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Usage of including? expert help please

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by rakeshd347 » Mon Oct 21, 2013 12:09 am
Hi Experts,

Here is the question:

A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer's Cane has been called one of the three best novels ever written by Black Americans-the others being Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man.
A. Black Americans-the others being Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man
B. Black Americans-including Native Son by Richard Wright and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
C. a Black American-including Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man
D. a Black American-the others being Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man
E. a Black American-the others being Richard Wright's Native Son and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

OA is [/spoiler]E[spoiler]

Here is a quote from RON.

'including' is a problem as well, for two reasons:

1 - the sentence gives an exhaustive list, so 'including' is inappropriate. 'including' is only appropriate in sentences giving a PARTIAL list; complete lists are prefaced by other words, such as 'namely'.

What does he mean by exhaustive list. Correct me if I have understood it wrong. Exhaustive list means all the items in the list has been mentioned. If there were 5 times and only 3 were mentioned then it will be partial list. Correct or Wrong?[/spoiler]
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Source: — Sentence Correction |

by theCodeToGMAT » Mon Oct 21, 2013 12:16 am
{A} - INCORRECT; we need novels name and not author - comparison issue
{B} - INCORRECT; the sentence is giving example and not providing adverbial modifier- meaning issue
{C} - INCORRECT; we need novels name and not author - comparison issue
{D} - INCORRECT; we need novels name and not author - comparison issue
{E} - CORRECT
R A H U L
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by theCodeToGMAT » Mon Oct 21, 2013 12:21 am
In this sentence, the underlined part is acting as a Noun List providing the examples.

Yes, exhaustive list means complete list.

For example:

I like 3 cars:Lamborghini, Ferrari & Bentley --> defined finite list

I like many cars, including Lamborghini, Ferrari & Bentley --> List in not defined.. but examples are provided
R A H U L
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by [email protected] » Mon Oct 21, 2013 12:31 am
Hi rakeshd347,

I'm all for style rules/patterns, but standard grammar rules come first. In this SC, regardless of whether you use the word "including" or "being", you still need to follow parallelism rules.

In the first part of the sentence, the "format" is "author, apostrophe, book title", so the other 2 items have to follow that format. Only answer E fits.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Contact Rich at [email protected]
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by rakeshd347 » Mon Oct 21, 2013 1:11 am
[email protected] wrote:Hi rakeshd347,

I'm all for style rules/patterns, but standard grammar rules come first. In this SC, regardless of whether you use the word "including" or "being", you still need to follow parallelism rules.

In the first part of the sentence, the "format" is "author, apostrophe, book title", so the other 2 items have to follow that format. Only answer E fits.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Hi Rich,

Thanks for the insight. I rejected all the choices for parallelism issue too. However, for future questions I wanted to know what does exhausted list mean? Just in case if I am ever stuck in such a situation that demands elimination by these rules.

Thanks,
Rakesh
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by GMATGuruNY » Mon Oct 21, 2013 3:37 am
rakeshd347 wrote:
[email protected] wrote:Hi rakeshd347,

I'm all for style rules/patterns, but standard grammar rules come first. In this SC, regardless of whether you use the word "including" or "being", you still need to follow parallelism rules.

In the first part of the sentence, the "format" is "author, apostrophe, book title", so the other 2 items have to follow that format. Only answer E fits.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Hi Rich,

Thanks for the insight. I rejected all the choices for parallelism issue too. However, for future questions I wanted to know what does exhausted list mean? Just in case if I am ever stuck in such a situation that demands elimination by these rules.

Thanks,
Rakesh
An exhaustive list is essentially a COMPLETE list.
Including cannot serve to refer to a complete list.
Incorrect: The painting is composed of two colors, INCLUDING blue and red.
Here, the list of colors does not INCLUDE blue and red.
Rather, blue and red constitute the ENTIRE list.
We cannot use including to refer to an ENTIRE list.
A colon would work better:
Correct: The painting is composed of two colors: blue and red.
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