Sentence Correction

dddanny2006 wrote:Published since 1851,the founders of the New York times were Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones,who had no previous journalism experience

(A)Published since 1851,the founders of the New York times were Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones,who had no previous journalism experience

(B)Published since 1851,Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones,who had no previous journalism experience,were founders of the New York Times

(C)Published since 1851,the New York times was founded by George Jones,who had no previous journalism experience,and Henry Jarvis Raymond.

(D)The New York times was founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones,who had no previous journalism experience,and published since 1851

(E)The founders being Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones,who had no previous journalism experience,the New York times has been published since 1851

Options A and B can be eliminated because of obvious modifier errors.Now I'm left with Options C,D and E.In option D since 'published' is a participial modifier,it should have been next to the noun(NYTimes) it modifies,but since its far Option D can be eliminated too.

Now we're left with option C and E.

Im puzzled now,but I think 'who had no previous journalism experience' can help me to rule out option E because we don't know who doesnt have the experience.Is this analysis of mine correct?

Also could Options D and E be ruled out solely on the 'who had no previous journalism experience'??.

Can there be a sentence in which we have : NewYork Times founded by X and Y,who had no experience

Who doesn't have the experience?Is it X or Y or both?If it's both cant it be "both of whom had no exp"

Also please tell me why option D & E are incorrect.I'm not comfortable with what's given in the solutions page.

Thanks and regards

Dan

Dear Dan,
I'm happy to help.

I don't know know where you got this question, but it's almost identical in structure to an official question, OG13 SC #110. You may find the explanation for the OG question illuminating for this question as well.

Here's my take:
(C) Published since 1851,the New York Times was founded by George Jones,who had no previous journalism experience, and Henry Jarvis Raymond.
This is very good. It puts the main subject, the NYT, front and center. One minor action, "published", is relegated to a modifier, making the action of the other subject clear. Very good.

(D) The New York Times was founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, who had no previous journalism experience, and published since 1851
Hmmm. Here, "published" is not a modifier. There are two verbs in parallel:
NYT was founded .... and published ...
That much is correct. The "who" clause is ambiguous here --- does it refer simply to Jones, or to both Raymond & Jones? That's not clear. This is a definite mistake. In addition to this, having two verbs in parallel, separated by so much other information, makes the sentence baggy and hard to follow. This lacks the crisp clarity of (C).

(E) The founders being Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, who had no previous journalism experience, the New York Times has been published since 1851
Take this answer choice out back and shoot it! This is horrible! The work "being" is usually a signal that something is amiss in an answer choice. The entirely relationship of the absolute phrase before the first comma and the main clause is loose, not clear. This answer choice repeats the mistake of (D) --- the "who" clause applies to one man or to both? BTW, for more on absolute phrases, see:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/absolute-p ... -the-gmat/
Absolute phrases are wonderful grammatical structures, but an absolute phrase with "being" is the kiss-of-death on the GMAT SC.

That's why (C) is clearly the best answer. This question has one clearly correct answer choice, and four choices that are unambiguously wrong. It's well designed, perhaps because the design is almost identical to the design of an excellent question in the GMAT OG.

Does all this make sense?
Mike