Sentence Correction

Here is why 'D' is correct. Please do let me know if i am not clear.

Divide the sentence on the basis of flow of ideas.
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The behavioral model of child development recommends that parents :
(a) pay attention to their child's emotional sensitivity and attachment style, and in analyzing the meaning of the data they gather from these observations
(b) , can adjust their parenting style to encourage their child to be more independent.
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We clearly see that parallelism is not maintained. Hence ",can adjust" should be made "adjust".

Also the first sentence (i.e. (a) above) contains 2 list.
- pay attention to their child's emotional sensitivity and attachment style
- , and in analyzing the meaning of the data they gather from these observations

As the subject "parent" are same for both the sentences, ",and" should be converted to "and," because ",and" is used to join sentences which have their independent subject and verb


Combine both of the above rules and you will find that you indeed clicked the right answer

One more vote for D.

Still inconclusive

Hi guys,
Received a PM to give my thoughts on this one.

The behavioral model of child development recommends that parents pay attention to their child's emotional sensitivity and attachment style, and in analyzing the meaning of the data they gather from these observations, can adjust their parenting style to encourage their child to be more independent.


(A) style, and in analyzing the meaning of the data they gather from these observations, can adjust

(B) style, and they analyze the meaning of the data gathered from these observations in adjusting

(C) style and, in analyzing the meaning of the data gathered from these observations, adjusting

(D) style and, analyzing the meaning of the data gathered from these observations, adjust

(E) style and, in their analysis of the meaning of the data they gather from these observations, they adjust

Step 1) Recognize that this sentence is unusually complex with too many commas.

Step 2) The phrase "in analyzing the data"--ask yourself WHO is analyzing the data/gathering the observations? The model or the parents?
Well, it's the behavioral model that is analyzing the data (more specifically, the people behind the scientific experiment)

Step 3) Apply Framework #3. Since we know the -ING verb describes the first few words in the sentence "behavioral model"--we can FLIP the sentence like so:

"In analyzing the meaning of the data they gather from these observations, the behavioral model of child development recommends that parents pay attention to their child's emotional sensitivity and attachment style can adjust their parenting style to encourage their child to be more independent."

Step 4) OK, the sentence above in quotes looks a little weird especially in the area in red.

Try some of the other answer choices that might have a slightly different sentence structure from (A). Notice (C), (D), and (E) have a slightly different structure with "style and," instead of "style, and"---so let's try (C) and FLIP it.

Step 5) Let's try (C)

"In analyzing the meaning of the data..., the behavioral model... recommends that parents pay attention to their child's emotional sensitivity and attachment style and adjusting their parenting style to encourage their child to be more independent."

"Adjusting" is off here. So looks like (C) is no good. Let's try (D).

Step 6) (C) was no good. So Try (D)

"In analyzing the meaning of the data..., the behavioral model... recommends that parents pay attention to their child's emotional sensitivity and attachment style and adjust their parenting style to encourage their child to be more independent."

Looks good. But ask yourself if this makes sense.
"Adjust their parenting style"---adjust WHOSE parenting style? Obviously, it's the parents' parenting style.
So is it structured correctly? Well, yea--it's consistent with the earlier part the sentence: "their child's emotional sensitivity"

Read like this:
"Analyzing the meaning of the data gathered from these observations, the model recommends that parents pay attention to their [the parents'] child's emotional sensitivity... and adjust their [the parents'] parenting style to encourage their [the parents'] child to be more indepedent."

So yes, it is structured correctly. And it makes sense from a meaning perspective.

So the answer here looks like (D).

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Someone asked me about (B). Well, let's take a look

(B): "...style, and they analyze the meaning of the data gathered from these observations in adjusting their parenting style to encourage their child to be more independent. "

Remember, the underlined portion is the part that needs to be changed. The non-underlined portion is always unchanged--which means it's always correct.

Look at the non-underlined portion: "their parenting style"---WHOSE parenting style? We mentioned before it's the PARENTS' parenting style.

Look at the underlined portion: "and they analyze the meaning of the data gathered from these observations"---WHO analyzed the meaning of the data? It's the people who conducted the study.

So put these together:

"and they [the people who conducted the study] analyze the meaning of the data gathered from these observations in adjusting their [the parents'] parenting style to encourage their [the parents'] child to be more independent."

Notice that from a meaning perspective, the references to "they/their" are INCONSISTENT.

From a structural perspective, "they/their" must refer to the same thing. If you want to refer to two different things in two different parts of the sentence, then you have to structure the sentence differently.

But the way the sentence looks, it appears there is inconsistency here so (B) does not look right.

Note (D) does not have this dilemma. So that's the reasoning behind (D).

Step 2) The phrase "in analyzing the data"--ask yourself WHO is analyzing the data/gathering the observations? The model or the parents?
Well, it's the behavioral model that is analyzing the data (more specifically, the people behind the scientific experiment)

Shouldn't it be parents who while analyzing the data adjust thier parental style ?

Also why the option E is wrong ?

style and, in their analysis of the meaning of the data they gather from these observations, they adjust

Apart from that it is wordy, what could be the reason that it is incorrect ?

Regarding your question:
"Shouldn't it be parents who while analyzing the data adjust thier parental style ?"

--The sentence implies that the behavioral model came about from a series of observations and analyses. Based on this data and analysis, the behavioral model recommended that parents do X, Y, and Z. Parents appear to be the ones who are receiving the recommendation from the people who did the data analysis.

Your second question:
"Also why the option E is wrong ? "

Because the reference in "their analysis" and "they adjust" is inconsistent. Assuming the above implication is correct (the people who conducted the study vs the parents)---"their analysis" and "they adjust" are referencing two different things.

"their analysis"--->the people who conducted the study
"they adjust"-->the parents

So the presence of both "their analysis" and "they adjust" the way it is in (E) cannot be correct. So E is incorrect.

(D) does not contain "their analysis"

Hope that helps!

I am really confused about this one. Here is my opinion.

The behavioral model of child development recommends that parents pay attention to their child's emotional sensitivity and attachment style, and analyzing the meaning of the data gathered from these observations, adjust their parenting style to encourage their child to be more independent.

As per GMAT rules, modifier must be placed close to the entity that it modifies. Hence per the sentence structure shown below, the modifier analyzing the meaning of XYZ can modify ONLY parents.

· The behavioral model of child development recommends

· that parents pay attention to their child's ABC,

· and {analyzing the meaning of XYZ}, parents adjust their parenting style to encourage QRS.

If {analyzing the meaning of XYZ} were to modify models, then the sentence should be written as:

Analyzing the meaning of XYZ, the behavioral model of child development recommends that parents pay attention to their child's emotional sensitivity and attachment style, and adjust their parenting style to encourage their child to be more independent.

Others please help.

Parents need to do two things - "pay" and "adjust" - those verbs must be parallel - D is it!