writer that won

This one starts off a little funny, with As a novelist. Are we next going to talk about what she did as something else? That might pass somehow, but we have that that construction toward the end again, and that renders the meaning nonsensical.

So with its concise construction and clear meaning, the best answer is D.

Great explanation! Thanks Marty!

Hi Marty,

I was struck in A and C but then I choose C

I rejected option D because of redundancy "and also".

I have noticed in almost all the questions with choices "and also" are wrong.

Can you please throw some light on this.

People sometimes see expressions like and also and but rather and immediately reject sentence correction answers including them, thinking that the expressions involve redundancy. The truth is that the extra word can be used to convey a meaning that is subtly different from that conveyed without the extra word.

Having said that, I can see how someone might consider the expression, and also, one that always has redundancy issues, and I can also understand (yup I just used and and also), why and also would tend to show up in wrong GMAT sentence correction answer choices.

Having said that, you need to be more careful and more holistic in how you go over SC answer choices. Yes, in easier SC questions, a simple things such as an extra, redundant, word or a subject that does not match a verb often constitute decision points that make answer choices sub optimal. In handling more sophisticated questions, however, you can't rely as much on choosing little pieces of choices and basing your decisions on them. You need to more look at the entire sentence created using each choice and really see how all the parts work together.

In general, often people seek to do SC questions by using simple little rules and ideas to eliminate answer choices, and that's not really what SC is about. In fact, I have seen someone who speaks English amazingly well miss half of the SC questions he was doing, because he had gotten the impression that that way to get right answers was to just chop the sentences up and look for minor issues or rule infractions. Once he realized that he needed to more look at the overall logic and effectiveness of the sentences, his hit rate shot up, and that's what anyone needs to do to achieve the same thing.