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SC modifier question

by shoot4greatness » Sat Sep 18, 2010 11:51 pm
Hi ya'll,

Just started studying for gmat and I am very glad to have found this forum for help and encouragement. Currenty, I am going over Princeton Review verbal workbook to get things started. On sc section, it talks about misplaced modifiers. One of the sample "quick quiz" states: First published at the turn of the nineteenth century, The Literary Quarterly Review has provided its readership with examples of the era's finest fiction. I did not find any grammatical error and I was right. However, the next section discusses a way to fix the modifier from a phrase to a clause. The first part of the above sample is a phrase, but it is grammatically correct. How do you go about in distinguishing such rule?
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by gmat_perfect » Sun Sep 19, 2010 2:44 am
Please ask the question again. I think people could not understand your question.

Be more specific in asking questions.

Thanks.
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by shoot4greatness » Sun Sep 19, 2010 8:44 pm
Ok. The Princeton Review talks about a way to fix a misplaced modifier by converting it to a clause. The wrong sentence will state: While leaving the bank, Evelyn's purse was stolen. The correct sentence will state: As she was leaving the bank, Evelyn's purse was stolen. In the wrong sentence, the modifier lacks topic/noun. It only contains a verb. In comparison to the wrong sentence, the "quick quiz" question states: First published at the turn of the nineteenth century, The Literary Quarterly Review has provided its readership with examples of the era's finest fiction. Here the modifier also lacks topic/noun, yet it is grammatically correct. I would like to ask if someone can clear this up. On practice quizes, I only missed a few quesitons (careless mistakes that I will correct in due time) and the Literary Quarter quesiton and Evelyn quesiton still boggles my mind to drive me nuts. Please clear this for me. Thanks in advance.
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by gmat_perfect » Sun Sep 19, 2010 9:33 pm
Please read the modifier section of the Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction Guide. If you go through the guide, you will have a solid knowledge about modifier.

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by shoot4greatness » Mon Sep 20, 2010 8:47 pm
After a week of pondering, I have finally reasoned my way out of this dilemma.

Example 1:

First published at the turn of the nineteenth century, The Literary Quarterly Review has provided its readership with examples of the era's finest fiction.

In this sentence, the topic is the Literary Quarterly. The modifier directly describes the topic of the sentence as being "first published at the turn of the nineteenth century. The modifier explains what the subject is: The Literary Quarterly is a "magazine/book/journal" that was first published at the turn of the nineteenth century. The relationship between modifier and the subject is clear. There is no need to change the modifier into a clause because it is not misplaced.

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by shoot4greatness » Mon Sep 20, 2010 8:59 pm
Example 2:

While leaving the bank, Evelyn's purse was stolen.

The topic of the sentence is not Evenyln, but her purse. The modifier is in reference to Evelyn's purse and a purse cannot enter or leave a bank. Hence, either the modifier or the other part of the sentence must be edited to make the sentence grammatically correct. It should be written as: As she was leaving the bank, Evelyn's purse was stolen. The modifier was changed to a clause to make the sentence cogent. In this sentence "she" and "Evelyn" is interchangeable: As Evelyn was leaving the bank, her(change she to a possessive pronoun) purse was stolen. Either way, the topic is Evelyn's purse and the verb is stolen. The modifier describes how the purse was stolen.
Last edited by shoot4greatness on Mon Sep 20, 2010 9:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by shoot4greatness » Mon Sep 20, 2010 9:05 pm
Another way to edit example 2 is:

While leaving the bank, Evelyn had her purse stolen by a thief.

***I can't explain why this is correct, but it is correct***
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by gmat_perfect » Mon Sep 20, 2010 10:54 pm
shoot4greatness wrote:Another way to edit example 2 is:

While leaving the bank, Evelyn had her purse stolen by a thief.

***I can't explain why this is correct, but it is correct***
Verbing, NOUN..... in this case, the VERBING modifies the NOUN.

While leaving the bank, Evelyn had her purse stolen.

This is a correct sentence for the following reasons:

1. Verbing clearly modifies the subject of the main clause. It is logical to say "leaving the bank, Evelyn...". In this case, the subject leaves the bank. The subject is a person who can leave from the bank.
2. While is good in this sentence. It has been used as "at the time of".

A note:

"Evelyn had her purse stolen" is fine. We know the act of stealing is done by a thief. So, it is not required to to mention "stolen by a thief".

What is your exact question? Please be more specific regarding question

If we can ask a good question, we can have a good answer.

Thanks.
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by shoot4greatness » Tue Sep 21, 2010 10:39 am
Thank you very much. I added thief to make the sentence more clear although unnecessary. In retrospect, I failed to recognize the modifier-topic relationship on example 2. Ihave a clear set of mind and I can fianlly moce on. Thanks again.
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